... but I stopped. Now I'm a dad, and may blog again...

Monday, September 19, 2011

402: I I I I I I I I I I

I have an automatic aversion to starting these blog posts with the word 'I'. I feel that it automatically labels me as self-obsessed, and excludes the reader (who probably doesn't care about me to be honest). Any that start with an 'I' I usually try to rephrase into a generalised statement that might be more relatable. I've been thinking this might be wasted effort. I should be writing this blog as quickly as possible, before publishing; I remind myself this is an exercise in the act of writing more so than it is an exercise in the content of writing. I ought to be reserving the content for the stories, and articles that I one-day hope to be my bread-and-butter. See, I'm writing v quickly and have allowed a cliche bread-and-butter to get through the edit. I should be embarrassed but I haven't got time.

I had the idea that this post here would be an exercise in overusing the word 'I'; Saying I, I and I many times over and over creating a sickening unreadable mush of I, I, aye-aye, I. It could be a way to purge my system and I think I need that. 'I' is often followed by 'think', and starting any statement with 'I think' is a concession for no good reason. I think it's better to start statements without that concession; to simple state the statement with no thinking, just a statement of fact. If I can stop worrying about the pointless little details (which are important when redrafting/rewriting, but not so much here) then perhaps I can stop missing days. I missed four days in a row, due to apathy, and planned to spend Sunday doing loads of writing.

Instead I spent Sunday playing Telltale's Back to the Future: The Game, an episodic point-and-click puzzle solving adventure game. I love Telltale: they brought back two of my favourite 90's point-and-clicks – Sam and Max, and Monkey Island. I would be giddy as a schoolgirl if they brought back Day of the Tentacle. In November they are releasing episode one of a new series: Jurassic Park. I am excited. Now TV is extinct, I need a new way to distract me from work (by that I mean writing). Quotes4Writers on twitter had one the other day (can't remember the attribution) saying "writing is the only activity that when I'm doing, I don't feel like I should be doing something else". This is perfectly true for me, yet I still would often rather be wasting time moving an animated character around a puzzle-filled pixel-landscape.

If I had a more exciting life – like if I was an astronaut, comedian, heroin addict rock star, or ice cream taster – I could happily write in the first person all day. I'm not very interesting so I don't feel comfortable babbling on about one. Anyway, time to go to work.

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