TC 2.0

I recently spent two weeks in Greece, honeymooning with my new wife, where I spent some time reflecting on my career as a writer so far. Time away from my computer monitor helped me realize that ironically, I don’t write enough. Granted I am a professional writer and my ability to write is what pays my bills, but I rarely get to use even a fraction of my full literary powers in a typical day of work. In fact, what I do in a normal day may not even be considered writing to purists, they’d call it documentation.There are exceptions of course, and these are the projects that I relish. They usually involve writing web copy for a wide eyed start up, or collaborating with other writers and developers on creative and unique ads. These projects are fun because they allow me to explore style and voice.  But for the most part, I’m resigned to research and documentation, the white bread of the written word.

So there I sat, feeling sorry for myself. I rarely get to write interesting stuff and each day I’m getting further and further away from becoming a great writer. Woe is me.

The answer to this should have been obvious all along; write more. With blogs there are no rules, so why am I restricting myself to commenting only on the digital world in my own blog? Why can’t I write about hockey, German psyche-rock, Wanderlei Silva, camping etiquette  and anything else I feel like in addition to writing about XHTML and modular documentation? Well the answer is ‘you can, stupid’.

Still, I’ve always been hesitant to publish personal thoughts or opinions on a blog because I’m not the kind of person that needs to have these things validated by a group of readers. It also doesn’t pay me squat.  What I’ve now come to realize is that I can benefit enormously as a writer by using the medium to improve my writing rather than just showcase my writing. So from now on, I will make full effort to do that.

For better or for worse, I’ll be posting to this blog a lot more often than before, whenever the mood should strike me, on any number of topics. Hopefully it will have the desired effect.