What do you count as writing?
I've spent an hour or so on this forum today. Should I consider that I've been "writing" that time? Do you consider "writing time" as only the time when you a putting words on paper? What about revising? Writing a journal?
Yes, I know I'm procrastinating. I should sign off and start writing, but I am curious.
- Login to post comments
You've caught me too!
Ahh, Dave, you've caught me too. I've been engaged in this board for a good portion of the day. In one sense it very much IS procastinating, because I'm not putting words to a story.
However, I do see this resource as part of the "job" of writing. This is a great place to become motivated. Rereading a lot of these posts has made me feel better about the group, and about my own writing.
It gets my creative juices flowing in the morning when I'm leastly likely able to get those juices flowing. I find critiques do that too, and then, during the rest of a day, I find myself more able to sit down and write.
With regards to this board, I don't see this as actively "writing", but I do see it as a worthwhile endeavor, like researching publishers, and critiquing stories for this group. Therefore, I see it as a good use of a part of my day, but it does NOT get me out of writing the 3 pages I demand myself to do each day. 3 pages a day, whether in a notebook or in Word, I have to accomplish that. If it takes me until midnight because I spent too much time on this discussion board, we'll so be it. That's still better than flipping on the boob tube and procrastinating that way.
----
Life is a lot like caving: Most of the time you grope around in the dark.
Re:What do you count as writing?
Good points, both of you.
I have a horrible time making myself actually sit down and write, especially when there are so many good time-wasters on the Internet. But at least posting on this board might shame me into writing more.
And some of the discussions give me help with my own writing, or good story ideas. Some of the best story ideas I've gotten came from chatting, or e-mailing, back and forth with SFWW members.
Pohl's Law: A sufficiently advanced form of technology is indistinguishable from magic. Programmer's Corollary: A sufficiently rigged demo is indistinguishable from magic.
Internet Boob Tube
The internet in general is a great way to get nothing done. I've got just a wee tiny small addiction to internet boggle. Go figure. If I wrote a word for every word I found in boggle, I'd have written ten books by now...
----
Life is a lot like caving: Most of the time you grope around in the dark.
Re:What do you count as writing?
To me, only writing is writing. Reading is not writing, reading about writing is not writing, going to a writing class is not writing, talking about writing is not writing, critiquing is not writing, etc.
However, you need to read in order to be able to write. Reading about writing and writing classes and talking about writing and critiquing are all ways to improve your writing. All that comes to naught if you don't actually write, though.
So in this this forum you get the best of both. You are reading about writing, and you are writing... about writing.
On a similar but yet different point:
I used to spend a lot of time on bulletin boards when I was into online gaming. I found the social interaction and act of writing was as much fun as the game itself.
And when I look back on it, that really was writing practice. Just like typing company memos and reports and such. I'm still stringing words together into coherent sentences. I'm still composing my thoughts and putting them down on virtual paper. The only thing missing is the storytelling part.
So...
:idea:
Only writing is writing, but -- all writing is writing, and all writing is good.
I'm not a complete idiot -- some parts are missing.
Re:What do you count as writing?
I think you all make valid points. While it is hard to say that making posts compares with writing stories [as writing], it is a place to reflect upon current work, be inspired and motivated, and get answers to technical questions.
-anneliese
Re:What do you count as writing?
This reminds me of a story I heard somewhere. A writer and an historian were looking at some original manuscriptes by Mark Twain. There were a series of numbers down one margin. The historian was wondering what they were. The write said, "Word counts. He was counting the words he had written." The historian didn't believe it until he had counted the words.