Just today, I realized that my writing style drastically changes because of something seemingly arbitrary: Whether I write in Microsoft Word, or in some sort of Blog Software? You can imagine my confusion, but when I looked at the stories I’ve written in Word or an essay or just a rant, in MS Word, my writing turns much more towards clinical and academic. So why the difference?
I guess it’s easy enough to rationalize away, given my writing history. When I first got heavy into fiction writing, I wrote blogs as my MMORPG characters. There were a few underlying assumptions: I was writing for other fans, my writing wouldn’t undergo much critical scrutiny, and anything really could go. I’d come in from a crappy day of studying Physics or Computer Science, open up the blog software and hammer on the keyboard until I’d forgotten how much I hated the Modernist, beehive architecture of my dorm room. Once I was finished, I’d press “Publish” and away it went, off for other people to see. I’d get comments back sometimes within the day, driving me to write more, driving me to grow even more comfortable typing into a web-browser. My editing was looser and I wouldn’t overthink my words. I had fluidity on my side.
Even during this same period of time, I’d use MS Word for my academic writing. Then I started writing fiction for the academic crowd. For better or for worse, a writer will catch much, much more fire in a college Creative Writing class than on an MMO’s roleplaying community forums. Even my fiction became more abstract, more intellectual, more artsy. For me at least, that made it less fun to read.
I haven’t written into a browser window since I quit playing World of Warcraft. All of my recent works have been done in Word, and I think it shows. “Jalt’s Tooth” and “Elfsbane Tea” are intellectual and rather bare of meaningful action. They’re both pieces that show much better to a college writing crowd than to SF/F fans. Even though I posted them here, the entire writing and editing process was carried out in Word.
It seems odd to worry about such a hang-up, but there’s a really easy solution, I figure. So I want to recapture that passionate writing of the past? Write it up here with Visibility set to Private. I still get that nifty rush of clicking the Publish button, it’s easy to track daily progress, and if I want to publish it elsewhere, I haven’t already put it up here for all to behold.
And if I publish it here, then that’s fine too. My writerly goal isn’t financial gain; It’s creating something that people will want to read, and then having them actually read it. That’s the meaning of getting published elsewhere, the possibility of providing enjoyment to people whom I may never have met, but that might identify, just a little, with something I’ve written.
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