Celebrating A Creative Community
Because none of us writes in a vacuum – Reflections 09 July 2021
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In the recent past, say the last six months, both personal and publication-related conversations (usually by email, though sometimes in the responses section of a Medium piece) have intensified, and have floored me with an incredible sense of support in an activity that I will, quite frankly, do until I die. You’ve all heard me talk about my compulsion enough (oops) to warrant mentioning it again, but all these conversations, their trajectories, and the sense of excitement that correspondence has given me remarkable (in the totally atheistic sense) blessings here on/within Medium.
When I just started out writing, or rather, when I hit 15 and began to explore the possibilities presented by the written word, prose, poetry, essay, plays with more intention and intensity, I very quickly found a community in people who just wanted to talk about writing. I mean, we wrote, too, but there was a whole dialogue, an infinite one, actually, just about the process. How to go about it. Different histories: “Did you know Joyce had the sexual maturity of a twelve-year-old?” Why would people write all lower case? How personal do you get? How long does it take to draft?… I tell you, the possibilities just never quit.
And, probably because of the “passional” aspect of writing, just talking about it spurs you to different ends. You begin to find people who think like you do, but sure as shit don’t write like you; you find people who write like you, but fuck if they can conceive of how you went about it.
This is a crucial ingredient to sustaining enthusiasm: finding it in the Other.
Not entirely sure what’s changed in the matrix that has included a higher frequency of writing discussion in the margins now, as opposed to three years ago when my Medium career began. To be sure, I had different intentions then, so perhaps a sense of focus, of deliberateness of content is engendering some of the brightest stars on the site to talk to me.
I am, personally, quite vain; but, vanity alone cannot conquer the in-born, Mennonite-influenced sense of self-deprecation. When someone praises my work, my immediate impulse is to credit someone/something else. Yes, I know, I…
