I don't know how it works for you in terms of separating out your private writing from your public writing. Though I'm mostly in the unpublished ranks-- save for some ever-petrifying journalism-- I always had a sense of what I wrote for an audience versus what I wrote for myself.
The stuff I write for myself tends to be very plain, conversational, and tersely descriptive: "I cooked this meal today"; "I went for a walk and write this at the G.I. Bill Memorial." (Nice place to write!) I don't get into any prose pyrotechnics. However, most of what I've written over the last three years has been that sort of thing. I know it's of lower quality and only serves me, but I don't seem to be writing much else. And yet, with the prospect of an audience, I can see the quality improve.
It seems to be the problem you mention, in reverse.
I think to write my secret thoughts, I need to give it some sort of frame, which may or may not ever become public. I started a memoir a few years ago on such terms and never sought to publish it. However, the people I've shared it with, not with an eye towards publication, but merely explanation, said it was one of the best things they'd read on the subject. I had not intended that at the time, but it needed something extra for me to put the effort into it.
Did any of your difficulty surface in some of the diary portions of The Red Tree? I imagine crafting a fictional journal might illuminate problems with one's own journal, and you have mentioned that there's a lot of autobiographical detail.
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Date: 2009-12-04 08:04 pm (UTC)The stuff I write for myself tends to be very plain, conversational, and tersely descriptive: "I cooked this meal today"; "I went for a walk and write this at the G.I. Bill Memorial." (Nice place to write!) I don't get into any prose pyrotechnics. However, most of what I've written over the last three years has been that sort of thing. I know it's of lower quality and only serves me, but I don't seem to be writing much else. And yet, with the prospect of an audience, I can see the quality improve.
It seems to be the problem you mention, in reverse.
I think to write my secret thoughts, I need to give it some sort of frame, which may or may not ever become public. I started a memoir a few years ago on such terms and never sought to publish it. However, the people I've shared it with, not with an eye towards publication, but merely explanation, said it was one of the best things they'd read on the subject. I had not intended that at the time, but it needed something extra for me to put the effort into it.
Did any of your difficulty surface in some of the diary portions of The Red Tree? I imagine crafting a fictional journal might illuminate problems with one's own journal, and you have mentioned that there's a lot of autobiographical detail.