Documenting Uninteresting Minutia

I was inspired by something I saw on Joshua Wold’s blog a few days ago. He was reflecting on why we write.

When I sit down to put words to the page I have an idea of what I want to write. But I’ve purposely chosen not to plan it out.

The experience is much the same for me, except that sometimes I don’t have an idea of what I want to write.

Sometimes you’ve got to just power through and write anyway. And there’s a tension there– am I writing for myself or for an audience?

Because if I write for myself, then I’m likely to blather on, documenting uninteresting minutia. Getting words out for the sake of getting words out, because getting words out feels natural and cathartic. This blog’s origin was an unfiltered journal with a voyeuristic audience.

But if I write for an audience, it’s so easy to tell myself “it’s naval gazing¹”, or “it’s not good enough”, or “who cares?”.

I’ll hold that tension.

For me, a large motivating factor is recording a piece of myself for my children. The more I write, the better they’ll know me. It’s easy for kids to forget that their parents are actually real people, so one day, when they realise this fact, they might take an interest in learning about their Dad. And, more morbidly, someday (B"H many years from now) they’ll have a little extra to remember me by.