Re-visiting
After having allowed this blog to go inactive at the end of last year's Nanowrimo madness, I'm resuscitating it for a different purpose. As I explained in my New Year's Day post, one of my goals for 2006 is to self-publish a book culled from my Hoarded Ordinaries posts. This morning, I officially began that process, going back to my very first blog entry and "paging" through every subsequent post, copying and pasting the potentially reworkable ones into a BIG word-processing document which I plan to revise, polish, and somehow transform into a book...eventually. I've already copied and pasted 170-some pages of single-spaced text, and I'm only halfway through 2004. (!!!)
I say I will "somehow" revise these posts because the biggest challenge in transforming a blog to a book is finding the narrative arc: what's the "point" that ties everything together? Given the "little picture" of many words written since December 27, 2003, what's the Big Picture? What sort of story, conflict, or question will pull readers into this particular Book of Days: what will keep people reading a tangible book full of Ordinaries rather than opting for other more exciting entertainment?
Revision, I tell my students, is the process of re-visiting...and re-visiting a blog is especially odd as you catch glimpses of your past Self shimmering between the lines. There's been a lot of water under the proverbial bridge since December, 2003, and I seem to have blogged every drop of it. So if you want to listen in as I revisit My Words and My Selves, here's a spot where you can eavesdrop. As much as I'm smitten with the promise of a publishing An Actual Book that readers can hold, I'm equally interested in the process of revision: what happens when you chronicle your life in daily portions and then find the courage to revisit those bits?
posted by Lorianne @ 3:59 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
hi, great to find you here. i saw this link on tamarika's blog and clicked away, having no idea it would be YOU!
what will hold people is the very ordinary aspect of the venture - we all have ordinary moments and those are the common denominator. of course, they will have to be written with wit and interest to keep the reader's attention, but i do believe it is the ordinary element that will be the magnet.
Hey, Sky...great to "see" you here!
I hope you're right about the "ordinary element." It seems like so much in the media these days is spectacular & sensation, and I don't "do" those! It seems my entire life is knit around the premise that the ordinary *is* extraordinary--that's the bedrock of my spiritual practice, my writing, and my life--so I *hope* I'm not the only one who thinks that way. (Otherwise, I'm going to end up with a lot of unsold books on my hands!!!) :-)
I can't stop thinking about this project of yours. Of course, I've thought about "expanding on blog entries" before, but something about the way you described copying and pasting all the things you like and then looking at it all as one big "pile" of raw material - it's just sparked my interest. Sounds daunting, but fun!
It's daunting insofar as few of us blog with an underlying "point" guiding out posts...and books need *some* sort of point, otherwise readers lose interest. Of course, right now the bigging challenge is finding time to work on it: in typical fashion, I picked the busiest time in the semester to start Another Huge Project. I guess it will keep me out of trouble... :-)
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