Verbal Masturbation

It has occurred to me that keeping this blog is a bit of verbal masturbation.

I don't write it because I know that there are loads of people who are eager to read the droplets of wisdom and wit that I occasionally spew. Nor do I write because I feel that it is important to make oneself heard in this world.

I keep this blog simply for the sheer pleasure of writing.

Not to say that my writing is pleasurable for anyone else, I am a bit too realistic to believe that. But it's just a matter of personal pleasure; putting the scattered thoughts and ideas that pop into my head into actual words can be as much fun as watching a really good TV show. And for me that is saying quite a bit. Even if I feel that what I'm putting out there isn't particularly coherent or groundbreaking, it is a satisfying experience because in the end those words, flawed and jumbled are wholly and utterly mine.

I've always thought that writers on a whole are a very selfish bunch. They will share their work with others, but in the end it's usually for themselves. If you write for someone else, it will only take you so far. It has to be that internal push, that personal desire in order for it to really work. Granted, this is not universally true and possibly not remotely true, it's more a theory I have that I tend to believe for no great and factual reason. And while I'm not a writer writer - more a writer in theoretical training - I recognize this selfishness in myself and have to come to understand that that selfishness is the only thing that keeps me writing sometimes.

I've written for an audience before and it's even been good. I've written commissioned movie reviews and book reviews and it was sorta nice knowing that what I've churned out would be read by at least a few random readers. But keeping this blog and writing whatever strikes my fancy has produced some of my better writing, infrequent as those well turned phrases are. So a hearty thanks to a friend of mine who essentially shamed me into keeping this blog up to date. Even if you no longer read it, you still did me a favor. Hope someday I can shame you into doing something that's good for you.