We Now Join This Year, Already in Progress

Multiple Venues

To the extent that I might not only harbor ideas for resolutions, but commit them (however tentatively) to print, I will own up to the intention of writing more this year. I was going to say, “writing more coherently,” but honestly, I haven't on an ongoing basis been producing enough material for coherence to really be a possibility. Unless my end product were a collection of assorted epigrams, anagrams, and pithy one-liners debunking this or that party high on some hog or other.

Yes, the ironic tweet, the birthday limerick, the snappy rejoinder to an overhyped claim—these have been my bread and butter: takes that are brief even by internet standards. I churn out a lot of them; some are pretty damn good! Were I a character in my own novel, I might land a job in some sort of surreal fortune cookie factory, composing cryptic aphorisms capable of provoking brilliant insights on the part of those consuming them... but later, after intermittent mulling—a kind of time-release koan.

In the past, I've tended to view “writing more” as requiring a narrower focus—typically, working on a single piece until it's done (rarely achieved!)—but I now think this is completely wrong-headed, allowing as it does for the grinding to a halt which inevitably occurs somewhere along the way to effectively shut down all production. No, my revised philosophy is that I'll write in as many venues as I can, and over time, we'll see what seems to work.

That's enough for now—this is exhausting!