Writing in the Open

I would like to write better. Not having any particular talent in this area, but suspecting it is burried in there somewhere, I hope that quantity, and practice, will pull out something I want to be in me. I take comfort from the quote from Samuel Johnson, “A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.[1]” It takes work to write. I know how to work, but I’m not sure I know yet how to write. Johnson implies we put in the dogged work, and writing will follow. This from one of the greatest thinkers and writers of his time.

Likewise, Ray Bradbury observed that “The best hygiene for beginning writers or intermediate writers is to write a […] of a lot of short stories. If you can write one short story a week—it doesn’t matter what the quality is to start, but at least you’re practicing, and at the end of the year you have 52 short stories, and I defy you to write 52 bad ones. Can’t be done. At the end of 30 weeks or 40 weeks or at the end of the year, all of a sudden a story will come that’s just wonderful.[2]”

I’ll write a sort of short story, built around my discovery and experiences, starting with building this website. I’m writing these entries for me, to remember where I’ve been and to clarify my thinking. While it is possible this would be useful to someone else in the future, I’m really writing to future me. Perhaps I will look back in 52 weeks and be really happy with a few that come out just wonderfully.

The trouble with a blog is that there’s not enough cutting. It’s too easy to just publish the words that end up on the page, without the aggressive cutting that really makes it shine. Or to spare the audience the insufferable garbage that 51 of the 52 weeks produce. Stephen King said “Kill your darlings,” and “Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%.[3]” He recommended letting first drafts breathe for 6 weeks before revising. I’d like to do that. I won’t be able to start for 6 more weeks, but that is my hope, to write an essay, and to revise an essay each week.

My grandfather worked and worked on a personal history. He wrote stories, cut out fluff, wrote again, threw away parts without meaning. What is left is a treasure to me. I can see the personality of his youth coming through. There’s a great story of him as a little boy in his father’s workshop. I love it! I see my great grandparents, whom I never met, through his innocent eyes. And yet, I wish I could go scrape up the scraps on his cutting room floor. I would love more of what he wrote. I want to hear all the experiences he didn’t think were worth sharing, but that I crave to know him better. It is possible to cut too much.

This short post outlines my thinking and decisions while setting up the prestonjackson.com website. My goal is to self host, understand the software that I use, minimize the technologies that the site depends on, and use only freely available tools.

My thesis is that complex and expensive hosting systems are useful only for sites that receive high levels of traffic. But I do not know if this is true.I’ve been discouraged by the burden of complex frameworks when I only want to publish a simple site, but also, I enjoy understanding how technologies work from top to bottom. Extensive frameworks feel like I’m making changes at arms length.

So, this is an effort to practice my craft, working with simple tools, for my own learning and pleasure. I hope the lessons I share are helpful to you too.

[1] James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) March 1750 [2] from “Telling the Truth,” the keynote address of The Sixth Annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, sponsored by Point Loma Nazarene University, 2001 [3] Stephen King, On Writing