A Blog-ifesto

Authors basically have two options when they begin a blog: they can either begin en medias res and jump right in, pretending like this kind of writing about their lives has been going on for ages, or they can begin with a manifesto for their blog, a piece of writing not unlike the Mayflower compact or other founding documents. I have chosen the latter for my introductory post.

So here it is: my blog-ifesto, in which I define my writer's blog and the reasoning behind it. First, the reasoning. As a young adult, I enjoyed creative writing immensely, but never thought of myself as a true "writer." I never aspired to be a successful writer because I could only think of writing as creative writing. All the other writing I did, for school, work, church, life, etc. didn't quite count as "writing" because it wasn't creative. I never thought I could be a writer, because creative writing wasn't my thing.

Flash forward to the present: I'm a soon-to-be graduate with a Masters in English. I've spent the last three years writing and teaching writing at the university level. I've written everything from lesson plans to budget memos to a 26-page thesis on freshman English. And it dawned on me, just a week or so ago, that I am, as it turns out, a writer.

I don't write haikus, I don't opine in personal essays, and I definitely don't write any kind of fiction. But I do write, and I write often. I write to make it through every single day. I write to communicate with students, with family, with bosses, and with potential employers. I write for all kinds of audiences and all kinds of purposes. I know I'm not the only one out there doing this kind of writing. I know this partly because my writing is usually prompted by someone else's writing (an email, etc.), and partly because I know that the writing skills and strategies I try so hard to pass on to my freshman and advanced writing students eventually get put to use in jobs, in civic lives, and in personal relationships.

In other words, we are all writers. We can't reserve the lofty label of writer for those who craft poems or crank out newspaper stories. We all must be writers to get along in our world. And that's exactly what this blog will be about: how we use writing to get along in our world every day.

Now for the details. Here's a preview of what I'll write about:

• I'll mostly post about different kinds of writing everyday writers do, sorted by purpose
• I'll also post about writing tips/tricks
• I'll probably post the occasional reflective piece, delving into deeper issues of writing in our society

Some things I won't do? Well, we'll figure that out as we go along. But I canNOT commit to refraining from

• Overuse of alliteration
• Multiple "not only, but also" constructions in a single post
• The occasional rant on ineffective communication (a la FAIL blog)

Since that nicely sums up my purpose for the blog and what you might find here, and since, in accordance with the genre of manifestos (man I love creating linked words!), this manifesto has been sufficiently long and humorless, I think it's wise to end things here. Come back for more glimpses into this writer's writing life.