sundry
[suhn-dree]
(adj.) 1. of various kinds; several.
(noun) 1. various items not important enough to be mentioned individually.
Howdy and welcome to File Under Sundry. While this blog will serve multiple purposes, its initial inception began as a basis for my freelance writing career. After a couple of false starts I had a come-to-Jesus moment. I realized/decided that, while the idea of being a freelancer and entrepreneur (a word I can’t even type correctly without spell-check) sounds cool and exciting, the reality of rent, insurance, food, gas, my cell phone bill, calls from concerned family, and the looming onslaught of student debt rendered it an unrealistic/irresponsible decision at this point in my life.
But the idea of making a blog still interested me for multiple reasons. The first that I should get out of the way is narcissism. This blog will allow me to put my thoughts out there for everyone to see and there’s nothing anyone can do about it, except, well, ignore me or never even know it exists to be read. It can be a platform to openly explore whatever I’m thinking about. With narcissism out of the way, having a blog also has the potential to help me professionally. While I acknowledged earlier that being a freelancer isn’t the most realistic/responsible decision at this point in my life, that doesn’t mean it never will be. By keeping a blog I can practice and refine my writing, develop a writing process, find that “voice” and “tone” people keep telling me about, learn WordPress, and let it act as a sort of portfolio to highlight my skill and creativity.
Another big factor in this blog is my interest in creativity. I’ve never considered myself a very creative person. Clever, yes. Creative, no. I’ve always viewed creativity as something artists do and as a skill they innately possess. It’s manifesting something abstract (emotions, concepts, etc.) in the physical world via some medium. But recent experience has changed the way I view creativity. After doing some freelance copywriting I learned that there is a “corporate” sense of creativity, as well. In the corporate sense of creativity, you are labeled as “Creative/a Creative/Creative Type” based on the service(s) you provide. This helped me broaden my definition of “creativity” and realize it’s something I do all the time (along with a lot of other people). Creativity is a skill that we all possess to some degree.That being the case, the only way I know how to develop my own creativity is by consistently producing creative work.
Developing consistency will hopefully lead to developing discipline. Friends have been encouraging me to start this blog for over four months now, and actually finishing this introduction has taken me over a week (or longer. I lost track). I’ve never been much of a planner. Usually, I make plans and refine my plans to the point that I never begin the actual work. This has resulted in me rushing to produce something at the last minute. The work I’ve produced in the past, while good by the standards of past professors and supervisors, always leaves me with a feeling of guilt stemming from having not produced the quality of work I believe I am capable of. I want to become disciplined in my writing in order to develop a process that actually works. I want to develop a routine that doesn’t result in feeling like I’m learning everything all over again every time I sit down to write. And if creativity IS a skill that can be developed, I want to learn where my limits are in developing it.
So here’s the plan. The function of this blog will be to explore and express ideas in a creative way that usually never make it past conversations with myself or a very small group of people. By doing this I hope to develop my personal creativity and self-discipline in writing and life in general. I will attempt creative nonfiction, fiction, interviews, and so on. My hope is that this will result in a coalescing of voice, tone, style, etc. Thank you to those who read. I will attempt to appreciate constructive criticism and suggestions.