Accountability

The people who have known me for a long time probably know that I love to write. Back in college, I used to write a lot. Between my journal, other creative writing, stuff for CAJ, I was always writing something... and writing made me happy. It's an art form, and just when I thought I might be developing some sort of (rudimentary) skill, law school happened.

It's hard to do creative writing while in law school, especially the first year. You learn how to write legal memoranda, how to draft briefs... how to rid your writing of passive voice, nominalizations, and all those other things that gave your previous writing style. You read cases, you write case briefs, you go through legal writing classes, and your time is so taken up with "mastering" legal reading and writing that by the time you want to start doing creative writing, you probably should get some sleep because classes start in less than six hours. Unless you're really disciplined, your habit of creative writing could really get sidetracked.

Which mine did. When I used to walk around campus in college, I almost always had pen and paper with me. I would get hit with inspirations to write by all sorts of things around me: my freshman year window, spring weather, even listening to certain music while gazing out a dorm window. Sometimes, during the summers, I would find myself writing on restaurant (paper) napkins, jotting down ideas before they escaped me. [Aside: I find it funny that I had to specify that these were paper napkins since so many of the restaurants from this summer didn't have paper napkins. ;-) ] I don't do that anymore.

I don't know if it's because I'm more plugged in (cell phone/iPod), because I have more to do or more on my mind when I'm walking around (pure wandering v. running errands), or because I just haven't put time aside to write. I used to be really good about it in high school - I wouldn't allow myself to sleep until I wrote something in my journal, and if I didn't have time to write that night, I'd make myself catch up another day. After PROP started in college, there was no more of that catching up. It was usually more like "write in your journal when you have time or when you get a surge of emotions." But there was other creative writing going on then... not just my journal... so it wasn't like I just wasn't finding time to write anything at all.

Unlike now. Before this blog, the old one was a little haphazard. I wrote sometimes. I made lists. I took a lot of quizzes. Occasionally, I had something interesting to say. I didn't get hit with inspirations for topics all that often. I'm so out of practice. Back in college, I regretted not taking Daily Themes, because I thought it would really help me improve my writing style and skills. Now? Now, I don't even think I could handle a week of Daily Themes. Not with how out of practice I am.

So, now that I've vented about how much I regret letting my writing go, what's the plan? Besides writing more and finding more time to write... I'm going to try to write consistently. I'm going to try to set aside time to write. I'm going to try to write on all different things. That's where you come in (if there's even a "you" that's reading this; I could be spewing thoughts to empty cyberspace for all I know) - I'm taking suggestions. No guarantee that I'll write on them, but maybe they'll wake my brain up. (Hmm... we'll see about that part.) But mostly I guess this post is about accountability. I've put it here in black and white (or considering my color scheme, I guess maybe some other hues), and I'm going to try to hold myself to my word. Wish me luck. :)