On practicing/progressing

Today I received the last tiny letter from Charlotte Shane's, Prostitute Laundry. In it Shane talks about the experience of sharing on this privatized public platform and being able to write with a reader in mind who (in my definition) is the same one that googles her name every now and then to see what she's been writing for different publications, and who favorites her tweets: someone who understands the perspective she writes from. Although I have only been following her for a couple months now, and I'm not entirely sure when her tiny letter started, what prompted me to subscribe was after reading her article here.

The light hits differently on tiny letters than it does on personal blogs etc. Shane talked a little bit about it, but I want to expand on how toxic and simultaneously important using an internet or other public platform (e.g. zines) can be for growth as a writer. I'm sure we've all heard the "No one tells beginner's" monologue from Ira Glass. But my favorite part, as I'm sure is also yours, is when he says that what you like isn't the same quality as what you are creating. In part, reading blogs has probably inspired me in my own way to keep one. I actually think my first post on this blog, speaks to that a bit. But there is something about simulated face-to-face conversation that is a blog, and is as well a tiny letter, or a formal letter.

When you first write someone, you typically are familiar with them, maybe know of them, maybe it's a cousin who haven't spoken with for months, or the likes. Yet it is this realm (okay maybe an exaggeration) that you share with the receiving end. You are writing with a person in mind, yes, but not with a certain style or topic, not usually with nerves of saying the right thing. Unless of course, this is a letter of urgency or a topic of warning, or a hardship you are sharing. That piece of paper you scrawl on, is anonymous to the 4 cups of coffee lined on your desk, in front of a wall, and a cursor. It's not a fear-share, it's a share that most likely will only come full circle to the reader--I've yet to re-read my letters, and go back and fix things, unless of course a short grammatical error--the take away is not for yourself.

So why do I continue to post on blogspot. I love the idea of a tiny-letter, but the less comforting idea of it is that it's a letter that is sent out to those subscribed and no one else (usually, not always the case) can read it unless requested after the fact. Writing on this blogspot, similar to making a tiny-letters is at it's reduced form simply a practice. Can I share, and keep sharing, without losing what I wanted to say to all the apprehensions of saying 'the wrong thing'? For years it struck me that oh writing a blog must be so easy, you type your thoughts, and someone or maybe no one of this year or the next reads it. Maybe it is a shelf you prop ideas onto, or a box of collections not so different from the foragers of stamps and state coins.

Continuing on blogspot for me, seems like the only possible answer right now, in-fact I think the popularity of tiny-letters is fueling that drive in me once more. It's an excuse to get comfortable on a platform that surrounds a talent you are trying to reduce into something you like, or want to be understood for. Find a blog--a person, who dedicates maybe an hour or two, maybe 30 minutes to collecting something you find comfort in and/or appreciate is why the practice proves itself satisfying sometimes. Can I say that after writing this I am satisfied? Well not completely, I think any practice--with the goal subconsciously being perfection, is never quite satisfied and that beauty of there always being letters to write, translates for me, because there will always be blog posts to make.

very best,
cbnl

p.s. as I was editing this I found an article speaking to the 'letter' trend.