A blog with a good search function! Really. That way you can get better at setting out your thoughts on aesthetics in writing, as people might read it.
I have quite a few friends who journal every book they read, with a few paragraphs of review, on LiveJournal or Dreamwidth. Just do this and you won’t block on “but I need X software first.” You don’t. Start writing.
I used to write an indie rock fanzine and get paid money for music journalism. I started feeling like I had to justify going to a show or listening to a record by writing about it. If I hadn’t, then I didn’t quite know what I thought of it (even if I changed my mind later). Is that the sort of feeling you mean?
(I now have an occasional music blog. I should probably try writing about every note that passes my ears, just as an experiment and to flex the music critic muscles once more.)
I started feeling like I had to justify going to a show or listening to a record by writing about it. If I hadn’t, then I didn’t quite know what I thought of it (even if I changed my mind later). Is that the sort of feeling you mean?
Not quite. I tend to think “If I really enjoyed this, then I should keep it around in case I want to ( loan it to friends || experience it over and over again || glance at it lovingly in reminiscence when I pass by ).” It’s as though just sending back something I really enjoyed is somehow doing the work, or its creator, a disservice.
Yup. Blog it. Just blog it. You don’t need special software, you just need to make an account on Blogger or Wordpress and start writing. Do it now before you catch yourself.
I actually already started writing a while ago, and have managed to keep it up as I encounter new stuff. So I’m already over that (non-trivial!) barrier of just getting to the productive part of the process.
However, running into issues lately has made me decide that a software switch is necessary. Besides the blippr interface issues I already mentioned, it’s getting tricky trying to remember any significant proportion of the past stuff I’ve enjoyed, so that I can write down my feelings about them. I keep thinking of the same 20 old movies or so, even though I’m sure I’ve seen and enjoyed many times that number.
It’s kind of a chicken-egg problem; part of the point of writing down my feelings is to keep this sort of nostalgia-buffer-overflow problem from happening in the first place! I’m hoping that some kind of app with an amazon-like “Maybe you’ll like X too!” suggestion system will become evident.
Okay then! I thought you hadn’t started on the writing :-)
Yeah, that’s a good question. What would make a better review engine than a plain old blog for (a) the writer (b) the reader? I’m actually quite interested in the answer to that one. Something Amazon-like doesn’t quite make it for me.
A blog with a good search function! Really. That way you can get better at setting out your thoughts on aesthetics in writing, as people might read it.
I have quite a few friends who journal every book they read, with a few paragraphs of review, on LiveJournal or Dreamwidth. Just do this and you won’t block on “but I need X software first.” You don’t. Start writing.
I used to write an indie rock fanzine and get paid money for music journalism. I started feeling like I had to justify going to a show or listening to a record by writing about it. If I hadn’t, then I didn’t quite know what I thought of it (even if I changed my mind later). Is that the sort of feeling you mean?
(I now have an occasional music blog. I should probably try writing about every note that passes my ears, just as an experiment and to flex the music critic muscles once more.)
Not quite. I tend to think “If I really enjoyed this, then I should keep it around in case I want to ( loan it to friends || experience it over and over again || glance at it lovingly in reminiscence when I pass by ).” It’s as though just sending back something I really enjoyed is somehow doing the work, or its creator, a disservice.
Yup. Blog it. Just blog it. You don’t need special software, you just need to make an account on Blogger or Wordpress and start writing. Do it now before you catch yourself.
I actually already started writing a while ago, and have managed to keep it up as I encounter new stuff. So I’m already over that (non-trivial!) barrier of just getting to the productive part of the process.
However, running into issues lately has made me decide that a software switch is necessary. Besides the blippr interface issues I already mentioned, it’s getting tricky trying to remember any significant proportion of the past stuff I’ve enjoyed, so that I can write down my feelings about them. I keep thinking of the same 20 old movies or so, even though I’m sure I’ve seen and enjoyed many times that number.
It’s kind of a chicken-egg problem; part of the point of writing down my feelings is to keep this sort of nostalgia-buffer-overflow problem from happening in the first place! I’m hoping that some kind of app with an amazon-like “Maybe you’ll like X too!” suggestion system will become evident.
Okay then! I thought you hadn’t started on the writing :-)
Yeah, that’s a good question. What would make a better review engine than a plain old blog for (a) the writer (b) the reader? I’m actually quite interested in the answer to that one. Something Amazon-like doesn’t quite make it for me.