Writing to Commit Oneself.

I had a teacher that changed my life a few years ago. He taught that we should write to discover. I told myself at the time that I had absolutely nothing to contribute through writing, that no one would read or appreciate my written thoughts, however, through that class I learned the true point of writing. I feel like saying that "I learned the true point of writing" is so final. It would be better to say that in that class, I learned that the point of writing for ME, was to discover. Other writers might write to teach, entertain, present their ideas, or to change paradigms, but when I write, I like to think its for myself. When I write, I discover. 


Let me 'splain.


In that class, our assignment was to write 50 journal entries, some long and others short. We could write whatever we wanted. The point was to just be writing. The hope was that we would discover something new along the way. I would begin writing with absolutely no idea of what I was to write. I'd start on some random topic and between spurts of writing and spurts of thinking, it would evolve into an idea and I would discover something new. In fact, just in this very moment, as I was in a spurt of thought, I discovered something new! Its an outline for what I've come to learn about writing and what it does for me. 


First there is the Discovery of an Idea, next the Exploration of the Idea, and third the Commitment or Rejection of the Idea. We'll see what happens as I continue to write about this idea I just uncovered. 


Discovery of an Idea: This happens usually as I'm reading something or thinking about a random comment made off hand or in passing by  friend. I start to write in my journal about whatever it is, and then it leads to and idea and swiftly moving train of thoughts. For example, this blog post stems from a thought I had while journaling today, "But part of my plan with writing in a blog is to begin the habit of writing and committing myself to my ideas. I’m not sure how it works, but I think there is a link between writing down ideas to become committed to them even if you don’t have a specific plan. It somehow becomes more real." Brilliant, right? Yes. So thats the deal. The discovery was made, and 5 hours later here I am writing about something that is kinda that idea, but not really. That led to the second stage of this process or the Exploration of the Idea through writing. I was presenting background about where that idea stated previously came from (i.e. my life-changing teacher) and it led to me beginning the process of writing to explore the idea. (That was fun.) and after the exploration, which could continue on paper, or computer, or could continue as I think about it and discuss it with my friends. Once I've thought sufficiently about it (that often takes awhile), I will then Commit to, or Reject the Idea.  I find that once I'm committed I become pretty loyal to that idea. A certain friend of mine once told me that I was "rigid." I'm not sure how I feel/felt about that, but I think its good to be rigid or to commit to certain things and your own ideas. I also find that if I don't write down my ideas then I'm never going to do anything about it, or nothing productive will be done about the idea until its written down and expanded.


Anyway. Thats a big part of why i want to keep a blog. So that I have a place to discover, explore, and present new ideas. I really haven't told anyone about this (except a few family members), and I think it'll stay that way for a while. In the mean time, I'LL enjoy my own thoughts by myself!