Don McQuinn

It’s been a long time since I posted anything to the blog. There’s a reason for that. I was interested in posting because I wanted to say things about the writer’s craft. I still do. But there are a bazillion – or more – blogs out there doing the same thing. What I have to say isn’t unique. That means anyone interested in the craft can go anywhere to learn about it and my efforts to help are pretty much on the order of hollering down a well. It doesn’t matter whether or not I explain something to someone. What matters is that there are hundreds of perfectly qualified people doing it every day.

So I’m going to blog for my own pleasure. Yeah, I’ll put out stuff about craftsmanship, but just as much to organize my own thoughts on the subject as to benefit someone else. What I really want to do is start the engine. That means I’m going to approach this blog thing as part of my meditation process (more about that at another time). Rather than sit down at this infernal machine cold as an iceberg and simply start pounding on keys, I’m going to write something about a subject that has my attention at the moment. May be current affairs, may be other affairs (not mine), and may be the world in general. But instead of wasting my first hour of work writing toward a novel – and the material is junk for the trash can – I’m going to exercise my mind and my thought processes on something totally unrelated, just to get the engine up to speed. Maybe you’ll find it interesting, maybe you won’t. The point is, It’ll help me get my mind in order. And if no one else ever reads it, much less responds to it, listening to echoes coming back up a well shaft is always entertaining. Beside, they don’t argue with you.

But if they start, this whole schemozzle goes in the tank.