IBM; 1953
I've always been a terrible self-editor. I write the way I think: in liquid motion, unwaveringly until I run out of depth.
When I don't have an idea, I'm shit out of luck. It can be weeks before I get something down. Abandoned diaries make up a tenth of the space in the only boxes I now own, the ones that hold my birth certificate and the scrapbook I made to celebrate the year 2014.
As a Sagittarius (or, at least, someone who read a lot of Linda Goodman's long-winded descriptions of Sagittarians at a formative age), my instinct is and always will be spontaneity. I thrive in the fleshing out of new ideas; it is why a career in digital strategy has always suited me so well.
Every once in a while, though, I take my marketing hat off. There, always, in the absence of dollar signs, is the most reliable source of creative expression in my life: writing. (Also, clearly, an obsession with run-on sentences.)
Writing, whether for cash or the hell of it, is the foundation of everything else I do. I realized in j-school that principal-based journalism was not for me. Storytelling, yes; content creation, yes; rigorous structure and life devotion for very little pay, absolutely not.
Like any true art, writing is also the source of deep and unwavering self-deprecation. Though I don't find many glaring mistakes when I re-read my work, I still consider it to be absolute shit 94 percent of the time.
I imagine 'media people' as snooty New Yorker cartoons, noses upturned and red pens galore. I shudder at the idea of working in a newsroom and feel genuinely anxious about needing to network with a lot of writers at once.
So what if I want to bury the lede? It's my blog, damn it.
That's another thing: I could never drop the 'I.' The only beat that doesn't consider my obsession with my own opinion self-indulgent is cultural criticism, and I think that shit sucks. I think there should be maybe one critic in the world, and everyone else should just let other people make art and live.
Oh, so yeah. The point. The thesis. You have to use headings or people won't be interested enough to keep reading.
Why I Quit Journalism School
You need an 18-piece published portfolio to graduate, and I was in my third year with a stack of blogs (and, to be fair, a killer content marketing resume) like:
I ended up going with a bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, with a focus on journalism, marketing and sociology. A People Degree, one could say.
Well, this has been a blog for no reason. If you enjoyed it for whatever reason unbeknowest to me, plz comment below and talk to me! I've had a very long week #online and haven't had a lot of time to roam the Internet for my own personal enjoyment, so also feel free to link anything cool you've written or read this week.