This is your chance, dear readers, to weigh in on the types of posts you’ll see over the next year on The Artist’s Road. I’ve arranged below a list of categories into which Artist’s Road posts could most comfortably be fit. It’s a bit of a challenge, because while this blog has a theme–living the art-committed life–it isn’t restricted to a formula for post structure or content.
Please weigh in below on what you’d like to see more of in 2013!
- Intellectual curiosity: I am full of questions but often short on answers. So I find myself throwing those questions out to all of you, from wondering whether creativity is more inherited or learned to the possibility that women write differently than men.
- Creative process: This could be considered a subset of the above. But I’ve spent a lot of years studying creativity and creatives, so I like to discuss the topic here, from the importance of wasting time to the relationship between superstition and your muse.
- Pedagogy: Isn’t it written somewhere that writing blogs are supposed to teach writing? (It’s probably written on a writing blog.) I do pass along creative writing instruction, from how flashbulb memories can light your prose to the use of extended metaphors.
- Blogging: Isn’t it also written that bloggers must blog about blogging? (That’s written on many blogs.) I’m a blogging instructor, so I occasionally offer posts from allowing your blogging voice to evolve to five things to remember while you blog.
- Rants: Okay, I know the occasional rant is necessary for any blog. I don’t do it all that often, but examples range from my screed against super-sizing the English language to my resistance to the notion that modern creativity only comes through collaboration.
- Humor: I fear that in my effort to be earnest and honest, I’ve been less inclined to reveal my humorous side. But I roll it out occasionally, from Mr. Bacon blogging from the National Book Festival to how to neither show nor tell in your writing.
- Resources: Loyal readers know these posts best as my no-longer-weekly “Creativity Tweets of the Week” series, but I occasionally compile other resource lists as well.
- Reflection: Ultimately, the fuel of this blog’s engine is my embrace of the art-committed life, with its peaks and its valleys. I feel most connected with you, my readers, when I write these posts, but they also strike me as the most selfish. I still struggle with revealing myself to others through my prose.
Goodness gracious. In the process of writing this list, I have come to feel that The Artist’s Road is a bit scattershot! Were a student in one of my blogging classes to tell me that he wrote eight different categories of posts, I might be tempted to tell him he has eight different blogs. Yet you all keep coming back, and I keep adding more readers. Go figure. Well, the invitation still stands. Help me decide which of these categories you’ll see more of in 2013!
The Artist's Road 
Writing is a complicated topic and I think all of your sub-categories are appropriate. Blog on!
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Thank you, Shary!
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All of them. I think they are all appropriate given the theme of your blog. And the humour, well, who doesn’t like that? 😉
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Ah yes, Amy, I remember you as one of my readers who enjoyed the offbeat captions I used to put under photos. I’ve become a bit lax on that aspect of the blog. Thanks for the encouragement!
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I think you serve up a great variety of thought-provoking and valuable posts to writers and creatives of all stripes, Patrick. I know you’re probably going to grimace at this (and I can’t believe I’m going to ask it since it’s something I struggle with as well) but yes, I would like to see more posts with some personal reflections about your own creative process and life. I believe it’s Carl Rogers who said, “That which is most personal is universal.” Perhaps it’s not selfish or self-indulgent at all and I’m grappling with the possibility whether withholding is indeed the selfish decision.
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Thank you as always, Carole Jane. Your opinion really matters to me because you’ve been such a loyal reader.
I like the quote you used there. Yes, what I’m learning in my MFA is that it isn’t selfish if you give a little of yourself in your prose in a way that connects, resonates, and potentially benefits the reader. I think I’m getting better at trying to find that sweet spot, and will do more posts like that, but I doubt the blog would ever fully morph into a personal chronicle blog, even though there are many out there like that with real value.
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Patrick… I love hearing about your forays into writerdom. Dispatches from the lecture halls and seminar rooms. Reports from the road — your road stories. (Where’s the category called “The Road”?) Interviews. I love hearing from authors who are asked to explain themselves, their processes, why they write, the big questions. I love probing the mystery of our art.
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Well, PJ, you’ll be hearing from my lecture halls quite soon, as I leave for my MFA residency in less than a week! Yes, there should be a “Road” category involving the posts I’ve done featuring artists I’ve interviewed (including Amy Buchheit, a commenter above). I could also have a “guest post” category, because those have brought value, including yours.
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Feel free to continue to be “scattershot”. 🙂 I like your blog tons and appreciate each time you post.
If I have to vote for one, I’ll go with “creative process” since it’s an area of curiosity and interest for me.
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Very dangerous, Stan, giving me license to be scattershot! 🙂 Yes, I think of you and some of my other readers whose talents and interests go beyond writing when I craft those posts. I’m sure you’ve noticed I use broader terms–creatives, artists–when writing those, and often mention musicians. Thanks for the feedback!
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i like Reflections – struck a chord, happy holidays and gratitude for your posts
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And much gratitude for your loyal reading and for your input! A happy holidays to you as well.
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It’s been too long since I’ve been here! (I’ve missed you!)
Every time I read your description of a category, I thought, “Yes, that.” I guess all of them. I would say the world doesn’t need another blog about writing, but I like the way you write about writing, dealing with the meaty questions, like “how do you get comfortable with self-revelation?” in a first-person way. There is comfort in reading another writer working through the same questions you’re working through. (And by you, I mean me.) 🙂
My favorite Patrick posts are the ones that have a lot of you in them. So maybe my favorite category is “Intellectual Curiosity.” I very much appreciate your curiosity.
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Yea, it’s j! So great to have you here, I miss you as well. I must migrate over and visit you more often.
What more could a blogger want than to hear “Yes, that” repeatedly! But your comment echoes Carole Jane above in appreciating a first-person approach to these struggles. I will say that it is of great value to me when I discuss how I’m working my way through those writer-creativity challenges, and I hear from so many readers who can relate. Often I’m given really great advice, which of course benefits other Artist’s Road readers as well.
I’m particularly glad you appreciate my “curiosity” posts. It’s only been in the last couple of years that I’ve truly learned about the personal essay. What resonated with me was when I learned how Montaigne and others expressly acknowledge–nay, crowed about–how they had serious questions but didn’t have complete answers. Now sometimes they actually did, or at least felt they did. But I loved the notion of being able to capture that mental moment where you’re still in process of formulating an answer (which, if we’re open-minded, we’re always doing that; I’m seeing thoughtful people who have been opposed to gun control starting to rethink their position post-Newtown, for example). So personal essays and this blog give me license to noodle about all the oddball things I find myself thinking about. If others appreciate that as well, then it’s a big win!
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Patrick, I believe you have no problem in finding appropriate and timely topics for writers. Your listed topics are more than enough to lend the necessary tips and information a writer might need. Keep up the good work!
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Sherrey, thank you so much for that! Just what I need as I barrel into a new year of blogging.
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I vote for process! I wish more people would talk about and share all the steps of in between – so much of art can be focused on the product!
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You’re so right about that, Carrie. You do a great job of showing the process on your blog, I would note.
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Thanks Patrick!
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I will chime in and say ditto to all those who wanted more of the same! As in, all of the above.
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Love it, Charlotte! Thank you for that.
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Hi Patrick & Happy Holidays. Scattershot is good! And you have eight because you always keep your blog rolling out fresh and informative posts that keep us writers plugging along and aiding us in our ventures. You have to give us two as there are two of us: My daughter would like to see Reflection, as she thinks it’s going to be great to hear more of you and our journey on this path together. Reveal! Myself, I’m always a fan of Blogging help at any time. Especially from someone whose a blog instructor and has such a successful blog. So, that’s our input though I know whatever you decide, we will keep tuning in to your blog! Happy New Year.
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Ah, my favorite mother-daughter writing team! You each definitely get your own vote, and I appreciate the feedback. I’m beginning my latest MFA residency now, so MFA Nugget posts will be coming along soon; they often have some reveal elements in them, less so blogging instruction, but who knows?
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Patrick – I love all of your nuggets. And I really appreciate(!) how you are daring to weave in your own reflections. They not only make the rants, pedagogy, process, humor (etc.) richer, but also reassure us that we’re in great company on this creative journey. My vote is that you continue to write where the muse takes you. Many thanks as always. Happy New Year!
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Patrick, I echo all the encouragement to carry on as you are/have been; with the caveat that far from being scattershot, you recognize your incredible breadth and humanity. We are all multiply complex beings; as writers in particular we need to utilize and acknowledge our complexities, our curiosities, our humor and our resistance. So please, YES! to being increasingly comfortable with the personal in your posts. That’s what makes them memorable. And Happy New Year to you!
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