why archie blogs – xoxo attention-seeking introvert hopes for approval of strangers

Whatever [our] social identity, the writer is, by the nature of the act of writing, someone who strives for communication and connection,
someone who searches, through language, to keep alive conversation with … ‘the lost community.’
Even if what’s written feels like a note thrust in a bottle to be thrown to the sea.

Adrienne Rich

I have already answered why I began writing fiction, so let me unpack why I blog.

Or, why do I keep a public diary?
I am writing my thoughts and worries for the Internet to gawk at, when I ‘should’ be working on my novels, or perhaps seeing a therapist for proper life coaching, or doing just about anything but this routine of irregularly posting online, hoping for strangers online to affirm my struggles somehow…

Surprisingly enough, there are a few excellent reasons for me to blog – and for you to continue reading this blog.

1. Learning How to Streak Through a Marathon

This blog is still very much in its infancy, still taking shape and still finding its audience.
However, I think so far I have made a solid effort to be as candid and honest as I can.

Maybe this is easier for me because, as someone who tends to binge-watch try-not-to-cringe videos when the mood strikes, I have also lived a mighty awkward life thus far, especially throughout my teen years, and now consider myself quite well-versed in the art of making a fool of yourself.

Regardless of all that, I am a writer and an aspiring author, and I know that to write well means to lay yourself bare, to confront uncomfortable truths and taboo thoughts because not only is that the shit people love to read about, but it helps ensure I write honestly.
I am in no way interested in pretending or trying to impress anyone, and so of course, my writings are always going to provoke.

While the streaker sprinting by in a flash might surprise, shock or bemuse, the streaker jogging across a few miles uphill in plain view, however, is… unusual.
Unusual, but still ultimately straightforward – what you see is what you get.

2. Writing Non-Fictiously to Help Work Out Shit

If you visit here regularly, you know I am a big fan of freewriting, otherwise known as stream-of-consciousness private journaling. It helps me clear my head out of nagging thoughts and petty grudges, of confusing feelings and odd observations.

And as someone who has worked as both a tutor and teacher for students ranging in age from early 30’s all the way down to kids starting primary school, I really appreciate this wisdom: You only really understand something when you can explain it to someone else.

So that act, of me trying to articulate something clearly enough for anyone to learn, is a challenge that requires me to use simple language and an entertaining style.
Whether I am writing about my quarter-life crisis or my cute pups, I am ultimately always using this blog space to brainstorm, extrapolate and gather my thoughts.
Hopefully, this blog serves as a way to practice writing better and thinking clearer.

Clear thinking becomes clear writing: one can’t exist without the other.

William Zinsser

3. Sharing Insights with Fellow Creatives

If you’re a writer, I am hopeful that some of my posts will be relevant to the craft of writing a good sentence and telling a good story. I plan to accomplish that not by pretending to be some authority on publishing or grammar, but by writing in such a manner that it gets you thinking, feeling, and responding.
Thinking about others in such a way that it nurtures knowledge about ourselves in turn.
Feeling things through so as to move forward with courage.
Responding in ways that are kind and sincere, clear and concise.

If you’re an artist generally, I am hopeful that some of my posts will help in navigating the life of an underpaid, chronically frustrated creative. By exploring what it means to live as a conduit for expressing something about humanity that is fleeting and surreal, I hope simply to help.
Help in creating art that is worthy of your ambitions.
Help in destroying the beliefs that hold you back from who you need to become.
Help in maintaining the life of an artist, someone we need dearly in this world.

Naturally, as someone who has researched online and in books and in videos, I can make no claim on originality or ownership – only that I will try to credit everyone I feel especially indebted to as I continue my own artistic pursuits.

4. Finding Readers like You

If you’re a reader, I am sincerely hoping that my own writings will comfort you when you need comforting, and will disturb you when you need disturbing. Like my fiction, I aim to write words that resonate and linger, making the reader feel less empty, making the reader feel more awakened.

I’m not trying to sell you something. I am a living cliche, the struggling artist, trying to get paid just to keep making art. But I have long identified with anti-consumerism, with minimalism and general practices that find fulfilment outside the material world. So no, you won’t be seeing “buy new archie-writes cupholders” or “buy this screensaver based on my newest book”, or any other get-rich-quick schemes. 

I am trying to give you something. I believe in helping others find peace of mind through stories and that my words – whether told in a fictitious short story about a monkey on the moon or a non-fictitious blog post on body dysmorphia – can help another find their way back to the road they need to be on in life.
I truly believe art and life are intertwined, because good art is anything that reveals a new perspective on life, and that feat requires an artist who lives their own life with attention and patience – someone who can capture the highs and the lows in such ways that we remember again how it is all so beautiful and simple.

So that is why I blog…
As always, thank you for reading.

archie.