For a project that just involves sitting down at a computer (or a typewriter if you're feeling sufficiently antiquated or are actually living in the 19th century) and typing up your life story, an autobiography is a surprisingly difficult thing to write. Presuming you even figure out where to start, there is the constant feeling of "have I done enough to warrant an entire book?" I believe that everybody’s life is interesting in some way, but you have to work to make it interesting for other people. Learn how to tell stories and tell them properly. This is why they don’t choose to publish just anybody’s autobiography manuscript (I intend to heavily revise mine when I achieve fame), you know.
Some people use Dictaphones or notepads to take notes and others (like me) prefer to sit at the keyboard, bash furiously away and see what comes out. And then I get on with writing (sorry). And yet more prefer to skip the whole kit and caboodle; hiring a ghost-writer to write the thing for them based on research and interviews with the "writer." These are typically celebrities who can't write very well or do not have the time. (Having said that, Mr Burns wrote one in an impressively short amount of time in one of the early episodes of The Simpsons.)
At the time of writing, I am currently 93 pages into my autobiography with more on the way (after all, I keep amassing more life to write about). This site has merited a mention or two thus far, and in a kind of Meta reference, maybe I’ll mention this article too.
No, I didn’t have any kind of motivation (such as writer’s block) for this article. Why did you ask?
Article comments
1 - Alan Kurtz
What a waste of the reader's time! Mr. Olsen's "There, I Said It!" feature is turning out to be the dumbest, most self-indulgent concept in Blogcritics history.
2 - Jordan Richardson
Exactly! I could have done so much in the 15 seconds it took me to read this. Damn you, Scotty2, damn you to hell!
3 - Alan Kurtz
Fifteen seconds! What took you so long?
4 - Jordan Richardson
I read at a remedial level, but my spelling is excillent.
5 - roger nowosielski
Hey, it's not about writing anymore; it's about money.
6 - jeannie danna
Scotty,
This piece was short and sweet!
Please ignore the buffoon in #1, it appears that he is just about on the way out.
: )Maybe I'll contribute to this feature.
7 - roger nowosielski
You may be right, Jeannie. We all have our styles and our interests, so who are we to judge,
A literary composition is like music, more important perhaps for how you say it rather that for what you say.
For Hemingway, for instance, it was all about constructing a perfect sentence.
8 - jeannie danna
Roger,
How long is this one going to be tolerated?
9 - roger nowosielski
I'm not against Alan, Jeannie. All too often, I too go over the top (but then again, I don't comment on articles that are of no interest to me).
However, if he's on a mission of sorts, like reforming Blogcritics, then I understand.
10 - jeannie danna
How are insults thrown at Eric, Dawn and everyone else here, reform?
11 - Scotty2
Thank you Jeannie for your kind words. They gave me a little boost :)
12 - jeannie danna
Scotty2,
Your first commenter is on a huge ego trip. a legend in his own mind
Please don't ever let anyone discourage you from writing.
: )Hope to read you soon!
13 - Scotty2
The site slogan is "A sinister cabal of superior writers," which probably isn't helping his ego trip.