I May Be Talking To Myself

I have mixed feelings about the title of this blog.  

On the one hand astonishment that it had not already been taken and on the other trepidation that by borrowing the title from the work of one of the greatest British writers of modern times I risk setting myself up for a fall.

In the end the availability of a catchy name overcame both risk aversion and admiration for Orwell's skill, which I'm afraid sounds a lot shallower than I would like to think I am.

Anyway just to give the great man full credit, if you are interested in the original and infinitely superior version of As I Please, it was a series of articles which appeared in "Tribune" between 1943 and 1947 which, according to the wikipedia entry,

"...allowed Orwell to digress freely over whatever topics came into his mind, including reminiscences, nature observations, gleanings from books and thoughts on the political situation. Each article roamed from one theme to another without any need for formal continuity but had no title indicating the content"

You can find the As I Please articles in the Collected Essays, Letters and Journalism.  Even if you don't agree with his politics, or if the subject matter seems distant in place and time from your experience, I promise you will enjoy the clarity of expression.

My reasons for writing the blog are necessarily more humble.  I aspire to write and am engaged in a course to teach me.  My tutor tells me I should write every day and that a good way of doing that is to write a blog.  So here we are.

Whereas I am only quite new to writing, the technology and tools of blogging have hitherto been a completely closed book.  So it will be a while no doubt before this is embellished with whizzy links, photos and clips.  Meanwhile just words on a page.

But the title is apt because if I am to write daily then at the current state of skill I am going to need to "digress freely over whatever topics" etc. So sometimes a diary, sometimes stories, sometimes commentary.  And I will try to stick to Orwell's rules of writing:

• Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive where you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous

I have probably already broken several of them above.  Give me a break, I'm learning.

Until later.