foot×note
- a note of reference, explanation, or comment usually placed below the text on a printed page. 2a) one that is a relatively subordinate or minor part 2b) commentary
(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/footnote)
1Before you start a blog, you ought to ask yourself why. Does the world really need another blog? Wouldn’t a podcast be better? And if you do decide there’s no way around it—you must try a blog—then shouldn’t the blog at least fill a niche? Something like The Folded Camellia: a blog for origami of the American south? But I have a website, I’m a writer, and it feels like the website needs a blog. Most of all, it feels like I need a regular writing practice. I considered calling the blog Practice. Because yoga is a practice, writing is a practice, and life is a practice.
While not particularly inventive, Practice: a blog would also seem to promise wisdom, if understated. And while I’d like to think I experience flashes of insight, wisdom is a high bar. I think of Gail Gilliland’s humbly entitled Being a Minor Writer, which has always made me feel a little bad for minor writers in general, which is, of course, not her intent all. The book is rather a defense of the many reasons one writes, regardless of attention or lack thereof. Her 1994 discussion stuck with me largely because in its middle, she tells the story of watching a young mother leave the McDonald’s on Bahnofstrasse in Mainz, Germany. I knew the very one and taught at the Johannes-Gutenberg University, too. And I wanted to be a writer of fiction, even then.
So, I need a modest way into a practice as we head into shorter, inward-looking days, and I think Footnotes (a blog) will serve. As noted above, unless you are John Scalzi, it is considered best practice to have a topic for your blog. But as I am at best a minor writer who needs to write more, how can a more general try be harmful? At least Footnotes implies short entries (keep reader expectations low and preempt boredom). A weekly “footnote” could touch on anything one might want to comment on, digress about, or scrawl in the margins. Perhaps paired with visuals from time to time. Sentence fragments allowed. Topics abound; what I’m reading, what I’m writing, what I’m noticing.
The rules are: 1) Keep it short. 2) Perfectionism is out. 3) Keep going as long as the blog supports the writing life and the writing.
*To be clear, I’m a fan of origami and still have a tiny, pink dragon made for me by a talented, super smart student in 2001. And yes, I remember his name! The student’s, that is.