Sharp Words

No, this isn’t a post about splitting the infinitive. The title comes instead from this month’s theme on Confident Writing: writing with audacity.

One of the dictionary definitions of audacity is intrepid boldness, and this got me thinking about writing in general and blogging in particular.

When we write a blog post, we are being bold – and not in the Irish sense of doing something we shouldn’t! We’re offering a little piece of ourselves up to the internet, regardless of whether the actual content of the post is personal or not. We’re putting our writing style on display, with all its niceties and imperfections – and moreover, we’re doing it in a public place where people can actually comment on both content and style.

If I think about blogging that way, then I actually get a bit intimidated by just how presumptuous I’m being. I’m offering up my opinions and habits and ideas to be mocked or lauded (or even both).

It’s quite a brave thing to do, really. It’s like getting on a stage and putting on a performance, and trying not to let the nerves get the better of me.

We’re bold, too, when we submit our creative writing – our novels, stories and poems – for scrutiny. We each hope that our work will be received favourably and that we’ll be able to bask in the approval of others. We dread rejection, but we brace ourselves and send off our work anyway.

Sometimes we’re intrepid too – we write in new ways or new formats or new styles; we submit to new markets; we launch our blogs in hope and enthusiasm.

So congratulations to all of us for our audacity – long may it continue!