Since I started this blog I’ve been unsettled. My first idea, to approach different topics in light of generation y, soon proved to be undoable. The time and research that topic requires made me realize that I was just putting too much pressure on myself to write about something I know little about. Sure, I have familiarity with the echo generation, but it’s limited to my own experience.
One day this week, I read an article regarding Vanderbilt University that I felt compelled to write about. It became a blog post. Three other times this week I was compelled to write about things I encountered, which I also wrote. But I didn’t post those things because they didn’t go with the “angle” of my blog (which wasn’t really panning out anyway.)
Then I realized what really makes good writing: it comes from a place where the writer simply feels the need to write about it, for whatever reason. The motivation might be as big as urging readers to protect First Amendment rights or as small as reminding them to notice the flowers in the sidewalk cracks. I could choose the most interesting topic in the world, but it means nothing if it’s superficial. Readers want to read writing with integrity. Groping for a topic to fulfill a requirement will always result in substandard writing. Writing without purpose is nothing more than putting words on a page.Those words must be there for a reason.
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