Sometime around my teenage years, I started writing regular diaries detailing whatever was on my mind. While this stemmed into a more conventional writing career, it was also a chance to process my life on a weekly basis and determine what I felt mattered to me. This evolved from a short-lived Myspace column to its own platform called The Private Life. As the title suggests, it was intended to be a record of where I was at any given time and, for most of that time, I wrote candidly about who I was then with a modicum of success.
I say modicum because any documentation will provide a gateway into the past. However, as that column quickly approaches over 15 years in existence, I have found that my goals with it haven’t been that satisfying. The past few years have found me skipping weeks (sometimes months) in order to save fodder for my flagship website The Memory Tourist: itself a mix of personal anecdotes and media criticism that has become one of the most elaborate projects I’ve worked on yet.
So the question ultimately arose: what do I do to maintain that drive of wanting to document the everyday? The answer came down to parsing what qualified as stories worthy of an exposé and what was closer to direct diary. In my mind, The Memory Tourist will always be a place to “go long,” to really dig into ideas and find something greater inside of them. However, I’ve long had loose ideas that I don’t feel are deserving of the effort to churn out thoughtful essays over the course of a few hours. Sometimes I want to just put out opinions that are quick and to the point…
And thus, SCRAPS! was born.
Consider it a spin-off or companion piece that will cover the shaggier corners of my writing. Ideally, this will be a sporadically updated column meant to highlight the topics that The Private Life emphasized. On top of any media opinions addressing the art that speaks to me at the time, it will feature stories about my personal life. They’re not necessarily going to have a greater point than to reflect what I’m passionate about. In the past, I have covered various trips to WNBA games as well as hobbies I’ve picked up. You know, things that aren’t necessarily designed for intellectual dissection. Sometimes fun is fun, and I want to house those moments in an accessible and enjoyable form.
In a perfect world, most of these will fit within a five paragraph or less format. Because I tend to bloviate, there’s chances that this won’t last long. As I conceptualize this website, I already have an article pushing 2,000+ words. However, I need to push myself to appreciate the small and trivial moments of life more. There is a need to recognize that not all criticism is that deep.
While The Memory Tourist will be the focal point of my current writing career, SCRAPS! will be as the title suggests. It’s a place for everything else. I am unsure how everything will go down, but as the summer picks up and the inevitable rise of activity, I want to select things to take a snapshot of. Even if I am unsure that this will be a satisfying replacement for The Private Life that carries me well into *shivers* my 50s, I do hope that it revives my approach and gives me newfound appreciation. Again, please know that while this will cover media discourse (including a planned piece on the new How to Train Your Dragon), it’s going to be more casual observations. Everything will have its place in time. For now, I need to get out the scrap paper and start putting things down. I'll show you soon!
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