I actually began my LJ with the intent of using it purely to write lengthy, polished essays. This was an unmitigated failure. I'm not really sure why, but I think it's something to do with the medium; it lends itself to conversational, bite-size chunks. There's probably a cog sci PhD in there somewhere.
As you point out it's perfectly possible to have a publishable collection of conversational bite-size chunks. So long as there's a very good reason for other people to want to read that collection. Especially diaries; anyone thinking of publishing their diaries better be damn fascinating.
I don't think 30 minutes a day of email and LJ posts will hurt anyone's Serious Writing, but I do think 3 hours a day will do some damage. When I write, as in novels, it's on a machine that's not even connected to the Internet. This is deliberate.
I bet Borges would have done something interesting with a blog.
I read pretty omnivorously. If the writing is musical and riveting then I'm willing to cut you some slack for not having a story, eg Okri's The Famished Road, although it does suddenly grow a plot in the second half. If the story is strong enough then it doesn't much matter if you can't write prose worth a damn, eg Philip K. Dick's early work. If I'm hooked into your characters then I'll follow them wherever they go. But best, obviously, to have all three.
That said, if you want to tell a story, you need some kind of skeleton to hang the flesh on. I know it's only the flesh that you're interested in, but without a skeleton it'll just flop around lifelessly on the ground. OK, a needlessly gruesome analogy, but it's morning over here, and I haven't yet had my coffee...
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random musings on the topic:
I actually began my LJ with the intent of using it purely to write lengthy, polished essays. This was an unmitigated failure. I'm not really sure why, but I think it's something to do with the medium; it lends itself to conversational, bite-size chunks. There's probably a cog sci PhD in there somewhere.
As you point out it's perfectly possible to have a publishable collection of conversational bite-size chunks. So long as there's a very good reason for other people to want to read that collection. Especially diaries; anyone thinking of publishing their diaries better be damn fascinating.
I don't think 30 minutes a day of email and LJ posts will hurt anyone's Serious Writing, but I do think 3 hours a day will do some damage. When I write, as in novels, it's on a machine that's not even connected to the Internet. This is deliberate.
I bet Borges would have done something interesting with a blog.
I read pretty omnivorously. If the writing is musical and riveting then I'm willing to cut you some slack for not having a story, eg Okri's The Famished Road, although it does suddenly grow a plot in the second half. If the story is strong enough then it doesn't much matter if you can't write prose worth a damn, eg Philip K. Dick's early work. If I'm hooked into your characters then I'll follow them wherever they go. But best, obviously, to have all three.
That said, if you want to tell a story, you need some kind of skeleton to hang the flesh on. I know it's only the flesh that you're interested in, but without a skeleton it'll just flop around lifelessly on the ground. OK, a needlessly gruesome analogy, but it's morning over here, and I haven't yet had my coffee...