What's In A Name?

I've toyed with the concept of this blog for months now. Feeling as if I've been missing out on the whole blogging thing, I initially wanted to entitle my blog "The Luddite Screed," inspired by my squint-eyed gander at technology. I still like the title, but after brainstorming about possible entries I realized I just don't have enough material--did I want technology to be the entire subject of a blog? I will write some of these sorts of entries, but I don't feel like becoming simply some kind of alternative version of Wired--casting a caustic view on the various gadgets we surround ourselves with.


Then I thought I might call the blog "Stuff on Stuff," which strikes me as sort of casual and potentially quirky. I wrote an entry about my favorite pair of pants, then realized I don't have enough interest in just writing about things. I've been writing a column for Press 1 for the past year, called Suburban Bored. I'm already reflecting on the domestic life. I mean, would I go around my house cataloguing/analyzing the different things I own and their meaning? I couldn't visualize this as the sole subject of my blog.


I've decided on the title "Slow Writing" as a result of its multiple meanings. This has several connotations to me: 1. The phrase "Slow Food" is already in the common parlance; the phrase has come to mean food which is home-made, carefully prepared (as opposed to fast food). I like the home-made parallel--the best writing, like the best food, is "organic" (in the broad definition of the word). 2. There is a common perception amongst a segment of the writing community that the more productive one is the better. The epitome of this view is NaNoWriMo. While I like the concept of a month of writing as a device to motivate writers to, you know, write, I'd like to actually see less writing-for-the-sake-of-writing, and slower writing. 3. As a corollary to #2, the phrase "Slow Writing" confers a certain power on the carefully constructed sentence, the carefully pondered word. More is certainly not more (less isn't necessarily either); writers should consider the potency of what they might say.


That said, it may be that the title ends up being ironic. I sure do write a lot.


Don't mean to kick this blog off on such a weighty note, but just to clarify: the intent of the name is not to suggest that I'm some kind of literary sloth, or that you should be. I'm simply suggesting that aesthetically I will be coming from the standpoint of (I hope) careful deliberation over deep fried literary McNuggets. Whatevs, you get the gist.