Can I? Can We?

Here's me, stating the obvious...

I blog.

I blog because I can, because I love it, because it's free. I can write whatever I want and "publish" it for consumption at no cost to me (other than the cost of baring my soul every once in awhile) and no cost to you, Lovely Reader (except for the cost of a few minutes of your precious time...and thank you, if I've not said it recently, for reading. It means an awful lot).

As a consequence, I don't much pay much attention to grammar, syntax, and, rarely ever, punctuation. I write just like I talk. I talk fairly fast and frequently ramble - going off on wild tangents that mean little to anyone but me in my free association brain. Sometimes it's funny to others. Sometimes it's nonsensical. Sometimes it hits home. Ultimately though, it's always me, Just Jane, saying precisely what's on my mind.

While writing about the American Gods and Roadside Attractions Tour though, something different happened. Those entries were truly a collaborative effort. By themselves, the entries would have been a bit dry, a little lifeless. By themselves, Acr0nym's pictures, while excellent, wouldn't have made much coherent sense unless you'd been there. However, between the two of us, we were able to enrich each others' stories about the very same trip so that the telling was interesting. Interesting enough for several people I know, and several I don't, to reach out to me and say, "Hey! You guys are awesome!" (I paraphrase. Moving on.)

A few days ago, after I'd written this entry, I received a voice mail message from my chosen brother, Chuck. Chuck, just so you know, was there in 2005 when I went off the deep end. Chuck was REALLY there for me when I came up for air. If it weren't for the love 'o Chuck, Just Jane likely wouldn't be here...or, at least, not the here that she knows now (so y'all can totally blame him for the State of Jane *laugh*).

Anyway! In the message he left...I totally saved it...he told me how much he loved me, how he remembered 2005 so very well. And then he asked me when I was just going to sit down and write the book already so that he and others could pay me for what I write. Told me how he loves how I write. Looks forward to when I do...

In the blog. The place I write where there is no coherence, no thought to grammar or syntax or punctuation. He just...loves what I say.

Um...hmmm.

So later, I'm talking it over with first Acr0 and then Lex and told them both I wouldn't even know what to write if I am going to write a book. Both of them said, "What do you write about now? Write that. It doesn't have to be a fiction novel." There are such things as first, second, and third drafts and copy editors who'll fix my mixed tenses and dangling participles (heh. I said dangling).

So I'm thinking about it...again.

Except there's something else to think about now too. The experience with Acr0nym - first the trip itself and then working together to put the pieces into a full story...that was really fun! I liked it a lot. It wasn't just mine. It was ours and, I think, the finished product - or at least the first draft of the finished product - was pretty good.

So we've been talking about that too. More collaboration. More trips. More pictures. More stories.

All the travel angles have been or are being done by the likes of Miss Britt and Weird U.S. among, I'm sure, countless others.

But then it occurred to me...even though these angles have already been covered, the angles are simply extensions of the basic themes of literature to begin with...themes in which there aren't many to work. In other words, it's not the theme that makes a story compelling, it's the telling of the story that's new, fresh, different.

So why couldn't we? Why shouldn't we?

We've discovered we have a unique collective "voice". He commented yesterday how interesting he'd found that my narrative was usually spot on with what he'd had in mind when he snapped the pictures even without consultation.

So why couldn't we? Why shouldn't we?

At the very worst, we, BFF's, spend even more time on the road, enjoying each others company along with the sights and stories that are inherently buried along every mile. At the best, we discover that, together, we create something that's marketable.

So...why couldn't we? Why shouldn't we?

We're in the process of answering those questions now.