David Murdock Column: On 18 years of writing a weekly column
The upcoming week marks this column’s 18th anniversary. I almost can’t believe it. It feels like far longer. It almost feels like I’ve been writing it since … “forever ago.”
From church signs to chalk to chess, I’ve written about any-and-everything that has caught my attention over the years, and I’m ready for 18 more years. Then, 18 more after that ― which will make me 92, by the way.
Looking back at the columns, certain patterns emerge (and I’m doomed to notice patterns). One thing that has changed is what I write about.
Lately, for example, I’ve been writing more about what I’m reading than anything else. That’s probably because I’ve been reading more the past few years than I ever have. Before that, I wrote a lot about traveling. Of course, that change was likely wrought by the pandemic.
However, every once in a while, I’ll sit down to write and realize that whatever I’m writing sounds somehow “familiar.” Curious, I’ll look back through the columns and find that I’ve written almost exactly the same column before, sometimes years ago. Once, I was telling the same story almost word-for-word. That was weird.
That’s a quirk of storytelling. Once we settle on a story, that’s the story. When I say “settle,” I mean that all stories gain something in the telling. All stories are at least a little exaggerated for effect, but once the “final” version is in place … well, there it is. Then, telling that story becomes a matter of performance.
The trick is to get the facts straight — I always think of it as having them “plumb” or “square” ― and then perform the story. In other words, craftsmanship, then artistry.
The big mystery, though, is where the stories come from in the first place. I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately. Honestly, I don’t know. For me, it’s like this: I’ll have an idea, a bare idea, then I’ll put fingers to keyboard and just let it flow. I’ve ceased even questioning it. Of course, I edit and revise, but the columns just seem to “come to me” these days. They have for a long while, now.
That’s why I have no idea what to say when people ask me how I come up with a weekly column. I’m not being coy; I honestly don’t know.
Another thing that people ask me a lot is what the next column will be. I honestly cannot remember, much of the time. Usually, I write the column sometime in the middle of the week. After it’s written, I have to think for a moment sometimes to remember what I wrote! I’ve often heard people say, “I don’t remember what I had for breakfast.” Well, at breakfast, I don’t remember what I wrote a couple of hours previously.
Another pattern I’ve noticed is how my writing style has changed in 18 years. To put it mildly, this column ain’t written in “correct” English (much of the time). That last sentence evidences three different stylistic features that I’ve gravitated to over the years ― using italics, quotation marks for emphasis, and parenthetical comments more than I did. And that sentence shows another … I love dashes these days. And that sentence (and this one) shows the last … I’ve grown to love ellipses.
Those stylistic changes are generally not considered “good style,” as I was taught, especially quotation marks for emphasis. What holds them all together is that they’re marks of elocution ― my own personal style of speaking. By the way, that would likely be considered an incorrect public speaking style – it’s very informal. Once of the nicest compliments I ever got was from the mother of a friend, who said that reading the column sounded like listening to me talk
The early columns are written in quite a different style, a style that would be considered to be more “correct.” The changing style does not bother me at all, but one thing does: Every once in a while, a grammatical error slips through the editing process. Those are entirely my fault, and they usually happen when I “edit into error.” That’s when I revise a sentence or paragraph and then don’t edit it properly – it was correct, but now it ain’t.
For the record: Yes, I still notice and appreciate church signs. The biggest change in 18 years there is that more and more of them are electronic. I miss the old signs, still.
Yes, I miss chalkboards. I haven’t used a chalkboard in years, but they’re superior to modern whiteboards in every way. There are few things in life of which I am so sure. One has to change with the times, though.
Yes, I still love to play chess. However, I haven’t played a game in person since before the pandemic. These days, I play online, with about five games going all the time. In fact, I won one of my best, most-cherished games ever about two weeks ago against a far better player than I … and I cannot believe I did it.
One thing that has remained a constant over the years is that I’m grateful to y’all for reading the column. Thank you all for your kind comments, in person and in email. It means a lot to me.
David Murdock is an English instructor at Gadsden State Community College. He can be contacted at murdockcolumn@yahoo.com. The opinions expressed are his own.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: David Murdock on 18 years of writing a weekly column
