Gunillocentrism – web diary of a freelance journalist

The Swedish writer Sigge Eklund writes about writing in his new blog. His postings are a wonderful mix of exposed writer’s anxiety and meta-thoughts about what it means to blog and to write. Check it out (it’s in Swedish)!

I haven’t read Mr Eklunds last book – but I did read his debute, Synantrop. If you check out the reivews, you’ll realize he is a great writer, frequently compared to Sweden’s most fabulous novelists such as Hjalmar Söderberg and Agnes von Krusenstjerna – in an updated, 21th century version (how wonderful mustn’t that be – but terrible to live up to, I guess!).

In his blog, Mr Eklund writes about something that I have discovered that lots of columnists and bloggers address: That journalists (and writers) should blog and expose more of their nervosity and the background to the articles they write.
(See for example this post, this one, why not Linda Skugge and finally: Helle Klein’s blog, Aftonbladet).

Hmmm…that is perhaps something for me to consider. There are so often background stories that are way more interesting that the actual article.
I remember how I sent out an e-mail to lots of friends after September 11, which I spent in …yes, Manhattan – a pretty different story than what they had read in news papers. (I spent that day trying to get closer and closer to Ground Zero, having not fully understood what had actually happened since I didn’t watch TV that day.)
Of course, most of my background stories will not be that exciting – and afraid of conflicts as I am, I would probably never dare posting juicy posts about stupid editors and evil interviewees… As you may have noted, the idea with this blog is rather to glamorize my life as a freelance journalist and tell you about the various amazing things I get to do, rather than to expose my own shortcomings and inner thoughts. (Or actually, most of all the blog is a way to let my mum keep track of where in the world I am for the moment. Not always easy to know!)

But I will try to write more about the writer’s anxiety, the tedious work, and the choices I make when dealing with a story. And perhaps some more general media criticism and/or even occasional opinions. It is fascinating. Journalism is fascinating.

And I also agree with what Sigge Eklund writes about journalism as a luxury. I think of the lifestyle as a whole as such; he rather intended the immediacy of writing and publishing that a journalist enjoys. (That is, for sure, fantastic – and a great reason to be a journalist rather than, for example, a diplomat.)
But I do hope that he is not serious about stop writing novels because blogging fulfills his writing needs…

/Gunilla
at Society Café in Harlem (one of my new “offices”! They play great jazz music here but serve terrible coffee! How can that be? I want this to be my new Harlem hangout, but I also require delicious coffee.)