I’ve really waited until too late to make my blog post today. Too late in the sense that it is almost bed time and I’m tired. Not too late in the sense that I certainly can take 15-30 minutes to create some kind of post. My problem is that I want it to be good. I want people to be impressed when they read my blog. That is so egotistical and perfectionistic. I can’t even guarantee that anyone will even read my dumb blog let alone be impressed.
So I just need to let go of that.
I mean, I know that some of you read my blogs and I bet maybe even one or two of you are impressed (probably not with this particular post though, hah). But every post is not award-worthy and it’s not necessary for every post to be such.
Really what I am doing right now is just trying to blab until something starts happening. It’s a super sophisticated writing technique I learned somewhere along the line. You just start writing anything that comes to mind even if it has nothing to do with your intended topic, and the theory goes that eventually you will land on it and then you can just delete all the silly stuff.
Normally, you would never see the first four paragraphs of this post because this is how many of my blog posts begin – with silly stuff that I delete after I get done writing down the bones, so to speak. I decided to leave it in today because somehow it has magically become part of my topic.
I rarely start a blog post with an intended topic because I do better with spontaneous topic generation. Ideas are floating around in the atmosphere all around me, I just have to be agile enough to grab one of them mid-flight, trap it, and coax a few paragraphs out of it before setting it free.
Here’s why spontaneous is better for me: have you ever woke up in the middle of the night with the greatest idea ever? You flipped on your little bedside lamp and you fumbled a pen out of the drawer and a slip of paper and you wrote down the gist of the idea, then turned off the light and went blissfully back to sleep, knowing that your fantastic idea was safely recorded and ready to change the world. Except that the next morning when you read the slip of paper, it read something like “scoop dirt with the red cup and a spoon” and didn’t sound very inspiring at all, if you could even understand what you were trying to say in the first place.
Yes, well, that is what it is like when I try to preselect topics for blog posts. Little thoughts that felt so inspiring in the moment are just dull and flavorless the next day. I wrestle out two sentences and I am exhausted and bored. Blog post probably not going to happen.
So I have to rely on spontaneity, which can work pretty well for me in the early morning when it is just me, things are quiet, I have a hot cup of coffee beside me and I am at my high energy period of the day.
But tonight, I just finished my dinner, my feet are up, my husband and son are be-bopping around, and it won’t be long until it’s time to snuggle up under the blankets. Not the best time for snatching blog topics on the fly.
So your blog writing tip is: write spontaneously, freely, even silly, first and edit without mercy second. Here’s a bonus tip: don’t procrastinate on your writing unless you have more energy in the evening than the morning.
See you in the morning, I am going to take my own advice and show up early.
