Stop Making Sense
When I’m searching for something to blog about and I’m feeling uninspired, I’m like a doctor with a hammer trying to get a reflex. When I finally land on an idea that kicks, I know I’ve hit the right one. ~ Colleen
When I first started writing I didn’t know that I was a writer.
Occasionally when something of mine was published I would think, ‘Well that was a fun fluke. Now I’ll go back to my real life.’
Inevitably I’d start writing again and would soon have a new finished product. This happened often enough that I finally began to trust that I could write, that I would write, and that there was always more to say. But it took years for me to believe when I made a breakthrough with my writing that I could repeat it.
Sometimes something similar happens with blog writing. Usually I have more than enough ideas on what to post and have a number of drafts waiting to be worked on. Even so, occasionally I come to place when I finish a post, hit PUBLISH, and all my motivation and ideas just STOP. I push myself away from my desk like I do from the dinner table when I’m full. I get up and wander around the house deciding what to do next.
For a few hours I almost believe that my blogging days might be over. The thought of it makes me feel partly relieved and partly terrified. The kitchen needs cleaning and the cellar floor needs sweeping. But these tasks don’t hold my attention. If I didn’t write so much, what else would I do?
It doesn’t take long for my mind to start scanning for new material. But I feel like a car out of gas, planning for trips that I don’t have the energy to take. I’d like to enjoy being idle, but I’m intimidated by a looming sense of dead end. I’m tired and don’t want to write, but writing is what makes me feel better.
If my dilemma goes on long enough I break down and pick up a pen. I start writing about what it feels like not to be writing. And soon I really am.
November 11th, 2007 11:59 pm
Good ideas to share with my novice writers… or myself sometimees!
November 12th, 2007 3:16 am
I truly resonate to a lot of this post, Colleen…There are times I feel…Well, I have nothing else to say on my blog…And then, somehow stuff does come, because I geuss the feeling of dread that I won’t be blogging anymore is much stronger than the feeling of relief…What a funny thing this blogging is, isn’t it? Funny, but so rewarding in so very many ways, and…..well, you know, or you wouldn’t be writing about it! LOL!
November 12th, 2007 6:55 am
Some days it is hard to blog – or just write – because the rest of your life intervenes. But I find I rarely go a single day without writing *something* (even if it’s only a check! Just kidding.). Blogging has helped me to find a different voice from the one I use in news writing and I’m very grateful for that. I use it as a place to experiment, change and grow. What more could I ask of a computer screen?
November 12th, 2007 7:41 am
I just had a day like that…uninspired. If that day happens to also be one where nobody seems very interested in what I write, it can make one start to wonder. But like you, an idea finally comes – not always the greatest – but enough of one to get me writing. Usually I don’t fret too much because I know that life and my surroundings will prompt me soon enough. If I’m lucky enough to have several ideas pop up, I sometimes save a few as drafts to fill a future dry spell.
I admire your longevity and success.
November 12th, 2007 10:46 am
I can so completely relate. Especially with the part about pushing yourself away from the computer after publishing a post… to me it happens when I publish something especially meaningful, or a short story I worked on for quite some time and I think “will someone read it? will they appreciate it?”. But ultimately that doesn’t matter. We write, and we blog because we must. Because it gives us pleasure.
Well here’s an easy post idea for you: I’ve tagged you for a meme called “Six Guilty Pleasures”. Now I know you haven’t done this one because one of my writer/blog friends came up with it just recently. You can read all about it on my blog of course. Looking forward to reading your version.
November 12th, 2007 10:49 am
I’m trying to post a message here and it doesn’t seem to work. Come over to read “Six Guilty Pleasures” there’s something there for you.
November 12th, 2007 2:46 pm
I can relate. When I’m overboard, at least I can store up posts, go on a manic compostion day, queue up for a few days and then relax and not write or photograph anything for a bit.
November 12th, 2007 8:31 pm
It is quite the paradox and I know exactly how you feel.
November 12th, 2007 9:48 pm
Glad you keep writing! Sorry I haven’t been around much. Whitney has just been diagnosed with dyslexia and I was diagnosed a month ago with PTSD. It’s been crazy around here! BTW…the cloud in your picture above the light….looks like a lion to me! It’s the first thing I noticed.:) Whitney and I would still like to see you!!!
November 12th, 2007 10:58 pm
If I were Joe I’d practice a lot with that thing and get all my wood done before I handed it over! It was so funny you mentioned the split ends pulling….that is something I hadn’t thought about in years and years. I used to sit in high school and do that too. Maybe it is just that now with shorter hair I don’t have split ends. I didn’t used to get it cut as often. Now I couldn’t see them to split them.
I am like you in the “to blog or not to blog” sometimes it just seems like it would be so easy to pack it in. I will be glad to have this daily thing over with. It is too hard on me. I post on one day and then visit others the next to balance out. I can’t find the time in a day to visit everyone and post. Plus some days I am just a blank board with no message.
November 13th, 2007 5:59 am
Familiar ring to all that you said. The only exception to jumping right back in is when life happens in the meantime and you just simply cannot. Time won’t permit. Circumstances work against you. That’s what throws my entire being off kilter for months on end. I’m still trying to recapture that sense of “I CAN do this” with my writing. It had to be pushed back so darn far that I almost didn’t recognize it for awhile there.
November 13th, 2007 10:21 am
Like all the other commenters, I can completely relate to this, though I have only been blogging for two months! Well, that’s why I started blogging–to force myself to write again–even when I feel no inspiration or creative spark. So, it has been good for me, but already I have days when I am certain that I’ve made a big mistake when I hit “Publish.” But I love the community of bloggers I’ve met already–such nice folks!
November 13th, 2007 2:38 pm
I always used to think I’d run out of ideas and even when I was teaching, but then more would always come.
Still, I’d never post every day though.
November 16th, 2007 11:37 pm
I relate deeply to each word you have written here. The writer in me would have it no other way. Thanks, Colleen, for saying it as it needed to be said. May you always be able to lift your pen, and may we always be healthy enough to be able to read the results.
November 17th, 2007 1:03 am
Colleen,
This is great! I love it. I can’t wait to come back for more. Can I use something in my new blog? Pretty please.
November 18th, 2007 8:33 pm
That sounds like a good writer’s block remedy I heard once … when a story comes to a halt … take the main character and write them into that situation of being stuck, of going nowhere … soon everything IS moving ahead! 🙂
November 11th, 2013 1:36 am
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