I know, it seems like an odd title for a blog post.
Here's the thing. I'm really busy. Between work and family and writing, I have far too many things keeping my mind occupied. I have to be really well organised when it comes to rationing my time, or I won't be able to get anything done.
Which comes back to this blog post. I while ago, I decided that I needed to be more efficient when it came to blog writing. I was spending far too much time sitting in front of a screen, trying to figure out what to write, especially when a few days earlier, I might have had a really good idea for a post.
So what I began doing was scheduling my ideas when I had them. As soon as I thought of a brilliant (or at least passable) idea for a post, I'd immediately go into blogger and schedule it, putting in some rough approximation of the idea for a title. Then, some days later when I actually had time, I'd go back in and write the post.
This all worked fine. I actually got really efficient, to the point where at times I had five or six ideas queued up - enough to keep me going for well over a month. There was just one problem.
Sometimes, I got so far ahead of myself, and had scheduled things so far in advance, when I went back weeks later to write the post, I couldn't make any sense of the title I'd put in. In short, I'd completely forgotten what the post was meant to be about.
And that's what's happened here. I'm sure it was a great idea. Maybe something about the challenges of writing: the intricacies of plot development or the difficulties in coming up with just the right mix of characters. Or perhaps it was one of my more random posts, where I take some idea or concept and just run with it in a quite surprising and delightful way. I wish I knew.
Anyway, I'm sure I'll do better next time. I have a really amazing and clever and funny post scheduled for next week. I really hope I can remember what it is.
Here's the thing. I'm really busy. Between work and family and writing, I have far too many things keeping my mind occupied. I have to be really well organised when it comes to rationing my time, or I won't be able to get anything done.
Which comes back to this blog post. I while ago, I decided that I needed to be more efficient when it came to blog writing. I was spending far too much time sitting in front of a screen, trying to figure out what to write, especially when a few days earlier, I might have had a really good idea for a post.
So what I began doing was scheduling my ideas when I had them. As soon as I thought of a brilliant (or at least passable) idea for a post, I'd immediately go into blogger and schedule it, putting in some rough approximation of the idea for a title. Then, some days later when I actually had time, I'd go back in and write the post.
This all worked fine. I actually got really efficient, to the point where at times I had five or six ideas queued up - enough to keep me going for well over a month. There was just one problem.
Sometimes, I got so far ahead of myself, and had scheduled things so far in advance, when I went back weeks later to write the post, I couldn't make any sense of the title I'd put in. In short, I'd completely forgotten what the post was meant to be about.
And that's what's happened here. I'm sure it was a great idea. Maybe something about the challenges of writing: the intricacies of plot development or the difficulties in coming up with just the right mix of characters. Or perhaps it was one of my more random posts, where I take some idea or concept and just run with it in a quite surprising and delightful way. I wish I knew.
Anyway, I'm sure I'll do better next time. I have a really amazing and clever and funny post scheduled for next week. I really hope I can remember what it is.
I do the same. I can’t guarantee that I’m going to be clear-headed enough to write to order so when an oasis appears I seize the day or the hour or the fifteen minutes. I have posts written weeks ahead, not as many as I used to—I used to have a stockpile of 20 posts, now I’m down to 10—but I would panic if I had to sit down of a weekend and come up with an idea. I wouldn’t just panic, I’d quit. Of course my posts are a little different to yours—I really struggle with person posts because I just struggle to see myself as interesting—but I think it’s important to set the bar high and keep reaching. Too many blogs fold because their owners simply can’t think of anything new to say. What we have to realise is that there isn’t anything much new to say. The trick is to find a way to reinvigorate the old. Car manufacturers do it all the time. It’s just a tin box on four wheels but they keep presenting it to us afresh as if it’s something revolutionary when all it is is a thing to get us, safely from A to B and back again.
ReplyDeleteHi Jim.
DeleteI wish I could have a stockpile of 10 posts. Then again, I'd probably forget at least 8 of them.