She Gets By...

    So, lately, I don't know what it is or why, but it seems everyone is hopping on the 30 posts in 30 days blogging bandwagon.  On the one hand, it seems like a fun little challenge and a great way to get the intellectual gears spinning and grinding.  On the other, well, finding things to write about, especially this time of year where most are looking forward to the always approaching and wonderful tomorrow of summer, is almost impossible.  It's on the horizon, and it's almost too easy to get lost in daydreams of sun-baked, beach-bound antics and such.  For example, even as I write this, the one thought consistently bouncing off the walls inside my head is that of simply lying in the grass beneath a shady tree with a cold drink and a good book on a hot summer afternoon.

    Now, this whole challenge isn't really for me at this point in my current "I'm-being-a-slacker-and-not-blogging" frame of mind.  For a while now, I have been enjoying not writing here day-in and day-out, but I'm getting back into the daily scribbling/babbling frame of mind again, and I just don't need to face that sort of challenge at this point in time.  Still...  Seems like fun.

    The thing is, Emily is the latest blogger I know who is diving into this wordy world and taking up the challenge, and she's looking for some inspiration, tips, pointers, advice or insight on not only writing every day, but also managing to be relevant in her entries.  So, you know the drill, head over and offer up some encouraging and helpful words.  She's a brilliant writer with loads of talent, so I'm pretty sure if you told her to write about something like chewing gum and Swedish Fish, she'd find a way to make you smile.

    One of the questions I've been asked (not by Emily, but by a lot of you) is along the lines of: How do you stay relevant and post like you do?

    The thing is, I don't.  In fact, the whole notion of personal blogging with relevance to anyone other than myself has always kind of confused me.  I just struggle to be coherent.  I mean, yes, I do get streaks where I stumble upon news stories and things in my life that spark thoughts and ideas and feelings and whatnots, but I also write personal little snippets that could have happened yesterday or five years ago.  I don't like rules when it comes to writing, and I tend to do what I can to snap them like little breadsticks.  In fact, I've always just had the most fun breaking out of whatever little pixelated frame this blog attempts to build around itself.

    For example, if this blog becomes humorous, I trend into something more serious with current events ripped from today's headlines like a bad Law & Order episode.  If it becomes to serious, I try to think of something funny to scribble about.  If I start slapping up too many long and tediously read entries, you'll get a flurry of little blurbs, etc., so on, and so forth.  If it's happy, it can be sad.  If it's angry, it can be...  umm...  happy.

    Of course, those things aren't carved in stone, and the changes tend to be more a sense of direction than anything, and they've always been subtle.  The thing is, write what you want.  Find your voice.  Find yourself.  And, most importantly, love what you do.

    The worst thing that ever happened to me on this blog was to find myself in a sort of rut.  There actually was a day months ago where I wanted to write something but didn't as a result of it not "fitting" into whatever theme it was that grew like a freakin' weed and tangled itself around the words on this blog.  That's when I knew that rather than writing on this blog, I found myself writing for this blog, and it was just all messed up at that point for me.

    So, don't let that happen.

    Write whatever comes to mind.  As cliché as it is, take a notepad to bed with you and try to write down the last thing you think about every night.  It doesn't take much.  For instance, if the last thing you think of is the image of two ants fighting over the carcass of a dead bee, write it down and wake up trying to find a way to craft that into a fantastic metaphor for whatever it is you wish to write about.  If you think in less grizzly terms in the sleepy hours, try to imagine what your pets do when you're conked out.  Really.  It's all there in your world, and your readers want to know about it (that's why they read what you write).

    Then, there's life.  Everyone wants to read about the lives of others.  There's something in our tangled internal wiring that drives us to want to know what someone else is doing and thinking.  The world becomes a smaller place when you throw your ideas down upon a page that is accessible by a massive number of this planet's population.  For instance, if I write about my love of vicodin and red candy, someone in Egypt or Ireland or Fresno is going to read it, scratch their heads, and go about their lives with that little nugget of utterly pointless knowledge.  Most times, I'm sure, that's the last they think of it.  Then again, they may find themselves in a conversation and it might come up.  It might spark a thought or a memory of a thought.  The conversation will then turn, and it's that little, miniscule level of influence that makes this whole blogging thing so damn fascinating.

    Oh well...  I'm sure I could probably ramble on and on and on about this whole writing and babbling thing, but I'll inevitably find myself spinning in circles, and that's just too damn boring. 

-DP