Creative Spirit

Lately I've been thinking a lot about writing. It's all been sparked by a comment last week on a blog post I wrote last year about a "Short Story Writing Month". Strangely (or maybe not so strangely) the writing I've thought about hasn't been fiction - it's non fiction writing.

I've made the decision a long time ago that I'm not a fiction writer, and I'm okay with that. I've also come to terms with not being "popular" or we'll known; it's not a goal for me, and it's also a direct consequence of a lousy work ethic when it comes to writing.  Unfortunately, that same lousy work ethic means that I’m terrible at keeping up with something as simple as a blog.

I admire everyone out there who writes for a living (and for a hobby, too).  The people that write every day are doing something that I keep saying, “oh, I can do that, no problem!”.  I look at them and see a complete lack of fear - the fear of running out of things to write about, running out of opinions, coming off as boring.

But I also know that these people also experience that same fear.  They just bowl over that fear and they just. do. it.  No excuses, the job gets done.  Believe me, I’ve gone through all of the excuses: no time, no motivation, no ideas.  What has that got me?  A whole lot of nothing.

No time?  What kind of excuse is that?  I have plenty of time every day.  I wake up at 5:30AM, shower, and I’m usually done breakfast before 7, sometimes earlier.  Of course I have the time to spend as little as 15 minutes stringing words together.  What’s the hold-up here?  It’s that lousy work ethic again.

I even thought that I would spend 15 minutes a day listening to music for my podcast, and I haven’t done that.  I tend to put those together the day I intend to record, and the result is sometimes a not-so-well thought-out podcast.

You know, if you’re reading through this post so far you may come up with two deductions: 1) My thoughts are often scattered and not put together too well; and 2) I am a very lazy person with a terrible work ethic.

I’d say that part of both of those statements are true.  My thoughts are often scattered, though I tend to organize them better in some cases more than others.  I can have a terrible work ethic - when it comes to self-assigned duties.  I work very hard at my job, so sometimes I feel like being lazy when it comes to personal things.  I think that’s normal for most people, though.

Anyway, at this point I just wanted to write for the sake of writing.  I feel like I need to do some daily writing, so this is a good starting point - consider this day one.  I think I would like to spend 15 minutes a day working on a weekly blog post, so we’ll see how I manage with that.  I have a few ideas on the back burner so I could bring those to the forefront.

Here’s a challenge: how many idioms or mixed metaphors could I use in one blog post?