Writer's Block

where do ideas come from?

IDEAS / FRIENDS

ideas and inspiration are under your nose (and in your contacts)

When I started this adventure I was concerned about what I would write about. In the beginning, it seemed unlikely that I would be able to keep the hopper full of new ideas. The candle was only just lit a couple of months ago so it is too early to celebrate that it is still burning. However, I feel differently as time has passed. I am sure there will be days and perhaps periods when I will not write and that is okay. What I am more confident in now is that even if there is a respite, I will return. This is another form of introspection and I have found it good for the soul.

When the journey began I thought of the inspiration of stories as a burden but now realize there is joy in the search. More importantly, I’ve redoubled my efforts to become a better listener. If there is something I wish I had focused on earlier and with more focus, it would be to become a great listener. There is so much to this life and our field of vision is narrow regardless of the life we have led. Instead, cultivating how we listen exposes us to many fields of vision and if we try hard enough there is no limit to what we can see.

Our families, our friends, our circles of interests, the activities where we spend time (family, work, play, volunteer) all provide rich opportunities and it is that realization that tells me the adventure has just begun. I have been trying each week to make some incremental adjustments to the process of this writing. Changing the publishing frequency, setting a release time, adjusting the release time, creating a repeatable format, focusing on how long it should take to read (considering the demands on you, the reader). I have continued to refine the approach and HOPE it shows in the writing. While it might seem trite to you, I am a numbers guy and hence I know there are 1440 minutes in a day, of which we might sleep 480. That leaves us 960 minutes to make good use of. One percent of that is WAY TOO MUCH TO ASK of a reader of this amateurish rag I am sharing. It was that realization that drove me to make this a five-minute or so affair as a goal. That is 0.5% of a day. I think that is just about right for now. My current goal is to migrate to a 5-7 minute read by the middle of January. The goals are good. Since I try to tweak the plan weekly, I am not sure what comes next.

The other day I found a piece of software that can estimate how long it takes to read. It did not need to be accurate. In my mind’s eye, a guesstimation was exactly what I was looking for. In the same way that Grammarly speeds me through proofreading, spelling, punctuation, and redundancy, I have great faith that there is always a better way. As I have repeated many times, there has never been a better time to be alive. The 5-7 minute range by the middle of next month is a good goal. There is risk in such proclamations, similar to reporting “I want to run a marathon”. I expected to run a 5K and then a 10K this summer. That was a pipe dream. We will see.

When a particular post is a “clunker”, please let me know. One of the pitfalls of social media and any internet service is sometimes we don’t want our comments “out there”. For that reason, if it is not too much trouble, please send me an email about posts you don’t like or stuff you would like to see more of. It was through such notes that I started to hear that my posts were too long. I REALLY APPRECIATE that! Likewise, I write about stuff that interests me. Particularly when I do that, it is important that I figure out how to present my interests in a way that is interesting to YOU. Any comments are cheerfully appreciated.

There is a lot of fun in listening and learning. I would love to hear some ideas about what would be fun. While I am not as down as this song, this is about letting people know what you think. Even though this is not the perfect song, the sentiment is about right. Here’s the tune.

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