Blogger's Block

I put off writing a blog for a long time. The reason was that I had come across many blogs that had started out well but then either petered out over a short period of time or just abruptly came to a halt after a short period of time. I didn't want to have that sort of blog. The kind where you write regularly for a little while, and then yours becomes yet another bit of detritus floating about in cyberspace. So I thought long and hard before I started this blog. I didn't want to do it unless I was going to stick with it. I vowed that I would write something new at least two or three times a week for my adoring fans (all three of them). Being a writer by trade, I knew that this would take some effort and that there would be times when I didn't feel like it. But I wanted to develop the discipline of writing even when I didn't “feel” like it, when the muse did not sing into my ear, when nothing seemed funny or interesting, when the inspiration pool was completely dried up, and when I was just plain tired (and cranky).

I had a good start, but then, like many bloggers, I had a rough spell in which I did very little writing for several months, followed by a renewed determination to forge ahead. I've been pretty regular about writing lately, even when I haven't had much to say. I know that sometimes my blog is pretty dull, but the point is to make myself write even when it's difficult. That means that every post will not necessarily inspire, amuse, or enlighten my readership.

So, I've been thinking today about what to write about, and I just haven't been able to dredge up anything. I tried to think of some funny stories from the past, I tried to think of lessons I've learned lately, I tried to think of anything at all that might be even mildly interesting to write about. But I didn't really want to write about any of the ideas I came up with. I once had to write an article about a parking lot that was going to be closed for a couple of months. “Good grief!” I had thought at the time, how am I going to pull this off? I needed to come up with about 350 words on a subject that could be summed up in a headline. Yet, once I got started on the article, I ended up going over my limit and I had to edit it down to 350 words. I had a lot to say about that closed parking lot, it turned out.

I tried to use that as inspiration. I thought about funny stories about stupid classes I took in college (golf, bowling, industrial geography). I thought about the many hilarious stories that my family has about our clumsiness, our multitudinous accidents, our trips to the emergency room, and similar tales of injury and hilarity. Yes, some of them are good stories, but I just didn't feel like writing about them today.

I ended up deciding to write about having nothing to write about. I figured that that is a subject that I could go on about forever. In fact, I've already written four full paragraphs about it, and I'm only just now getting started. Ha, ha! Just kidding. This will end soon, for those of you who are still reading at this point (I assume that to be absolutely no one). But really, now that I'm writing about it, I find that I have a lot to say about not being able to think of anything to write about. My point in writing this blog—besides becoming wildly popular with millions of readers across the globe who found it while researching the plight of women living in poverty throughout the world—was to develop some discipline about writing and thereby improving the quality of my writing. The point is not to always have something interesting to say and saying it as succinctly as possible. The point is to be able to say nothing at all as eloquently as possible.

So, now that I've come to some kind of point, I will stop writing about not being able to write about anything. And I said it in just 735 words.