No, no. Not that kind of backed up. I have a few limits on what I’ll publish.
My constipation is of the blog post variety. I had hoped to focus more on writing after I completed the site redesign, but it’s been the opposite. Granted, I’ve been busy for the past two weeks (or should I say fortnight?), watching people wearing white whack the stuffing out of a little yellow ball over and over. But still. As I ruefully said to Dave, “I wonder if anyone else ever redesigned their blog and then never updated it again.”
Are you familiar with Meat Beat Manifesto? This song usually makes me feel very drugged, but now reminds me of Logy Express’ silence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmI8wb3XtRw
The jackass who put this on YouTube cut off the end, and I considered making my own video that plays the whole thing, but that is exactly the kind of unnecessary perfectionism that stops me from completing posts. So just imagine 25 seconds of very real and silent silence at the end of this song. 25 seconds is longer than you think.
But, as I started off by saying, I’m backed up and that’s part of the problem. My post ideas were so scattered that I took a few hours to consolidate them recently. I triangulated the ideas entered into my electronic to do list, several draft Word files, and shitloads of paper notes:
| Whole pieces of paper |
29 |
| Scraps of paper |
18 |
| Post-it Notes |
12 |
| Back of receipts |
4 |
| Back of envelopes |
3 |
| TOTAL |
66 |
Now I have one master list of 74 blog post ideas (but still no idea what to write next). It’s a smorgasbord of crap (not unlike my closet–stuffed with clothes I won’t wear). Typing of crap, here’s a critical FYI: if you’re looking for some totally craptastic (in a good way) blog reading, check out Speaker7’s ongoing summary of 50 Shades of Grey. It starts here and is the funniest set of blog posts I’ve ever read.
Here are some post ideas I’ve mentioned in the somewhat recent past as being in the pipeline: review the brownie fantasy bars I made for National Family PJ Night, develop my own signature cupcake recipe, write about organizing my basement, write about digitizing 150 years worth of family photos, write more about my study abroad experience, train Pandora to find new music, and follow-up on my 2012 goals (including my plan to run faster).
Does any of the above bite you on the ass? Or should I just write the post about Brazilians I’ve had rolling around in my head for weeks (strike that bit earlier about having limits)?
In other news, a memoir piece I wrote (an expansion my cringe-worthy first kiss post) got accepted by a literary review. This was extremely gratifying given how much time I spent working on my submission, including a fiction piece I ended up scrapping. It got too unwieldy for the 1,500 word limit and didn’t make much sense when I tried to cut it down. But writing the fiction sort of lit a fire under my ass (in a fun way) and I have half a mind to finish it and post it in stages here.
Lastly, I have a very important announcement! I finally drew a winner in the re-subscriber giveaway. I had joked about how long it took Dave to re-subscribe and also that he was ineligible for the giveaway. But of course, I forgot to remove him from the list before drawing a winner, and he frigging won. I’m not giving my husband a prize for subscribing to my blog.
When I drew another random number, the beautiful and talented Angie of Childhood Relived won the prize. As much as I’d like to reward her with ice cream, I don’t think shipping ice cream in a heat wave that melted the airport tarmac is such a good idea. So an Amazon gift card it is! Now the question is: will Angie want to tell me her address just to get an Amazon gift card? I can almost hear Angie weighing her options now (…gift card…having a potential crazy person know where I live…gift card…).
I’m grateful that so many of you stuck around through the move to self-hosting (a land where any day I’m likely to press a button and accidentally blow this thing to smithereens). If you’re ever in the D.C. area (or live here), let me know and I’ll hook you up with some homemade ice cream. And if you’re really lucky, the airport will let you leave.
Eh, don’t sweat it. Easier said than done, I know (all too well,) but you can’t really force things. Truth be told, I’ve been the same way. While I have a bunch of ideas floating around, the implementation–and the desire to do so–is severely lacking. I end up just making it a 140 character tweet and then obsessing over the fact that I can’t actually sit down and write a damn post.
However, it sounds like you’re busy. It sounds like you’re still writing. Your blog still looks fabulous. All the pieces will fit as they should when they do. We’re all still going to be here 🙂
Thanks, it’s good to hear from people who I know “get it.” There’s this pull to write, so I started the blog, but then it somehow becomes another thing on my to do list and that sucks. It should be fun.
I won, I won, I won! I’ll take the Amazon gift card of course. Loads of crazy people are already in my life, what’s one more? I’m a little disappointed that I’m not winning strawberry pretzel salad ice cream, but that just means I have an excuse now to try to make it at home and fail miserably.
Your blog post ideas are much better than the ones I’ve had stored in the hopper for months. I have started posts on the evolution of Strawberry Shortcake, what Pee-wee Herman meant to me, and a tribute to Robin Gibb. I can all but guarantee that none of those will ever see the light of day.
Congrats on your submission being accepted by a literary review — that is super exciting!
I second the Speaker7 shout-out on 50 Shades of Grey — best blog series ever.
Hot dog, we have a weiner. I’ve always wanted to say that.
Maybe you can do a post on what you end up buying on Amazon? Maybe you can buy a Bee Gees CD with it. I had a crush on Andy Gibb. And I had all the Strawberry Shortcake stuff. All those post ideas sound good to me, write them all.
Oy. I know how you feel. I feel like I have a billion posts sitting in the queue that are half written, or just an idea in the back of my head and I just feel… Unmotivated. That and half of my ideas aren’t worth dedicating a full blog post to either.
My little post nuggets would be easier to deal with if I were better in 140 characters…I could throw them onto Twitter. But I’m way too wordy for that.
It’s summer brain. Seems to be going around. I’ve read 3 or 4 posts today alone talking about not having anything to say, not having the motivation to say what needs to be said, not giving a crap about the motivation or lack of words…
It’s hot, it’s sunny, and there’s eleventy billion things we’d all rather be doing that typing away. Don’t sweat it. It’ll come back.
Yeah, summer brain…that’s the ticket. Unfortunately I think I had spring brain too. Hopefully it will clear up by the fall.
A lot of “optional” stuff completely shuts down here in summer (neighborhood association meetings, etc…), so why not my blog?!? It’s too hot to write.
I want to read about your study abroad, running, and custom cupcake recipe the most. I also like your memoir style posts, they are poignant in a way I don’t read as much as I’d like to.
Been missing you – was pumped to see you in my inbox this morning!
Aw, thanks Jill. That gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.
I just started a 12-week 5K program (to run faster) but only have 10 weeks until the 5K I want to run (see, I’m already faster!). I can see writing about running relatively soon. My nephew was in France last semester and after this summer at home, will be going to Spain in the fall. So that will probably get my study abroad juices flowing too.
I’m throwing an ice cream social for 20 people at the beginning of August, so the cupcake thing will probably come later (there’s only so much time I can stay in the kitchen). Now I want cake.
I always vote for Brazilians. Thanks for the shout-out and congrats on the literary journal. That is awesome news!
Dude, I am totally going to write about Brazilians. You’ll be sorry.
Your 50 Shades posts crack my shit up. I’m so glad (for me, worried for you) you’re doing the second book.
That’s incredibly awesome that you were accepted by a literary review! So you can be irreverently funny and literary — amazing combo.
I’m impressed that you have so many post ideas. I think that’s one of the hardest parts. It’s hard to write when you’re not sure what to write about. I’m not sure what I’ll be writing about once I finish my 30/40 World Tour posts.
Perhaps you can draw a random number on your blog post ideas like you did for your re-subscriber giveaway. But if you are looking for suggestions from the ones you listed, I would be most inclined toward basement organization, study abroad, and goals. I married my personal chef, so I don’t really get into recipes.
Thanks! Irreverent and literary…I’m a double threat!?!
Your random draw blog post idea is genius. It can’t be a worse method than staring at the list drooling with indecision and then giving up, which is what I’ve generally been doing lately.
I married my personal chef too, what a coup, no? I hate cooking, but I do like to bake and make desserts, like ice cream. Probably because it’s “special” and doesn’t need to be done every day. I like “big projects” and hate maintenance tasks.
That’s why the basement is already in need of some re-organization…well that, and we bought a second freezer to store my ice cream, which displaced some stuff. As soon as we fix stuff down there again, I’ll write about it…hopefully before letting it go to hell again.
I hate it that I can’t click on a little “Like” icon anymore if I like your blog post….
When you feel pain, I feel pain. Seriously, I spent an ungodly amount of time the first time you mentioned this searching for a replacement for the “Like This” widget on WP.com without much success. I’m petrified of installing a plug in that will break stuff.
I’m here to serve.
I spent some more time looking and found a plug in that seems to approximate the like button thing on WP.com. You just click like, enter your Gravatar email address and boom. I just liked my own post (I’m so conceited) to test it and it seems to work. Can I go to sleep now?
Awesome post for being backed-up and not knowing what to write 😉 Awesome post period–relatable and made laugh!
Thanks, I hope to shuffle loose my indecision and write more soon.