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The Importance of Knowing What You Want to Write
There are times I have had pretty good luck with just taking off with a topic and coming out on the other side with a post. This morning was not one of those times. But I knew. I could feel it.
Even though that is my favorite way to right a post, it didn’t work. I didn’t feel my juices flowing and I tackled a subject I had been thinking about for a while, but not quite enough. When the post was around 750 words long and I wasn’t sure I was halfway done, I knew I was in over my head. But I still tried to force it.
It was a good thing that I eventually gave up and left it as a draft. I will get back to it. It would have been stupid to go on. The post was expanding at an alarming rate and was probably better off as a series of posts.
But it got me to write this post.
I use Windows Live Writer to write posts for storage, when I know I will not be finishing it in one sitting. I use ScribeFire to write quick posts that need some research work, because I can flip through tabs on my browser as I write. And I use DarkRoom to write posts off the cuff. Unfortunately, this morning I used the off the cuff method to write a post that still needed research.
As far as research goes, I have taken a whole day before to write a post that required research, off and on, here and there, until it was finished. Those posts have turned out quite well. They started without a full plan of action, but having a whole day where I alternated between research, writing, percolating, and not even thinking about the post helped.
But when I need a post for the day, it doesn’t quite work. There is not that time available. So the post goes back to the drawing board for some more notetaking, mindmapping and weird moments of clarity that happen in the middle of unconnected chaotic situations. Hey, I don’t know how it works. It just does.
And while that post came slow as I tried to beat it out, this one was easy. I take what comes.
7 Responses to The Importance of Knowing What You Want to Write
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Good post! I have the same problem quite often as well when I just cannot come up with anything useful and interesting to write about.Forums are good places to see what people are talking about and there is a software that I use to help write short posts. (utilityposter)
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Thanks, I will have to check out utility poster. Sometimes I have these great ideas for posts that I know will only work when I am in a specific moods. So I keep a lot of ideas in lists, but ideas that were great at the time sometimes aren’t later on. I think I just need to relax at times. I knew it had been a couple days since a post and I have been trying to get into my regular groove again when I would post at least 4-5 times a week. Oh, the pressure and all self-imposed.
I think knowing what you want to write is more difficult than writing itself. As it is always said “well begun is half done”, I think in the case of writing the “well begun” is knowing what to write.
I have not used any of the tools you mentioned in this article. I think I will have to try them.
Oh how I understand this, especially when I committed to blogging 365 days this year. There are days I doubt I can manage a unique thought let alone a post worth clicking on or commenting on. As a freelance writer I have learned that some topics are just not meant to be stellar works of written art, while others flow magically for us. Just keep up the good work.
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AZ,
It was a big subject I thought was small at first. I need to learn scope or start actually outlining those type of posts first. Or at least mind mapping. I got it and realized I had paragraphs out of order as the topic morphed. I will learn.
Sassy Mama Bear,
It is something I try to tell myself. I like the flow. I had the first taste of it in a while on the post before this one. Just wanted to keep going. Thanks.
great post..but sometimes i don`t know what i must write eventhough the idea is in my head..its easier to think it than to write it
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This is the one place where posts are not a job. On my other blogs, I write pretty simple articles. Here I write for fun. I just need to remember that.