The worst has happened, now what!!!
So I start this genealogy blog. I’m excited! So many things to write about. I can’t wait to meet a distant cousin, add to my family history and make new friends along the way. I’m humming. Things are going great. I’m rolling along like gang busters. Then it happens. Just like that (imagine me snapping my fingers here), one morning I get up and I have nothing to say. Nothing to blog about. I got nothin’.
Okay. Not to worry, just give it a couple days and something will come to mind. Hmm . . . the couple days are now a week. I still don’t know what to blog about. It doesn’t help either that life has interjected itself in my genealogy world. Volleyball, sixth grade homework, family events are all vying for my research/blog reading/twitter time. So no sign of sudden inspiration.
Wow I wish I were like the cool bloggers. They’re informative, educational and cool! I learn from them on each and every post. Me? I still got nothin’!!
Oh man, one week is creeping into two and not only am I not inspired to blog I avoid my laptop. It’s a reminder of my failure, my inability to create a blog post. Agghhh!!! Maybe I should just delete my blog. If after three months I’m stumped, maybe it’s time to quit.
Then along comes Veteran’s day. I start reading other’s blog posts honoring their family’s heroes. Hmmm . . . . I can write about that. I have no shortage of veterans, past and present in my own family.
Viola! I finish my post remembering all those brave men and women in my family, who for awhile, put their own lives on hold to serve our country. I have tears in my eyes, but I am energized! I love this! I love writing/blogging and telling my family’s stories! Ideas for three or four blog posts come to mind. I dash for a paper and pen. I gotta get these ideas down.
You’re reading one of those sudden bits of inspiration now. I’m grinning and nodding like a bobble-head doll. Today, I got somethin’ . . . and maybe I learned another little something along the way too. Just do it! Whatever I’m afraid of, whatever brick wall stands in my path, to heck with it, just do it! When I started my blog post it was a little awkward but soon I was typing right along. No thoughts that it had been 2-1/2 weeks since my last post. No worries that this wasn’t Pulitzer prize winning material. I had broken through the wall. I was humming! Yep, I got somethin’ today and next time I’ll know to DO instead of slowly backing away.
How about you? What do you do when you got nothin’?
It’s rare when I don’t have something to say, but when it happens I reach out and read what other genealogy bloggers are writing about. Often one of them says something worth commenting about and so I do.
Congrats on busting through your own block.
Congratulations on breaking through the brick wall of writer’s block Cindy!
You’re right when you say “just do it”, it works like magic and you’re soon wondering where on earth you got the notion that there was nothing to write about.
Like Amy I tend to read what other genealogists are talking about and that sprinkles ideas like nothing else for me. Another idea is to Google certain topics connected with genealogy and see what comes up.
I’ll look forward to reading the other ideas you came up with from your “wall breaker” so keep on writing away please!
Boy do I know that feeling too!! I always have ideas just not the time and when I do have the time don’t have the desire to write. So I just go with it and if the spirit hits, I start typing!! Keep up the good work!!
I have lots of ideas but usually not enough time. And then when I do have time usually don’t have the motivation to write!! But when the writing spirit hits, I go with it!!
Keep up the great work!!