Half the time, I don’t know where my blog ideas come from. I will have to ponder this a bit. There are ways to brainstorm, that I won’t go into because they are covered all over the web. You only have to Google “brainstorm” to find them.
I guess I use a variety of methods to generate ideas. Some just come to me unexpectedly; others are suggested by events that happen in my life. Some come from my past. I like the ones that dome to me all of a sudden, the best. They seem so effortless and yet I know that my subconscious has been considering things for a long time before dishing up what it gives me ‘out of the blue’.
Sometimes it just takes hard work to get them out. That’s why I keep a list. I have planned my blogs into the New Year, that is, I have a list of topics planned for the coming weeks. If I get stuck with my journal entries, I can look at my list of blog topics and find something to write about. Sometimes, they are even topical. For example, I wrote this blog several weeks ago in the week leading to Halloween, topical subjects at the time would have been Halloween, and politics, since Election Day follows Halloween so closely. I’m trying to keep politics out of this blog. it wouldn’t be topical now anyway.
However if I had the urge to write about politics and there was a political item on the ballot that I really supported, legislation to keep my city’s public library open. The threat was that it would close in July 2011. I didn’t see one sign against the library, although there were flyers saying to vote down the new taxes. We can’t run a government without money and that’s a solid fact. We pay money to keep tennis courts open year-round, but get rid of the library. Then we complain that only foreign students do well in our schools. How whacked is that?
Now there’s a topic for the blog, the importance of balance between the brain and the body. That is another way to do it, just write about one thing and another will suggest itself. See how that works? Free association is a good method to generate ideas for writing. Sometimes just sitting down and writing words can cause an idea to spark in my brain.
Free writing, while good, is sometimes not effective in finding possible ideas. Sometimes you have to turn to the TV, newspapers and the Internet. They can all give ideas on blogs. I don’t often read newspapers, I get my news from the internet. They are usually from newspaper websites, so I guess that counts. writing about things other people have already written about is lame though. If you have a differing view, though, you can write about that. I once wrote an essay, unpublished, about what we should do to end world hunger. As I recall, it involved either killing a quarter of the world population or shipping them off world to Mars. I believe I advocated the latter solution.
I am not one who is comfortable talking about myself but here goes. I enjoy writing, family history, and reading. I decided to do this blog because I wanted to try something new. I decided to make it a weekly blog because I wasn't sure that I could keep up with a daily one, and monthly seemed like I was writing a magazine. I think I did ok with my choices. You'll notice that there are not a lot of graphics on my site. That's because there are graphics plastered everywhere on the Internet and those sites sometimes take forever to load. This blog is a place where you can kick back, relax and be ready to be amused. At least I hope I willbamuse you. This blog is on a variety of subjects from my ficitional cat agency, the FFL, which is monthly, to instructional blogs to editorials, which are my opinions only. I admit that I don't know everything and could be wrong -- I frequently am. Now, stop reading about me and read what I have to say!
Check out my novel, The Accidental Colony — It's the story of a group of scientists fighting for survival.
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