I’ve never been one of those writers who waits for inspiration. I’ve always been able to just sit down and start banging something out. It may not make much sense in the beginning, or the end, but at least I have written something.
Writing does require that you make the time to sit down and write. I tend to like a block of time in the morning or late at night. And a few words jotted down during the day are not bad either. Of course, I often think that my dreams would make dead interesting stories or blog posts or something while I am dreaming them.
I saw a special where Jeff Foxworthy talked about how Ron White was always ‘on’ and how he would just be on stage once in a while. I’ve always liked the idea of just doing what you normally do and then getting paid for it. Of course, I’m sure that Ron White has spent his entire life getting to get the point where it looks what he does is all off the top of his head.
One of my favorite writers was Robert Heinlein, a Sci Fi genius who was one of the first of his kind to make the big bucks. He loved spreading the myth that he would sit down and writing something one time, go back and correct spelling and grammar errors, and then ship it off to the publisher. Kind of like that whole Shakespearean idea of never striking out a line. It makes great copy, but you can’t write great prose in the rough draft.
When blogging, however, I often follow Heinlein’s mythic path and let the first draft fly.
I’m one of those people that spend a lot of time thinking and not so much time doing. I much prefer reading books to writing them, watching stand up comedy to preforming stand up comedy, listening to voice over to doing voice over. And I do a good deal more blogging than I do writing. Though I have been kind of letting the blogging slip as well.
The desire to prattle on about life the universe and everything is not as strong as it once was. While I still love the sound of my own voice, I just find that I have little to say on the topics of the day and I have pretty much given up on the idea of blogging my way to a six figure income.
So the posts are fewer and farther between. My trip to the Dallas Botanical Garden goes unremarked. A week in Austin where everyone still wears those silly yellow rubber bands on their wrists doesn’t merit a blog post. I haven’t gone to see a first run movie in a while since none of them seem worth watching any more. Nurse Jackie wrapped up and I liked it. The Tudors was pretty amazing as well. Hung will be back on soon and the new season of True Blood is off to great start.
Life, such as it is, goes on.
Did you know that the common house fly can grow to one-quarter of an inch long and usually live between 15 and 25 days? Or that house flies taste with their feet, which are 10 million times more sensitive to sugar than the human tongue?
Or that glow-in-the-dark fishing flies continue to hot lures this summer?
My favorite Kafka story was The Metamorphosis, though Gregor becomes some sort of beetle and not a fly-it was still a brilliant bit of weirdness.
