Over the past couple months, I've gotten into a really good blogging routine, and I don't want to lose my momentum. But I've been sitting in front of my computer for an hour and a half, and my mind is drawing a blank. Then writing that reminded me of the You've Got Mail scene where Meg emails Tom about drawing a blank while trying to insult the "bottom dweller who recently belittled [her] existence."
Then I had to try to find that scene on Youtube. And then I started brainstorming all of my favorite You've Got Mail scenes (of which there are many), and started trying to decide if I like the "lone reed" scene better than the "don't they know they're supposed to have a last name" scene. But really, why choose?
Then I had to try to find that scene on Youtube. And then I started brainstorming all of my favorite You've Got Mail scenes (of which there are many), and started trying to decide if I like the "lone reed" scene better than the "don't they know they're supposed to have a last name" scene. But really, why choose?
It has clearly been a productive evening.
I started two blog posts. However, I only wrote one sentence of each before I realized that one sentence was exactly everything that I had to say on the subject. First, I was going to blog about my recent Craigslist acquisition. For some reason, I wanted to start it in a foreboding way, so I wrote the following sentence: "I broke the cardinal rule of Craigslist: I responded to a posting and went to a man's apartment in downtown Portland completely alone." After staring at that sentence for at least 20 minutes (and by "stare" I mostly mean I slowly wandered away from the blogger tab, and meandered onto my Pinterest bookmark. Then the Askmormongirl bookmark. And Hello Giggles). And then I came back and read my Craigslist sentence, felt a sinking feeling (it was somewhere between the first sentence of a really crappy mystery novel, and an entry from a 10th grader's creative writing journal), and immediately deleted it. Then I started typing about Pinterest. Real stream of consciousness stuff, hoping that something amazing and insightful would boil to the surface. All my English teachers lied to me--free writing sucks.
Deleted that too.
Then I turned to a tried-and-true method of prewriting: I googled "I'm sitting in front of my computer trying to think of something to blog about, and nothing is coming to mind. What should I do?" Which is how I ended up on the 195 Hilarious and Inspirational Facebook Status Updates. Which was clearly written and compiled by 14-year-olds.
Thanks, Kimberly! Or was it Janice?
3 comments:
It's like they're an entire generation of cocktail waitresses.
I don't want you to lose blogging momentum either. I love your blog.
I had a very happy couple hours last week while I was sick watching You've Got Mail. Along with the long version of Pride and Prejudice and the Gwenyth Paltrow version of Emma. A day well spent.
I like that your blog posts are topical and explorative, more than a live journal though I like those too. I just think what you do requires hard work and I really enjoy reading it.
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