June 14, 2010

Getting started is the tough part

I start a gazillion blog posts - in my head. I think I will remember the thoughts. I think I will squeeze in time on the computer to craft a post from the thoughts.

Sometimes, I start the post here, get sidetracked by needing to check on a fact or find the right word or spelling and forget to get back here to finish and then publish a post. In fact, once more I have more posts started then posted. Fortunately, the Blogger software lets me do that.

Yes, blogging is no different then the rest of my life. I start so much more then I finish.

Sometimes, I stop by choice. I am more comfortable now casting aside books that don't deserve to be finished by me.

Take The Blind Side, for instance. I stopped reading it because the story kept getting lost in the details of football. Had I noticed the rest of the title: "Evolution of a Game" I might have never started reading this story of a boy who grew up without a bed and helped change the game of football. It was the boy's story I wanted, not the explanation of football evolution. That's the story the movie focused on. I finished the movie.

Casting aside books is fairly new for me as I had been trying to give the author the benefit of doubt. I pushed past my uncomfortable level, hoping, no believing, the words would become more valuable as I got deeper into the book.

Remember, this is the woman who drove librarians in Livonia nuts begging to be allowed to check out more then 5 books at a time, asking repeatedly to be allowed access to the adult section. My first oral reports were to those librarians who asked questions to make sure I was reading the books, not using them as props.

Oh, how I remember the feeling of accomplishment as I worked my way through the fiction shelves: All the authors whose last name began with an A, with a B, with a C, and so on and so on and so on.

Now, though, I realize that was just one of the first unfinished projects as a job in a bookstore (dream job, of course) and other priorities took over.

Now, though, the potatoes are done so I need to answer the call of the boil. I'm calling this post done as well.

3 comments:

  1. Oh, I can so relate to the post thing.

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  2. How wonderful to hear from you. You seem to be doing a better of publishing then me right now. Started two posts today and realized I didn't finish either.

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  3. I've taken to using the "post in the future" piece of Typepad to let me make sure that incomplete posts eventually do get out there. Rather than sitting in draft state, I put them in "post a week from today". That lets me go back a few days later and edit, and it means there's a deadline to get things done.

    It's always OK to post an incomplete image on a blog; you don't have to have something as tidy and completely wrapped together as you would in some other writing worlds.

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