Page 19 | MediocreMan

Three Blog Ideas in One Night · 24 August 2024

I am definitely not in a writing funk. I had three blog ideas in one night! Three!

I may be taking the notion of not being in a funk too far. But I am in good company. After all, what movie making company does not make a sequel or five when the franchise is making money. Why not write three blog posts about not being in a funk? Of course, my blogs do not make mega-dollars in a weekend. But that is not the point.

The point is that I actually had three blog ideas in one night! Which definitely means that I am not in a writing funk. Although, two of those blog posts might not make the cut. One might see light as an essay one day. The other though seems a bit out of my norm. A bit too deep or dreary or something. Not really my thing. But who knows? I might need to put it out there one day.

The third idea was this one. Three blog ideas came to me in one night. Or at least three writing ideas.

You might think that is cheating. After all, it is not really an idea, right? At least not on its own. It is not like there was some topic that needed to be discussed and I wrote about it. No. It was just a happenstance. I had two ideas in one night and since I had two ideas, I thought I could write about that, which means I had three ideas! Which I think it is a great idea. Three for the price of two.

Of course, since two of them might never see the light of day, then the three for two is not really a thing. Even if I wrote them all. Which I did. Rather, I am writing the third one now. So I will get all three of the ideas written. I will only be posting one. At least for now. Which is okay. To write three and post one. That is still batting over three-hundred. Pretty good for a hitter in baseball. Maybe not so great for a blogger. Ah well.

The biggest thing though is that I had writing ideas. It does not matter whether they see the light of day or not. I had the ideas. I wrote the essays or blog posts. And that is all that matters. Oh. And I got to have a second sequel (which would be called the third) to the blog post about not being in a funk. After all, if you get three ideas in one night, you are definitely not in a funk. Which I said three blog posts ago. (By the way, there is never a 1 if you have a sequel or five. Except with Star Wars. But that is a completely different story.)

Well, this post is a bit short and redundant, but you get the idea.

I had three ideas. I wrote the essay and blog posts from said ideas. And I got to have part three of not being in a funk. All in all, not a bad few days of blogging.

And if I did not mention it enough times, I am definitely not in a writing funk. Or any kind of funk whatsoever.

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Writing Momentum · 17 August 2024

When I wrote about not being in a funk, I mentioned momentum. Then, I completely ignored the thought. So I thought I would come back to it.

Momentum is a strange thing. It is also a simple thing. Both in physics and in life.

Momentum is merely mass times velocity in physics. At least mathematically. And it is just the mathematical expression of Newton’s first law. A body at rest tends to stay at rest and body in motion tends to stay in motion unless it is acted upon by an outside force. The unless part applies to both the body at rest and the body in motion. Pretty simple.

Momentum also applies to real life. Both in the Newtonian sense and in the abstract sense. And since it applies to life, it applies to writing. (Perhaps you thought I would never get there.)

Most people think of momentum or inertia when they think of motion. (I suppose that is why they call them Newton’s Laws of Motion.) But momentum applies to non-motion too. Think about it. When you are at rest, you want to stay at rest. It is tough to get out of that bed or chair. Especially if said chair is a recliner. I know it is a state of mind more than a state of body in this case, but it is still momentum. We must force ourselves to get moving.

The same is true for writing. When we are not writing very often, it is tough to get to that piece we were working on. It is so easy to agree with Scarlett O’Hara and just say, “After all, tomorrow is another day.” So we do not keep the momentum going by writing day after day after day. Which is the key really. To be a writer, you must write each day. Week after week, month after month, year after year. They do add up. And as the days add up, you will have the blog posts and books to show for it. You see, when you have momentum, you do not need to do much to keep going.

In physics, the thing you need to overcome to keep the momentum up is friction. I suppose that is true in life too. Something comes up to mess up your writing routine. Friction. Something happens to your relationships to mess up your writing routine. Friction. (In more ways than one.) Yes. Life is full of all sorts of friction. Which is why you need to keep adding energy to your writing train to keep it in motion. To keep its momentum up.

Which is one of the coolest things to experience.

I have had many moments in writing when I have lots of momentum. Idea after idea comes into my head. For blog posts, for books, even for poetry and song. That is the sweet spot. Just keep writing and the ideas keep flowing. Just keep the ideas coming and the writing keeps flowing. It is a process that feeds on itself. On its own momentum. Woo woo! Keep that train movin’. Keep that momentum going.

The thing about writing momentum is that it can even push through writing funks. I suppose it is like a plow at the front of that train plowing through the snow on the tracks. Keep up the head of steam and the snow is no match for the momentum. Words keep flowing. Woo woo!

Well, that is about all that I have to say about writing and momentum. And trains. At least for today. I hope that you are able to keep up your momentum by writing or doing whatever you need to be doing every day.

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Not in a Funk · 10 August 2024

I am not in a funk. Not really. But it seems that my blog writing momentum has gone down.

I have been writing my blog for a long time. Since 2006, to be precise. Actually, I did not start my foray into websites and actual blogging until early 2007. But that is another story. A story that I think I already wrote. But who knows? Certainly not I. After all, I write my blog, post, and promptly forget it. Which is not entirely true. I usually remember topics that I wrote about, but forget the specifics. Usually. There are those times that I cannot remember ever writing about certain topics. Which is again a completely different story.

Having written my blog for so long it is sometimes easy to come up with something for the next week. Yes, there are times when I have a tough time. Usually those times are when I do not have any writing projects. Which seems odd. The more I am writing, the more topics I have to write about. I have plenty of things to write about when I am busy. When I have lots of writing projects. It is usually when I am in some sort of writing funk without many projects that I have a tough time writing a blog post.

Which seems backwards. You would think that the less projects I have, the easier it would be to write a blog post. Oh sure, it might not be funny or enlightening or entertaining or even readable (if it ever is), but it ought to be easy to write when I do not have tons to do. I ought to just be able to come up with something when I do not have lots of writing projects.

But it does not work that way. At least not for me. At least not usually. Usually, when I have lots of projects, I have lots of blog ideas too. Usually, when I am writing lots, I am full of more writing ideas.

It is when I am in a writing funk that I usually do not have blog ideas. When I have no projects in the queue, I have no blog ideas in the queue either. Nothing. In a funk for projects means in a funk for blogging. None of my writing is any good in any form.

Now, I know what you are thinking. None of my writing is that great anyway, so what is the problem? The problem is that I am not in a funk. I have more projects going than I can really write. I am working on at least three writing projects. Which usually means that blog ideas come freely too. But not this time. This time, I am writing on my projects, but no blog ideas are forthcoming.

Oh the horror.

Then again, the horror could be that I really am in a funk. That none of my writing anywhere is any good. That the projects I am working on are terrible. That the blog posts I write have no merit. That they are way below mediocre.

Or maybe I am finally realizing that I have always been in a funk. That my writing has ever and will always be far less than mediocre. Regardless of what anybody says.

But that is ridiculous. Or at least that is not my mindset. I will at least listen to a little of what my readers have told me. I choose to believe that I can at least write close to mediocre stuff. And every once in a while, I might exceed that standard. Maybe.

Oh. I do not believe I am in a writing funk. Or any funk for that matter. I just need to keep writing. That way, when I do get in a funk, I can just write out of it. After all, that is what real writers do. They press on whether their stuff has any merit whatsoever. And so to misquote Charles Dickens. Write on! Write on over all obstacles and win the race!

Write on over all obstacles and beat that funk. Write on. Even if there is no funk.