Daily Blog Flaw

One of the big issues with having a daily blog is having something to write every day. Every. Single. Day. I'm actually surprised it doesn't come up more often, but when I'm on a reading jag, there are plenty of books to write about and filling in the gaps is no real problem. It only really comes up at times like this when I've decided to take a break.

Incidentally, these small breaks are also what tend to derail the blog altogether.

I'm determined this time around, to find a way to take a break from reading without also taking a break from blogging. It's tough though, I end up sitting her forlornly staring at a blank page and feeling utterly devoid of interesting thought. This, I think, must be what my students feel when I ask them to journal without giving them a topic. They sit there, almost panicked, watching the minutes tick away. And so do I.

Of course, the trick is to just write. . . anything. Anything at all. I could start transcribing the lyrics to "I'm the very model of a modern major general," and that would do the trick because writing is, on some level, only a really elaborate free association exercise. I could follow the modern major general to the Despicable Me 3 movie where the minions sing a version in minionese and that my son absolutely loves. The writing becomes a post about Thomas and being a parent. I could also follow the same modern major general to a memory of meeting my husband who tells the story of being cast as a copper in "Pirates of Penzance" despite his long piratey hair because he's a baritone. Suddenly, I'm writing a post about my husband. Or I could follow it to the time I saw it with my father as a kid...I think we were at Stratford, Ontario's Shakespeare festival. A post about my childhood.

See, free association. Our brains are such neat places.