Hello, there…I see you in the corner! Yeah, you. I’m talking to you!
What are you doing?
Are you trying to come up with the perfect blog post this morning? It’s a lovely day, you must be bursting with ideas? Some bright and cheery, and some, well…not so much so?
Yeah, you’re the one that shows up here at your computer monitor every morning pecking away as you write a blog post. Clippity-clop goes your keyboard…
You peck at each word, trying hard to hold on to fleeting thoughts.
Peck, Peck, Peck
You peck some more, there’s gotta be something to inspire you, right?
You shake it off, it’s gone, the precious thought is gone…
That’s when its time to change perspectives, maybe then you will have a better idea to write about?
You focus your eyes elsewhere. What do you see?
Do you dare yourself to share that line, or do you let it fly by, and change your mind yet again?
Every post you all you really want is to hold tight to your authentic self. You want to keep an eye on what is important. And you wait patiently for the blurry thoughts to leave.
So you can focus on the real message you want to share. That’s great! At that moment, you’ve realized that you’re in a holding pattern. It is the perfect good enough opportunity to stop and pause to notice your surroundings. Those surroundings provide you with material to write about. The stuff that matters most to you!
You just have to notice them before they fly away.
But if those thoughts do fly away, it is okay. Forgive yourself, it’ll be okay! There’s always new material and inspiration available…in the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees! 😉
Find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light, and dark which that thing provides. – Junichiro Tanizaki
Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern. – Alfred North Whitehead
Creativity and insight almost always involve an experience of acute pattern recognition: the eureka moment in which we perceive the interconnection between disparate concepts or ideas to reveal something new. – Jason Silva
Is today the day you’ll dare to break free from moments holding you back in your blog writing?
Post inspiration – #MyBlogMyWritingStyle 30-Day Blogging Challenge (rules here) word of the day – ‘holding pattern’, and the question of the day – “How do you recognize you’re in a holding pattern when it comes to blogging?” & Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Pastel Colors & even if I always say way more than one line on Wednesdays, I love to join in on the prompts of Linda Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday – today’s words are Clippity Clop (that dagnabit Woodpecker has a friend (or two) and they fly to every corner of our house and our garage and peck…peck…peck away at the cedar siding and the sound of their beaks on the house echoes throughout our house – grr…).
PS – What do you do to break your holding patterns when you’re trying to be creative? What inspires you as you write? Do you have any brilliant tips for shooing away WoodPeckers…yelling and throwing rocks at them (yeah…sorry we do) doesn’t seem to work!?
Ooh! I particularly love the shadows quote…
Thanks, glad you liked it! I’m a fan of quotes like you are! 😉
Some days I struggle with even the simplest thoughts. Other days I think, if I don’t DO something I won’t have something to write about. Then again, life can be so full of drama and activity when you think to yourself “no one wants to read your drivel, everyone has enough of their own drama’…
Sometimes a holding pattern is required just to digest, for lack of a better word.
Reading, too, is helpful. Because if you are a creative person, the interests will come back eventually. 😉
I hear ya, Claudette! I’m the same way and have those same thoughts about my posts. I like your take on the holding pattern – great advice! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and tips, much appreciated!
I find the prompts helpful because there are so many and if I don’t have a fab story, then at least I can grab a photo and write a paragraph. I write what I like to read: glimpses of my life, stories from the past that have some meaning, very short fiction, and poetry. I try to stay away from long political rants and Wikipedia type info dumps. If all else fails, I can always post a pic of my cat!🐱
Ah…you recognized my secret weapon! THE CAT photos! :-)! I wish you many more moments of happy creativity!!
Thank you! And backactcha 😀
Supposedly, the big plastic owls you hang on the house to scare off the squirrels also work against woodpeckers. (Personally, I think the squirrels just laugh at them.)
Best thing I can do when I’m having trouble writing something is to walk away from it and do something else. I leave myself notes so I don’t forget.
LOL – I’ve never heard about the owls! I don’t know about the squirrels laughing at me, but if I put an owl on every corner of the house, I might get the neighbors talking… Great advice, walk away, but keep notes so we don’t forget! I always forget to take notes!! ;-)!
I guess the owls are a southern thing. I had never heard about them until I moved here. They sell them at Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/plastic-owls/s?page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aplastic%20owls).
Thank you for the link John!
Hope it helps…
I think I too would go nuts with the wood pecker banging on my house. I know they had trouble with them around the hospital in Ala and they had electronic owls. They would sound off periodically and they did shoo off the pigeons…and made the people jump. I know in Florida they put nails in the top of piling to keep the gulls from settling but a wood pecker would just hang from those plus it would look weird on your house. Ah, the battle we have with nature. I had ground hog issues last year – that was a mess. Good luck on finding a good resolve with the wood peckers – they are at least pretty.
Yes, the crazy nature battles keep us on our toes. I’d like to say, ‘this stuff will go away with the winter’ but…I’m not ready for winter yet, so I’ll take the birds and their antics for now! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Always carry a notebook–so when you see parts of the pattern, you can write them down!
Thank you for sharing that great tip!
Thanks for such an inspiring post. It is so easy to get caught up in SEO and stats and in doing so stifle your own creativity.
You’re welcome! Thank you for sharing your feedback, I appreciate hearing from you, it is way more fun as a blogger to chat than it is to focus on a stat! 😉