Blogger's Block

They used to call it Writer's Block.  I've suffered through various phases of it ever since I stared my writing career at Our Lady Of Sorrows Grade School in St. Louis, Missouri as a bright eyed and bushy 7th grader.  Back then you couldn't flex your writing muscles on a Blog, personal webpage, website, on Myspace or Facebook.  Twitter wasn't yet conceived into the realm of remote possibilities.

Social Networking meant going to the Ice Cream Social and chatting with the new neighbors.

If you wanted to write back in the good old days you had limited choices.  You could buy an endless stack of blank journals and scribble faithfully, you could become a free "editorial" intern for a legitimate publication (where you toiled for pennies) or you could write for school publications like I did.  My writing deal involved the guarantee of a solid A in my English class if I wrote in the little homegrown newspaper that our 7th Grade teach producer with staples and handed out to all the 7th graders and all the teachers.

I remember my first writing assignment about the school's upcoming band concert.  I sat down and wrote the outline, lined up the interviews and had several notepads with great quotes from the lead trumpet player and the band leader.  Then I had to compile it all into 1,000 words of interesting content.  I hit the wall.  I couldn't finish the first paragraph.

Procrastination took me to new heights of pacing, calling friends on the phone, taking multiple trips to the refrigerator to just stare into the shelves and finally fear and panic hit.  My assignment was due tomorrow morning and it was already midnight.  I sat down and wrote the piece and it turned out well.  My teacher was pleased and told me I had a great career as a writer.  Aha.  Sure. 

Speeding forward to the age of websites, blogs, social networking and Twitter I am still fighting off writer's block at times.  Although now it should be called Blogger's Block, Twitter Timeout, Digg Doldrums or Facebook Fatique.  Yes, there are days I have literally nothing to say, tweet or Digg about.  At least I personally don't feel it's worth saying.  When I don't feel its worth saying I certainly don't feel it should be converted into a blog or any other form of social media.

I'm not exactly sure why I suffer from Writers or Blogger's Block.  It's certainly not because I don't have enough topics to write about.  If I made up my mind to write or blog about every single topic I have listed on my yellow lined notepads as Possible Blogs or Articles, my human life would most likely end before I got through all the lists, which I have been scribbling for years.

If the truth be told, I think the real reason is that I am just burned out.  Afterall, the job writing about the band concert back in 7th Grade was just the beginning.  I wrote for the grade school newpaper as long as it existed.  When I went to high school I wrote for that paper and contributed to my college newspapers.

By the time I was 18, I was writing a regular column on astrology for a now-defunct teen magazine.  I also wrote for a New Age community newspaper.  Of course I can't forget my free lance career I did on the side as a paid technical writer covering everything from how to mount computer tapes on drives to how to create a hot site for a complete corporate diaster recovery plan.  Yes, boring but definitely hard work.

I've written about a myriad of topics including hardware, software, politics, religion, New Age thought, astrology, Feng Shui and of course now I write about hair, beauty, fashion and related topics.  In my spare time I still write about telephony, VOIP and the lastest telecommunications technologies.  Honestly, I would write about lizards if someone paid me to do so.  Writing for me is the next best thing to breathing.  Even if I don't always do it as well as I would like.  In fact, sometimes I read my stuff and feel that it just sucks but at least I feel that it's honest writing directly from my soul.

When I go through these blogger block periods like I'm doing at this point, I wonder just what Mr. Stephen King does?  I also wonder if the god of writing, as I think of him, ever has writer's block and what does he do to overcome it?  Recently he criticized the author of the Twilight series remarking she (Stephenie Meyer) wasn't a very good writer.  You know what, if Mr. King criticized my writing I would be over the moon because it would mean he at least knew I was out there with my fingers dancing on the keyboards.  Even if he said I sucked, I would be thrilled.

Meanwhile, I still have to overcome my latest blogging block which means more hours pacing and thinking of all the other things I have to do besides blog or write new articles.

Will I recover?  I always do.  But in the interim I wanted to share my own blogging anguish for those who care to know why I seem so irratic in my postings at times.  Some days I can knock out a lot of blogs with information I feel is worthwhile.  Other days I have to struggle to do one or two.

Yes, I could throw up mini-blogs with a photo and two paragraphs but I just won't let myself do that.  I want my blogs to have "meat" and not just a little broth.  Yes, I am my own worst critic but who else will kick my writing behind harder than me?

To all of you who do read my blogs, thank you so much for your visits.  It means the world to me and in fact, makes me work even hard to break through a block.  Bless you all.