Blogger One:

An old Chinese proverb says, “Talk doesn't cook rice.” I suspect it is equally true quoting old Chinese proverbs doesn’t cook much rice either. As I consider strategies for initiating my blog, along with noting activities that do not cook rice, I’m thinking also noting those that do not lead to a successful blog would be helpful. Once I know all of the don’ts, what’s left are on the to do list. Here we go with the don’t list for blogging.

1. Don’t sit and stare. Doing most anything else is an improvement over just gazing into empty space. Of course, I claim to be intensely thinking and it may be true, at least a little. Even so, writing is key and although I can think without seriously thinking, think without writing and write without thinking, to write without writing is pretty much impossible or at least beyond my scope for sure.

2. I don’t need another cup of coffee. I know it would feel good to stretch and stroll out to the coffee pot and back. A nice cup of hot coffee might even perk me up. I could use the time to consider more fully what I want to say and the jolt of caffeine might stimulate a new insight or something. No, no coffee, no stroll into the other room, no more avoiding getting down to the business at hand.

3. I don’t have any more excuses. I’m far enough into it to get down to it if I am up to it. Ok, I’m getting around to it and know it’s time to either do it or screw it. The deal goes like this.

I’ll never make a post if all I do is boast about the blog I’m planning to write.

It’s indeed a little crazy but either I’m lazy or afraid of being absolutely trite.

That’s a pretty pathetic verse and sure it can get worse but I don’t feel even a little contrite.

My blog is underway and I have a post for today so I can get that coffee and stare with no further fear of being impolite.


Blogger Two:

Starting a post with a quotation or some other wise saying seems to help break the ice or since I am into clichés, it more likely is merely priming the creativity pump. Either way, a quote from Sylvia Plath struck me as useful for my present purpose, “And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.  The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Before using the quote, I thought a refresher on Sylvia Plath might add to the pump priming so in came Wikipedia to fill the need. Just search for Ms. Plath to find her life story or at least the Wikipedia version of her life story. The story is too intense and far too sad to tell here but think Fulbright scholarship, Pulitzer Prize for poetry, novelist, poet, controversial writer, and getting her own stamp from the Post Office. If she said it (and she did) it’s true enough for me, “…everything in life is writable about….”

This certainly opens a world of possibilities and opportunities. Now all that is needed are, “…the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.” There you go, guts and imagination. That does reduce the challenge to rather simple terms. It surely helps to be brilliant and gifted as a serendipitous bonus but guts and imagination may be doable for most of us even if Pulitzer Prizes and our own stamp are not in the cards. We need only keep self-doubt arrested and far off our creative path.

Writing for the ages like Shakespeare or being as clever as Ogden Nash,

Would pretty well guarantee the conversion of your writing to cash.

But if guts and imagination are mostly what you’re about,

Remember the words of Sylvia Plath as you keep all self-doubt out.

Blogger Three:

Don’t you get a little suspicious when a reporter attributes a fact or other information to a “reliable source” or to “an official” who didn’t want his or her name used? It’s kind of the same thing when an author uses some insight or clever saying and then attributes it to “author unknown” or perhaps “anonymous.” I suppose giving credit to B.