Here I Go Again, Version 42.0

Yes, I call myself a writer, but it’s been a hot minute…again…

I’m going to start small this time with zero pressure.

I love the idea of having a blog, but I don’t always leave space in my day to write unless there’s something REALLY BIG pulling at my sleeve and insisting that I pay attention to it. Every once in a while I get on a roll on a Facebook post, and I think, “Huh…this feels like a blog post.” Then the guilt and shame switch gets thrown, and I hear a litany of sentences in my head…

“You’re an English teacher. You should really be writing.”

“You’re an author. You should really be writing. You even recommended that others get some special markers and journal in the book.”

“You really need to redesign the Website first. When are you going to find time to do that, Uber Busy Woman?”

I’m certain there are a few of you out there who have not only FELT this before but also have written something like this before. I certainly have at least 41 times.

Well, now the Website is redesigned, so I guess it’s time to write.

I found a cute little calendar a month ago that has about 1/3 of a page for every day in the weekly section. It reminded me of a writing exercise we do with my kids in Design class when they are getting ready to do their digital storytelling unit: The Story Test Drive.

It goes like this: after a bunch of brainstorming, we have them divide a piece of paper into four parts. Next, they choose four strong ideas from a series of brainstorming exercises and plug each one into a box. We have them start writing each story, but when they get to the end of the box, they have to stop and move on to the next one and repeat the process.

The idea is that by the end of the exercise, they have four “seeds” that might grow into full-blown stories. If the stars align, they’ll know which one they want to “publish” first because it’s the one they most want to continue at the end of its box. The exercise doesn’t work for everyone, but it does for most.

I’m going to try it with no pressure on myself to write every day. 🙂

I also found a book of 2000 journal questions to use for prompts. I have a million journal topics in my stash after 30 years of teaching, and I know I can find a bunch for free online, but it’s kinda fun to flip to a random page and pick a topic to explore. First one: “How old do you feel?” (We’ll see if the seed grows into a big, beautiful flower of some sort. Or a tree. I do love me some trees.)

In the words of Whitesnake, “Here I go again…”

Join me if you wish. No pressure if you don’t! Love you!