Maybe I Should've Written a Novel

When I first decided to write a blog post every day for a month, I figured it was no big deal. My biggest concern, initially, was ensuring I scheduled the time each day.

Now, a little more than a-third of the way through, I'm wondering what I was thinking. Again, it all comes back to creativity. But, in the case of a blog, there are many more factors to consider.

Example - if I were writing a novel or a short story, I could look in the day's paper; find an article (a school executive caught re-routing money; or Monday's lead story on CNN about child prostitution, or - maybe even better - yesterday's story on a new lizard species). All of those could provide excellent fodder for an excellent work of fiction (primarly because they're all true).

But, if I'm writing a blog, I'm not writing fiction. And, why would I write about any of those things -- and what would I write about them? Stealing money from schools is bad. Child prostitution is bad. Eating lizards is just plain ol' yucky. I don't know that anyone is tuning in here to learn my views on those types of subjects.

I also can't really just mail it in. First off, to stop now would be to admit failure. That's unacceptable. Secondly, I've learned there are a decent amount of you reading -- even if you're just lurking -- including, in some cases, some fairly high-level people in companies. I'm not going to devote a whole post to why eating lizards is yucky. There has to be a larger purpose to each post.

And, this still differs from creatively writing for work. If I'm asked to write a press release or an internal communications piece, I can be creative with that (maybe there should be a video on the intranet; maybe the press release needs a sidebar, graphical piece; maybe the point-of-view can be changed to make it read more first-person than third-person) - but there's always a leaping-off point. There's no such luxury here.

To be sure, I already have ideas for some future posts -- some funny, some far more meaningful; but I definitely don't have 19 more ideas for the month. And, to be sure, the parameters of this style of writing is far more limiting than I'd expected. I've helped others with writing their blogs; and I've subscribed to the theory of executives writing blogs on internal networks; but trying to come up with a new topic each day that is cathartic, meaningful and pithy -- all at once -- is certainly not easy.

Still, I recognize the benefits. Being out-of-work, even though you may still try and stay "up" on trends; and still continue to practice your skills; it's no comparison to actually doing it. Now, each day, I force myself to brainstorm and execute one post (that tends to be around 500 words -- about the size of an average press release). While the style is certainly more colloquial and casual, it's still a process, and that -- on its own -- makes this worth it.