Writing 101

There's nothing worse than a blank page.

It's just sitting there...staring you in the face...the cursor blinking...mocking you...daring you to hit a key...type a word...make something out of nothing.

But that's when I tend to work best. When there's nothing on the page. No ideas. Nothing upstairs cooking, waiting to pour out onto the page.

Nope. I actually work best (and usually end up writing the best stuff) when I have absolutely no idea what to write about. Then, before I know it, I get a small idea that grows into something worth reading...hopefully.

But sometimes, you sit and stare and stare and stare and stare...and NOTHING comes. No ideas. Nothing. Nada.

And the cursor just keeps on blinking...the clock keeps on ticking...the deadline continues looming.

So you start searching, surfing, browsing for something, ANYTHING, that might create a spark. Before long, it's been two hours and all you've done is look at pictures of Tiger Woods' new baby and found a fabulous new blog called "We Love Domino."

But ideas for a new column. Yeah, nothing.

One of the first things that you learn when you start "professionally" (and I do use that term loosely) writing is that you should write every day. It doesn't matter what it is, what you write about, as long as you are writing. Like anything, the more you do it, the better you will get at it.

So here I am. I should be writing a column, but instead I'm writing just to write. Nothing worth using ink for. Nothing that I'd actually want printed in the Sunday paper. Just writing in hopes that somehow the idea will come.

So I write...and I wait...and waiting makes me think of eating and how right about now I could really go for something sweet, which makes me think about how I need to write a blog about how my Weighty Issues are going because heaven knows, all of my loyal followers are just DYING to know how it's going. And then I remember that writing in all caps is like yelling and can't help but wonder who was the computer nerd that decided on that because, really WHO CARES! And then thinking about yelling makes me think about how I've done good not to yell at my kids in the last 3 days because I've been reading the book "Power of a Positive Mom" and feel like the simple ideas in the book are serving as a good refresher course in parenting.

And suddenly...there it is! The idea that I've been waiting for! The idea that has been hiding back in the dusty corner of my aging brain!

Continuing Education for Parenting--look for it next week!