Blogging can be rewarding and is certainly intellectually stimulating. But there are times, like 4:45 pm yesterday, when disaster strikes. That’s when I discovered news that contradicted everything in the blog that I had scheduled to be published in a little more than 24 hours.
I had been so happy with the way it turned out, and I was sure that it would be well-received. I had actually even moved it up on the schedule after last month’s Trail Talk proved to be such a crowd-pleaser, anxious to follow it up with something stronger than what I had originally planned. (They can’t all be winners!)
But it was not to be. This was not just a matter of re-scheduling. Now it would never see the light of day. I had to come up with a substitute, and fast. It’s not that I don’t have many Trail Talks in the works at all times. But they are in various stages of completion, and I won’t schedule them until they pass muster. I’ve been blogging regularly since 2010, and I have never even come close to missing that first of the month deadline. What should I do?
Obviously, it was too late to scratch out an entirely new blog. I do NOT work well under deadline. Perhaps I could re-write the blog incorporating this new information. Get a grip, Shebby. (And re-read the first paragraph!)
What if I just moved everything up on the schedule? I quickly scanned over the list of remaining blogs for this year to see if anything showed promise. But they were mostly timed to fit the month, or perhaps described an upcoming tour, and were in that slot for a reason. So I moved on to the 2018 file. This lineup is, at this point on the calendar, shorter, but there is also a sizeable list of unfinished and mere kernels of an idea. Perhaps I could finish something that I had already started.
But this too proved futile. With my usual perfectionism, I discovered dozens of tiny tweaks and perhaps a fitting line or two that furthered my premise, but all I really accomplished was devouring precious time.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the only one of my blogs that won’t ever be published. Some have been postponed from month to month (and even year to year), when something more timely – or simply better written – displaced it. Others seemed utterly brilliant or divinely inspired at the outset, but lost their luster at some point. And then there are those that make me wonder, what was I thinking?
I am reminded of Ernest Hemingway’s quote: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
After several hours of considering and rejecting prospective blogs, I was beginning to panic. What could I possibly fill tomorrow’s slot with on such short notice! Yikes!
As you might have surmised by now, you’re reading it. That is of course, if you got this far. Lord have mercy!
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