Fire in a tropical desert.

The smoke plumes for 500 miles.

Morning like a raw throat over a clear still lake.

Captured in the blinking eye of an escaping lizard.

squatting beside a riot.

Dateless and flailing in the breeze.

Edging closer to a hurricane and shouting at the eye.

Thanks. Looking forward to meeting you.

That might be perfect…think of it as ’stream of consciousness writing.’ I sometimes like the way my writing comes out when I write as from a single stream of consciousness.

In other words, turn that problem into an apportunity.

I personally just have to go fast to make sure I don’t start overthinking and talking to myself instead of “just talking” to someone else.

Karen

Thanks.

The key for me is to write while the impulse is fresh, as well. It’s just I do so with all my…senses, if you will. In other words, I don’t worry so much about sounding great. I focus, instead, on expressing myself just as though we were talking in person. I’m sure you hear that in my posts and in my comments.

This post was definitely You — from the care and attention to looking at the expertise of others to sharing yourself AND managing to create useful points out of that direct sharing. Thanks!

I can only share that I agree with being Present in one’s posts — and that can be difficult for me. If I try too hard to be organized and coherent and on target, I get caught up in trying to sound Smart and Knowledgeable and getting the post-to-be Just Right. Which of course leads to it not happening at all (and hence my own pile of draft posts to be completed).

I find for myself that I need to write while the impulse is fresh and I need to just imagine it as a piece of a conversation — just sharing my thoughts, not Trying to be Brilliant and Impressive. Then it’s more likely to actually get done and the Post button clicked.

Love your conversations —

Karen

Wow! I had no idea. I knew that scrapbooking was huge in general, but I had no idea it’s a 3+ billion dollar industry. Amazing.

You’re welcome on the links. Looks like I somehow set myself up to spread the scrapbooking word a little bit.

Rory,

I spend an inordinate amount of time at the library agonizing over the idea that won’t quite take shape.

I know what you mean. You should see the list of partial posts I have in my WordPress account. It’s amazing, really.

I like the idea of getting away from the computer to write and coming to it with fully formed ideas. I’m going to give that a try. I usually chunk through a topic mentally before I begin writing but it would be good to do so on paper away from the computer. Could open a whole new set of ideas. Thanks for the tip.

And please, poke around. I hope you find some posts you enjoy. I’m going to head over to your blog and read the post you mention above and poke around myself.

Actually, Dave Olson very kindly tagged me on this question and I claimed that outstanding posts arrive fully formed, which means that I spend an inordinate amount of time at the library agonizing over the idea that won’t quite take shape.

There’s actually quite a bit of truth to that last statement. I finish work early some days, so I spend the time in the library with a notepad, exclusively writing articles – even if it’s just parts that can be shaped later. That time, just an hour or two, is very helpful in getting several articles ahead. And then I try not to be stuck in front of a computer at home (too much).

I must check out more of your writing – I see some very interesting titles in your sidebar…

All that aside, I appreciated all your links to all the discussion on this top (and am grateful for your link to my part in it). Kudos on the link roundup!

Thanks. I worked a good bit on this post. It took me a bit of time to put all the links together. But I enjoyed reading each post. And, I was totally surprised by the scrapbooking blog community. That threw me.

Thanks for reading and for commenting. I’d love to know more about your posting process.

And then a helpful conclusion – put yourself into your post.

Good stuff all round!

Thanks. It seems I’m just figuring out more and more that what I’m writing is me. Know what I mean? It’s not the topic so much as it is me showing up fully in my posts. That’s what seems to make all the difference.

I do the best I can. Somedays you get all me. Other days a percentage of some sort. Though usually a high percentage.