Blogger's Block

So I stole this litttle piece from a blog that I read regularly because it completely explains my attitude toward blogging of late. I think I read it once a while ago, before I started this blog, and it went right over my head. They say perspective is everything.

As Anne Lamott observed, the best cure for writer's block is a shitty first draft. Convince yourself you don't have to write something good - just that you have to write something - and it becomes far easier to get words flowing.

Which makes sense in the world of novels, where authors iterate months or years between first draft and final product. But not in blogs, where the first draft usually is the final product.

That puts the pressure back on a blogger with writer's block. And as the length of time from one post to the next mounts, the pressure worsens. Drop posting frequency from near-daily to at-best-monthly (as I have of late), and each entry need be Pulitzer-worthy to justify itself.

Yet experience dictates that I blog best as habit - post regularly, day in and day out, and, intermittently, excellence emerges.

So, for the balance of this year, it's consistency over quality. In other words, I'll be doing my best to accept shitty first drafts. And I hope you will, too.