Catalyst Topics

(Day Forty-Nine)

I don't know what to write about tonight. I don't want to write about my day. It was a good day, but I just don't feel like writing another post about how I spent my time. I looked through my recent pictures and didn't find anything that spurred any thoughts, either, though I do like these...

Clyde and the Swan:

On the prowl:

Spring Moon: 

I feel a little melancholy and sentimental in the way that only summer evenings make me -- and though it's not really summer, yet, today was just as good. Sunshine, shorts, outside, ice cream. It's a good kind of melancholy, if you can imagine such a thing. I feel happy and content with myself and my life, in love with my husband and our little world we've built and the kind of partners we are. The melancholy comes from knowing summer evenings don't last forever, I think. And that's especially true this week because even though it was 75 today, it's supposed to be a high of 37 and snow on Tuesday. Oh, Indiana. I don't even care. I like its fickle nature. Don't ever do what they expect, Indiana. 

When you get like this and can't think find something to write about, I think it means a couple things: 

1) you're not trying hard enough. There's always something to write about. It's like exercising -- just suck it up and do it.

2) you haven't been thinking like a writer throughout your day, so when you sit down to write it's too hard to get in that mindset

3) you need to go back to your catalyst topics. Everybody has certain topics they return to again and again -- you guys have probably already noticed some of mine in the time I've been writing this blog. I have a friend who took a self-improvement class that was supposed to help people get over their fears of networking and public speaking, and one of the things he took away from it was that you should only speak publicly on topics that are really your thing, your area of expertise. The things that really get you going. The things you could talk for 30 minutes about without any notecards, any preparation. 

I think it's the same with writing, in some ways -- or at least when you're not sure what to write about. I don't think that means you ONLY write about your catalyst topics, but those are the topics about which you feel strongly. You have something to say there. 

I know what my topics are, but often I think it just either seems like they're too heavy to get into and I won't do them justice, or I'm not ready to have anyone read those kinds of pieces yet. Some of them are topics on which I know other people won't agree with me. That's probably what makes them good topics that actually have potential. Safe topics are boring. Some of them are topics that I maybe don't know how to approach yet -- but that's exactly why I should be practicing. 

Sooooooo. Yeah. I should do that.