In some respects, blogging transports me back in time. It takes me back to one of the language classes in school. The teacher is sitting (or standing) in front of the class, a small smile twitching at the corner of her mouth while we scramble in behind our school desks.
I loved my language classes. I didn’t always get all the rules and stuff right. But I loved … well, I loved the reading part of it – the oral classes, not so much. I just wanted to understand what other people were saying. I didn’t really see the need to talk to them.
Anyhoo, back to the language teach’s secretive (or was that evil?) smile. It had to do with something she knew was not a particular favourite assignment for most students. “Today you will write an essay. You can write about anything you like. You have to use 350 words – no less, no more. You have until the end of this class period to finish.”
BLANK.
Oh jeez, what will I write about?!
BLANK.
Come on, come on. Think of something! She said to write about anything. Think girl, think!!!
BLANK.
Seriously?! You only have 35 minutes. Wait, no – it is now only 30 minutes. Three hundred words and 30 minutes! Too bad they got wise and took away line counts. I could just write one, skip one. Words, must be lots of words now. Ugh! Shouldn’t panic.
BLANK.
Everyone else is writing. What is everyone else writing about?
THOUGHT (fades away). BLANK. THOUGHT (fades in).
Okay, she wants me to write about anything? Anything it is then. She better not deduct points if she doesn’t like my topic!
Sometimes it is easier to write when someone gives you a topic. I like having the chicken first. But that only works when you have a clue about anything chicken. Other times it really is nice to start with the egg. You can let it grow into the chicken you want.
Yep, sometimes blogging really does transport me back in time.
Uhm… wanna guess how long it took me to write this post? 😀
clouded marbles 
I prefer having a topic, however challenging. At least you can twist a topic to suit, twisting nothing is hard.
Hi Val! Thanks for coming by and leaving a comment. 🙂
Maybe one of the reasons I sometimes find topics so difficult is because I have too many thoughts about it and can’t decide which one to run with. If I have a thought about it, that is.
I am so with you…some days I think that I really ought to post something, anything and can’t think of a thing to write and other days I have a thought and write a whole post in a blink.
I got into the habit of writing down my thoughts as one-liners in draft form. This particular post was left to simmer since … wait for it… 2011!
Recently I decided to try something different – a “random thought” series. It can say as little or as much as my readers want – because they have to think about it. 😛