There’s a deep, dark cavern in my brain where blog post ideas go to die.
It’s not supposed to be where they die. What the rest of my brain sees is a medium-sized cabinet where I tuck my ideas for next week or “sometime later.” I open up the cabinet, write an idea on a Post-It note, and put it on a shelf. There’s a shelf for “fully-formed concepts” and a shelf for “half-baked ideas” and a shelf for “random ideas I haven’t thought about yet at all.” The random ideas shelf holds things like “ketchup packets” and “buying horseshoes in bulk;” things that would mean nothing at all to anyone except me. (And sometimes by the time I return to that shelf they also mean nothing to me.)
But the cabinet in my brain must be magical because often when I open it back up again it’s actually the entrance to a shockingly dark cave and the ideas have grown legs and wandered off into the cave. Sometimes they’re right at the edge and I can reach in and grab them. But sometimes I have to wander into the dark recesses of my mind, calling, “Ideas? Hello? Helloooooooooooo?” I may get lucky and find an idea shivering, lonely, a bit bedraggled under a rock ledge, and I bring it back to my brain and nurse it back to life. But I may not. I may get nothing but echoes.
You’re smart enough to know where this is going. This week, the dark cavern has won. It has eaten my ideas.
But, because one should never, ever, ever go spelunking alone, I consulted my editor and she recommended that I simply ask you for ideas. Because this is not just about me. This blog is about us. It’s about me sharing what’s on my mind and asking you for thoughts and reactions and interacting with your ideas. Yes, my name is on the cover, but without readers is a book even a book?
So. I would love to know. What’s on your mind this week? Something you’ve been pondering? Something you’ve wondered about or are learning about? Or, perhaps, if you wrote a weekly blog, what would be on your ideas shelf?
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