I sense that blogging has forever warped my ability to think un-blog. I can’t get an idea, good or bad, without also immediately thinking, “I should blog about that.” Or, “I have to think through that issue more so I have enough to blog about.” Or, “I probably shouldn’t blog about that, but I want to.”
It reminds me of the scrapbooking friend who told me that scrapbooking has forever changed how she takes pictures. Now she always makes sure to take at least three or four good shots so that she can make an album page out of that particular event.
Do you think in blog, too?
Absolutely. To both actually (blog thinking and scrapbook picture taking). Of course, luckily for me I forget more than half of my brilliant blog ideas and I take horrible pictures…
Not so much, but back when I was working on an online songbook, every time I sang with a group (for example in Intervarsity meetings) I’d be thinking about adding the song to the book. It was actually an annoying distraction from the joy of singing and one reason I stopped maintaining the book.
I go through phases where I think in blog – the problem is the times I am most inspired are not when I am in front of the computer. I am not organized enough to really put the time into preparing, thinking and working through (in writing) what I think I want to blog about. I can think through and issue and know what I want to say when I am away from the computer but later that day I sit down and I draw blanks. Maybe someday I will get it together-but for now I just allow myself to be a whimsy blogger.
oh, lisa, i totally get all of my best blogging ideas when i’m not at a computer. also, when i have no access to a pen and paper. like, when i’m driving. so i’ll try to make mental notes and lists, and memorize them with strange mnemonic devices. and still, i forget them.
and when i do write down the list, it just gets added to the rest of my “to blog about” lists, which, if i were to actually execute, would have me all set for daily blogging topics until i’m 44.
Yes. Somedays I think entirely in “blog.” I love the way you’ve expressed this phenomenon! It must be the way great writers think, right?
(I am reaching, I know…)
no reaching. we are fabulous writers.
oh yes! And it so annoying sometimes. I take way way way more pictures now than I ever did before b/c I am always thinking, “I better take a picture so I can blog about it later”. Like tonight, at the pancake supper, I took deliberate pictures thinking about the blog. I would think “I can blog about how the girls danced with Brandon” and so “snap” goes the camera while they are dancing. A few years ago, the thought to bring a camera to a pancake supper would never even have crossed my mind. Ok, so now blogging about a pancake supper seems really dumb, so I doubt I will, BUT at least I have the pictures in case I want to! And sometimes when the girls do something cute or funny, I get excited and think “yeah! now i can blog about something!”. I think I need to get a life
okay, i pretty much stopped reading your comment after “at the pancake supper,” because i then imagine myself eating pancakes at ascension with you all, and i got really nostalgic and misty-eyed.
i’ll have to go back and read your entire comment now.
aww! we missed you being there too! it was really packed this year and i saw lots of new faces, which was exciting. the girls had a blast on the bouncy gym again. Gotta love the pancake supper
Welcome to my world. I think in write, and these days blogging is my most frequent writing outlet, so I think in blog. It’s a gift…and a curse.
oh my! you’ve hit the nail on the head! i was just thinking about this the other day. that, and the crazy pictures that we take so we have a visual to go along with our post. like today, for instance. i chicken hawk ate one of my chickens. or yesterday, when we got 7 eggs from all 7 hens… i never would have taken a picture of those things before. i think in blog, too, sometimes. it’s kind of crazy. i’ll try to at least get a tiny bit written down, either on bits of scrap paper, or in my dashboard. it’s kind of weird, really. but then ther eare other times where i’m so busy just living that i don’t have time to write about it.
i think in “blog” so much – especially when driving, that I’ve considered rather seriously on more than one occasion getting a small voice recorder so i can get down my thoughts while I’m away from the computer.
Of course I think it’s probably better that I don’t go down this route as the blog might end up sounding rehearsed by the time it gets on the “page” – but I could be wrong. Dictation might clear up my scatterbrain thoughts!
But I definitely do know where you’re coming from!
Perhaps even keeping a “blog topics” list as you mentioned would help me write about things I really truly want to write about!
yep, and for me right now being pregnant, its even a sadder case. I dream in blog. Also, in my new-found obsession, Facebook. How scary is that?!
Thinking In “Blog”? Nope. But Thinking In Code? Yes….
Some people have been talking about whether they think in blogging, as in: "this is so much fun, I should blog about it", or, "look how cute the kids are being, I should grab a camera so I can post it on flickr", etc.
I didn’t…
i wish i had time to focus more on my blog these days.
so no, i do not think this way anymore.
I do – but after the fact… like after we ate the last piece of a beautiful artisan pizza… and I think – “oh, I should have taken a picture of that.” Which is why my blog is seriously short on pictures most of the time.