Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Spin It, Baby!

Sometimes I sit down with my laptop and try to force myself to come up with a topic for a blog post.  I chase ideas around in my head, shooting down first one and then the other.  This one is too bland and boring.  That one sounds too much like I'm complaining.  No one wants to read about that.  And so on and so on...

I finally came to the conclusion that, on this one incredibly rare occasion, The Hubster is right.
(Did I just type that?)

There are times when I over think things.

No, wait.  The Hubster says that I over think things all the time and I know that simply isn't true, so I guess he wasn't right after all.

Whew....what a relief!  I feel much better now.  

; )

Anyway, let's get back on topic.  What was it we were discussing?

Oh, yeah.  Topics.  

There are those of you out there who can write a post about your day and it reads like a page out of a terrific novel.  Don't get me wrong, I have a post-worthy day from time to time, too.  But some of you can do this, like, EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  It leaves me wondering...are your lives truly that exciting and fabulous? Or is mine just that boring?  And I always end up deciding that your lives must be just that exciting and fabulous because I honestly don't find my life to be boring. 

However, after pondering this for quite some time, I've come to a whole new conclusion.  And this is not to say that your lives are any less interesting than you've led me to believe!  On the contrary.  I just think I finally figured out your secret, that's all. 

You've learned the secret of  THE SPIN

You know, sharing what could be a basically uninteresting tale from your day:

I had to track down the dog when he got loose this morning.

But making it captivating by painting a picture from the right perspective:

As I opened the back door to take out the bag of garbage that had the house smelling like death, Barnabus ran right through my legs, down the steps and out the gate.  There I go, down the street, wearing a Hello Kitty t-shirt, no bra, my husband's boxer shorts and mismatched socks.  Three blocks later, after running past two of the ladies from my husband's office, our pastor and my old high school boyfriend, I found the little mongrel.  There he was, making his way up a stack of boxes sitting beside a reeking Dumpster, which he managed to jump into headfirst just as I was reaching out to grab his collar.  Early morning Dumpster diving, anyone? 

Okay, so that's a bit extreme.  But the point is that some bloggers can take the simplest of happenings and write about them in such a way as to make them captivating.  (And no, I'm not insinuating that my silly paragraph above is 'captivating'.  Only attempting to drive home a point, folks.)

Basically what I'm saying is that I want to master The Spin.  I want to be able to sit down here, fire up my laptop and take my most average of days and craft it into something totally post-worthy.  I don't have a problem when it comes to writing the more serious pieces and I'm not complaining.  Of all the posts on this blog, my harder-hitting ones remain the most popular according to my stats.  But let's face it, a person can't write a piece like that every day and maintain their sanity.  At least this person can't.  Gotta have some fun, my dears!  ; )

So tell me how you do it without fabrication.  (And I'm assuming that none of you resort to that!)  What is your mindset when you sit down to blog?  Do you make your way through the day taking notes for your next subject?  When I first started blogging, I did just that.  One of the first things that would pop into my head as events occurred was "That would make a great blog post!"  But life got busier and, to be perfectly honest, my blog just isn't always the first thing on my mind.  I get busy living life, enjoying the moments, taking it all in.  Because I know how quickly these kids are going to grow up, and when it's all said and done I don't want to look back and think "Wow.  I wish I had been more in the moment as opposed to constantly looking ahead." 

I've also found that not everyone wants me blogging about every little thing that happens around here.  Teenagers are funny like that.  ; )  Some of the best stuff, some of the most extraordinary subjects for blogging you could ever hope to find....well, some of it just needs to wait until they're grown and I can change the names to protect the guilty parties innocent.  

Share your process.  What is okay to post and what is not?  How do you write an enjoyable (for the reader) post when there really isn't very much happening at that time?  In other words, how do you put the proper spin on a basically boring day to make it more interesting blog material?  'Fess up!  I need to know.  'Cause I'm really not all that into Dumpster diving.  : )