Making A List, Checking It Twice

No, I'm not Father Christmas - don't be fooled by the large belly, bearded face and cheery disposition... well, most of the time on that last one. I made myself a list the other day ('cause we all know lists are good) of things what I could write about during the self-imposed Blog Month and yet I don't feel like writing about any of those things right at this minute. It makes me wonder if I could ever could be an actual writer - I don't know if I have the discipline to sit down and bash out words every day.

I watched Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe the other day in which he interviewed several prominent TV writers, including Graham Linehan of Father Ted, Black Books and IT Crowd fame (a favourite of mine) and Russell T Davies. It was heartening in a way to hear that some of them felt the same way I do about writing - as Douglas Adams once said, writing is the process of staring at a blank piece of paper until your forehead bleeds. The predominant feeling among quite a few of them was that they enjoyed having written something - looking back over the completed piece of work - but the actual process of writing itself was something that doesn't hold much enjoyment. I'm very much in the same mold - love having a finished piece, hate sitting down to actually write (except for those rare moments where it all suddenly clicks in your head and you're struggling to keep up with what's running through your head; those are the good moments).

I also have a couple of self-imposed blog rules: -

-no talking about things that happened with friends and family. They didn't ask to have details about them published on a public internet site so it wouldn't be fair. Plus nobody wants to read "he said, she said" style blog entries - that's what diaries are for.

- try not to post the same sort of thing two days in a row (unless it's a multi-part / deliberately themed set of blogs, obviously). Slightly vaguer rule this one and not one I always stick to...

- be interesting and be genuine. You want people to read this so the ultimate crime is to be boring. Also, always be true to yourself - don't pretend to be something you're not. I'd like to think I stick to this one but you'll be the judge of that, I guess.

So I guess this means today is one of those days what I warned you about at the start of the month where I might not have a lot to say. Hopefully, however, I managed to say nothing in a reasonably diverting way, though (and, by my own rules, tomorrow should be something different...)