Out with the Old, In with the New: On Re-purposing Ideas

Restarting my blog has been a great adventure so far. Over the past week I’ve started to see things… differently. Every new adventure is a potential blog post; every opportunity is a potential story. And I don’t want to miss out on anything!

Blogging can become exhausting. When I think back to my blogging journey, I remember the highs: the rush of seeing my stats climb, the excitement at opportunities to participate in blogger events, and the thrill of sharing with a captive audience. The lows are also hard to forget: mocking from acquaintances who read my posts, feeling put on the spot, and straining to come up with new ideas.

My old blogging system was regimented – my posts fell into categories that I’d laid out by day. I created brainstorming webs for each post, sometimes planning for weeks before actually writing them. It was more than exhausting, but at the time I was trying to fill the void that unemployment had left.

This time things are different. I exhausted at the end of the day and blogging can only be a relaxing activity this time around. It’s not about trying to do my best writing 100% of the time, but instead about practicing the craft. Keeping my brain in shape. Enjoying myself.

Today I decided to empty out my old stash of ideas. As I mentioned, I kept track of every idea, using cue cards and an elaborate filing system to keep track. I would make point form notes on one side and a brainstorming web on the other – a fairly methodological system for something as frivolous as a blog.

(I’m smiling right now because I know that blogging is anything but frivolous; expressing yourself online is much harder than it seems. You need to have confidence in your every word or the nay-sayers will eat you alive. That’s another thing I’ve overcome. Tell me that my blog is pointless and I’ll invite you to stop reading it.)

Today I re-read all of my old ideas – every. last. one. I remembered all off the bad and celebrated all of the good. I’ve deleted all of my old drafts and thrown away all of my old cue cards, but from them I took the following:

• I had hoped to write a lot of posts about the environment, but without my whole heart in them they would never be fun enough to actually post. Writing things halfheartedly is boring and doesn’t make for stimulating reading
• I’m totally addicted to notebooks and stationary – I think it’s actually worth sharing. There are plenty of great blogs on the topic that I can’t get enough of, like Paper Trail Diary.Also, book reviews will be written in abundance.
• I won’t be writing “inspiration from…” posts any more, but rather “things I love” posts. My perspective has changed and I don’t need to be inspired to write. No more “crisis” posts – thank goodness my mid-twenties are behind me. No more internships, long distance relationships, or job interview dwelling. And above all, judgy posts are a no-no!
• I’ll continue to talk about goals (instead of resolutions) and I’ll continue to learn more about myself from writing. This will be more of a personal journey though and less of my blogging focus.

A look at my old notes proved fruitful. I know myself – but sometimes I forget all of the little things. I won’t be using any of my old ideas, but instead re-purposing them into something new. Something bright and fun.

Happy Blogging.