This would have been the picture for the coffee post, even though it’s not completely relevant.
It’s 10:30 am and it’s time to blog. I’m running some raw ideas through the meat grinder of my brain.
My sister’s wedding is tomorrow, but I don’t want to blog about that because I’ve been talking about it constantly and I’m sure people are wondering if it’s even real. (It’s happening tomorrow, by the way.)
So I trashed wedding topics, and moved on and tried to think creatively. When I try to be “creative,” I tend to look around my room for inspiration, which often leads me to killer ideas such as “what if my clothes came alive and tried to kill me” or “what if my lotion came alive and tried to kill me” or “what if my bed came alive and tried to kill me.” You see, I mean killer in the literal sense of the word, not in the sense that any of these ideas are good. Room-based inspiration does not often work for me.
I discarded those killer ideas and transitioned to sweat-based ones as I considered blogging about the wedding guests’ sweat potential. The extreme heat at this outdoor wedding, the high amount of social interactions, the excitement, and the nervousness will create the mother of all perspiration-inducing cocktails. It’s going to be a moist one. But then I considered that not only is this pretty gross, but it’s also about the wedding, which I didn’t want to write about.
After I tossed that idea out, I looked to my right and saw my coffee mug, which appeared to be empty. I picked it up and found a different situation entirely. There were a few mouthfuls of lukewarm joe left, and I was a little happy about that, so I considered writing an overblown piece on how incredible and amazing and wonderful it is when there’s coffee left over in the mug that you didn’t know about. But then I thought, well I wasn’t that happy about it. This might be a little hard to do. So I didn’t do it.
I moved on to consider blogging about how I’ve been following a lot of people on twitter lately. But if you just read that last sentence, you know as well as I do that my twitter antics are likely a dead end. So I buried that one too.
At this point, I have roughly 5-15 bad ideas buried in little idea coffins in my idea graveyard, a place I visit regularly. Some of these little guys even become zombies and try to eat my brains and make it impossible for me to think of other ideas, or become ghosts that haunt me continually with false potential.
Just when I was about to despair, I stumbled upon the idea of writing about how to unleash my creative potential, which in my mind was literally about unleashing some kind of monster named “Creative Potential.” Seconds later, I realized that this very literal interpretation of creative potential and the word unleash is not actually creative. So I hung up my hat, downed a cold brew, sighed a great sigh, yearned for more in life, and then published my thought process for all to see.
You’re not alone if a good idea escapes you. Don’t be jealous of the people that do have awesome ideas, because that could be you someday.
Snotting black 
Little idea coffins in the graveyard – that’s so organized and cute 🙂
My ideas have a life of their own and are constantly flitting around my head – in this ear, out of the other, dance in front of my eyes and travel back through the nose.
I love the attention that I get, but sometimes it does tend to get on your nerves, doesn’t it? That you have so many ideas but somehow are not able to unravel them into longer, more structured prose?
Maybe that’s what books are for—to put all of the thoughts in one place in the form of a plot. But what do I know?
Hey,Great.Your good !!! Bless those little nuggets risen from Our Lady of Cast Away Thoughts and Mangled Ideas Resting Place.
Enjoyed the read.Good snot.
And still we snot on.
Thank you for sharing your awesome thought process… and yes, it is always nice to find a little coffee left in the mug.
Have fun today.
I will have fun today. I will I will I will I will.
[…] A Harrowing Trip through my Thought Process. Bring Your Galoshes. – Snotting Black – Does it much better (Read, laugh, enjoy.) […]
In one sentence you’re writing about having warm coffee in the morning. The next, you’re having a cold brew.(the word beer was never mentioned) Did you zone out, and the sun went over the yardarm? Did I zone out? Let’s both have another? You’ll need it.
I’ll buy.
Just starting out in the whole blogging thing, I find this happens alot. Glad I’m not alone. Thanks.
Keep at it and good luck.
It sounds familiar. I have started on a killer-blog many times, and have a lot of unfinished pieces to show for it. I think I am going to have a beer, and maybe finish some for the future 🙂
I’ll cheers to that!
Oh, I am very sure that you have excellent creative ideas and I have been enjoying them for some time now. Set your time and blog program aside and have some fun that doesn’t have anything to do with being creative. Bing! an idea will come into your head. Relax and have fun! Beer also helps!
A drink or two has been proven to improve the creative process.
Searching the little crannies for a blog post happens everytime a deadline approaches. It usually comes down to taking a slim thread and running with it. Right now I’ve got a killer idea, nah it’s the one where I try to figure out what Sophie is thinkig as she watches me type.
But we all want to know what she’s thinking!
happens to me a lot, I get my ideas from my desk at work. many crazy people around to “inspire” a great [not really] post. I hope you do write about unleashing the monster called creative potential…that will be an interesting read
Some people (my dad) try to give me blog post ideas. I hate that because they don’t really know what inspires me, and neither do I all the time.