MediocreMan

Broken Record · 23 September 2023

When it comes to writing advice, I wonder if I sound like a broken record… record… record.

The only advice I seem to give to people who want to be writers is the following:

Write. Write. Write. Publish. Publish. Publish. Write publish write. Publish write publish. Write, write, publish. Publish, publish, write.

You get the picture. No matter how you slice it…

At any rate, I wonder if I do that with other subjects too. I wonder how often I write about stuff that I already wrote about. I suppose that I could go back and reread some of my posts to find out just what I did write. But there is no real point to that. I know that I have written about several subjects multiple times.

The thing is… It does not really matter.

I suppose that it would matter if I wrote about the same thing over and over and over and over again. It would be like hearing that broken record… record… record. The same thing over and over and over and over again.

But writing is not really like that. At least not for me. Or at least not totally for me. For me, writing is new every morning. Even if I wrote about the same subject before. Which I might have done. Still, it makes me wonder if I ought to write serial fiction or take a break from this whole blogging gig. Do something different with my writing. Then again, I enjoy blogging. And I think it keeps my mind going for the other writing that I do. Which is funny and nostalgic to think about.

I used to write once a week. It was all I thought I had time for. Just get that blog post done on Saturday and present it to the world that dame day. Before the rest of the family got up. Before pancakes or waffles or whatever we had for breakfast. Before we were off to soccer or whatever activity we were doing when the kids were young.

It is funny to think about those days because I know that I could not just write once a week anymore. Just spending an hour to get a blog post done and buffed a little. No polishing. No time. Just throw it out there. It was good enough.

Now, I wonder how I get any writing done writing for under an hour six days a week. It seems like the time flies and I need to get to work even though the words are flowing at eighty miles an hour.

It is also nostalgic to think about the days of yore because I loved when the kids were young. They were the important thing. And they were often the subjects of my blogs. No repeats there. No broken records… records… records. Just a little peek into the days of our life.

Ah well. Such is nostalgia. We long for the good ole days. Or at least we remind ourselves that we have been blessed by them. But we know we cannot go back.

When I first started this blog post, I thought I would be clever and post a bunch of paragraphs about writing and publishing, writing and publishing, writing and publishing. But now I see that the repeated words are a bit silly. And I notice that the subject has changed. Ah well. I may keep giving the same writing advice, but I no longer think that I just sound like a broken record… record… record.

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A Writing Series · 16 September 2023

I feel like I need to write a series of blogs about writing. Or maybe just one post.

I have written a few blog posts about writing. Not tons, but enough to put together a short book. Which I have done. Not that it is comprehensive or anything like that. Rather, it is just a compilation of blog posts about writing. And it is completely out of date. (Actually, I do not remember what I wrote.)

Which is a funny notion in reality. But to be completely transparent, I rarely remember what I wrote once I wrote it. Oh, I have a vague idea, but then again, sometimes I do not remember any of the content. There are many times that I put my blog post preview out there (Thursdays on Twitter and Facebook) and my friends comment on it and I have no idea what they are talking about. It is a bit embarrassing. Or maybe it is just part of my process.

So writing a bunch of posts in a row about writing and my own writing process might be a good thing. That way I can remember what I wrote. Or at least I can refer back to what I wrote. Without having to go back years.

I am not sure that what I have to write about writing that could be a series. After all, I really just have a couple notions. Write often and publish what you write. That is about it. Two simple thoughts for aspiring writers. I suppose the third thought is quit aspiring and just write. But that is the same thought as the first one. Write. Publish. Write. Not much of a series.

Hmm. I guess that really is it. If you want to be a writer, quit talking about it and just write. Then, pick a publishing platform and publish. Then, write some more. Pretty simple. But again, not much of a series.

I suppose there are other topics I could talk about in a writing series. Software and such, but they do not really mean that much. At least not in the long run. Those topics really only matter once you have that habit of writing. Once you write every day. Which I suppose could be useful. After all, it is not just aspiring writers that read about writing.

Speaking of which, my favorite book about writing is still Stephen King’s On Writing. It has been a long time since I read it, but it is surely better than the couple lines of advice I have to give.

Well, there you have it. My series on writing. My series of paragraphs, that is. I guess I was right. My series turned into just one blog post.

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Ready or Not · 9 September 2023

Another school year is about to start, and I am ready. Probably.

Some people love the start of a new school year. They come to it with great expectations. And if they are changing schools, they can create new personas. They can be different than they were before. Or they can be more their genuine selves. New is good. Or at least it can be.

Other people dread the start of a new school year. They do not know what is going to happen. They wonder what their classes will be like. They wonder if anybody will like them. Or if people will like them more than they did last year.
And these are just the anticipations and worries of the teachers.

I suppose that students think the same things. They have similar anticipations. They have similar worries. Which is natural, of course. They are people. For the most part. And for those who are not quite people yet, they will become people during their high school experience. Probably.

I am writing this before the first week of school, but it will not be posted until the end of that first week. But I can tell you that I have much the same attitude that I have had most of my teaching career. Ready or not, here they come.

This ready or not attitude is not fatalistic or anything like that. It is just the answer to the question: “Are you ready for the new school year?” I have not in fact given that answer to people who ask. At least not in those exact words, but I think I should start using it. It is apropos. And it is somewhat poignant. For it is true. (Can anything really be somewhat poignant? It seems not. It ought to be poignant or not. Ah well.) Whether I am ready for the new school year or not, the kids will be there on that first day and every day for the rest of the school year.

I ought to be a little anxious for this school year. It is my twenty-ninth, but I am trying something new. I did one big switch the year before, and I am doing another big switch this year. Last year was a computer language switch, this year is a methodology switch. Hopefully, it will work well for the students. After all, I try to change things for the betterment of my students. Even though it will be a big change for me.

I suppose that changing the way I do things ought to cause me fear or trepidation, but it does not. After all, a new school year is about to start and I am ready. Probably. But it does not really matter. Ready or not, here they come.

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