This blog nags at the back of my mind urging me to get something up. I want a post that is earth shattering, sensational beyond belief, informative, and engaging. The sort of post that viewers will want to pass along to their friends and family and read over and over again. And yet I sit here with my fingers on the key board not sure where to start and hitting the shift key so many times I get a message about setting up a sticky key. (The magic number is five if you want to try it.)

And so I start here, confessing that too often I find it so hard to get started that I feel I can’t even get started so I move onto the mighty list of other things that need to be done. The difference today is that I have decided this blog and the chance to connect with those of you reading it and the people you might pass it on to are too important to push off. And I know that sometimes the only way to get finished is to get started.

What I mean by this is that sometimes you have to just start writing in order to figure out what you want to say or how to say it. You can’t always wait to be inspired or to find the right topic. Ideally, you would have at least a kernel of an idea to work from, but sometimes you need to start writing before you even have that much. Once you are at the keyboard, once the words are coming out of your fingertips, you will find that ideas come because they have to. It’s like being an extrovert in a room with a stranger. You will find something to talk about. You just start asking questions and then see where it takes you.

This is where planning out your blog (or other whatever you have to write) ahead of time can help. You should at least know who you are trying to reach and what you are trying to accomplish. This gives you a filter through which you can funnel a wide range of ideas. Start with something that happened over the long weekend or something that you are looking forward to or the fact that we have just started the last month of year. What does that mean to your reader? What are the implications for your goals for whatever it is you are writing?

This blog, for instance, is about helping writers write. And I know many of you struggle just as much as I do with how to get started. Don’t let that stop you. You have something to say that someone needs to hear even if you don’t know yet what it is.

P.S. Please let me know when you figure it out.