I’m good at coming up with ideas

I’m good at coming up with ideas, particularly ideas for things to write. Blog posts, plays, short stories, books. I have so many ideas I’ve largely stopped writing them down.

I’ve always been this way. I remember being in a creative writing class my sophomore year of high school (a.k.a. a really long time ago). We were supposed to write short stories. A few of my friends couldn’t think of what to write. I gave them story ideas. Then I wrote my own story about a man who sells ideas to people who don’t have their own.

Even if I wrote for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week I would not be able to write all my ideas. Not having the time to write them all starts to turn into an excuse for not writing much of anything. It doesn’t matter. The ideas still come.

I have writing ideas about information security and things I do with my kids. I have fiction ideas and essay ideas and play ideas. I have weird ideas and conventional ideas.

What I don’t have are ideas for what to write when given the topic “Without trying to be humble, write about something you’re really good at.”

Gah!

I had no idea what to do with that. I instantly regretted telling people that I would be doing Blogapalooz-hour tonight and committing to write on the topic I was given.

It’s not that I’m that humble. I know that I’m good at things. It’s just that many of the things I’m good at I don’t want to write about, and you likely wouldn’t want to read about.

I’m good at data analysis. I’m good at formatting professional documents. I’m good at taking standardized tests. I’m good at memorizing my lines. I’m good at learning to use different types of software. I’m good at wasting time online, particularly when I’m supposed to be writing a blog post about something I’m really good at.

Blurgh. No one wants to hear about that stuff. I certainly don’t.

The stuff I’m proudest of are my ideas. My creativity. Even at times when I don’t have much to show for it.

I would invite you into my brain to have a look around, but it would probably disturb you.

I am good at getting lost in my head.

My husband needs music all the time. He won’t leave the house if he can’t find his earbuds. He used to wonder how I could commute without earphones, how I could commute in silence. Eventually he figured out that it doesn’t feel like silence to me. I’m listening to my own ideas. I’m writing stories in my head.

It’s something I’m good at. Let’s see if it gets me anywhere.

For Blogapalooz-hour ChicagoNow Bloggers are given a topic and challenged to publish a related post an hour later. Tonight’s topic was “Without trying to be humble, write about something you’re really good at.” (But you already know that.) You can see the other posts on this subject here.

RELATED POST: The problem with how I write

PREVIOUS POST: The Goldfinch and the adventure of reading a book I knew nothing about

Get notified of new posts by email. Type your email address in the box and click the “create subscription” button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.

You can also find Kim Z. Dale on Twitter and Google+ and like Listing Beyond Forty on Facebook.