Writing as Thinking
One way to think better is to write better. This advice comes up over and over again and it’s something I lived.
Before writing at The Waiters Pad, before Medium was a thing, back when mommy-blogger were just getting started, I was a daddy-blogger. I wrote about what it was like to be a new dad, no, a new stay at home dad, with cursory experience with small children. My first day flying solo was terrible. When my wife got home from work and asked why it went so wrong I told her that it was because 'It didn't seem like our baby needed a nap.'
I was and sometimes still am, an idiot.
I was a daddy-blogger out of frustration, ambition, and celebration. People liked it. When they saw me in person they said it was funny. Traffic was good. I was asked to write guest posts, that kind of thing used to be a big deal.
Then I read some of what I was writing and I hated it. The quality didn't bug me. What sucked was the attitude. Babies are hard on their own but my attitude was worse. 'If these are my words, what are my thoughts?' I wondered. So I stopped.
The writing helped because it gave me distance from myself. That was the change in perspective I needed. Having the words and thoughts down in front of my helped. Writing also helps makes connections, find creative pockets, and see things in other new and interesting ways.
This week we'll look at ways to get started writing so we can see things different and think better.