I find myself having nothing to say. This is a fatal blow to one who desires, above all else, to be a blogger. When I started this project its intent was to serve as a vehicle to explore big ideas. To immerse myself in the public discussion and painstakingly work out my ideologies; my thoughts and beliefs. To build a narrative and cohesive source of who and what I believe to be me on paper. A curriculum vitae for my pursuit of intellectual honesty housed on a Go Daddy server.
Let’s unpack this a bit. Big picture, I have an idea of what I want my blog to be. Independent of that specific idea, I have a more macro desire to be a blogger. What does that mean? To me, what a blogger should strive to do is to provide content that:
Is relatable
Relies heavily on personal experience
Is honest
Seeks to cultivate, curate, and support a community
Contribute something meaningful to the discussion at large
We have academics and journalists to do the heavy lifting. Peer-review, scholarly work that is heavily researched, sited, compiled, and published. Where we fit in is to humanize. To synthesize the humanities and the sciences – to show and express how and why we are the way we are through the sharing of our perspective. We are the primary sources.
So, there is the unshakable desire to be an active participant in this world. There exists within that desire a concept of how I want to go about sharing, exploring, and growing my knowledge and perspective with all of you lovely folks. Where then lies the problem?
I don’t know, exactly. Ironically though, as I typed those last few words, I believe that I discovered a flaw in my internal logic. Doing this is exactly what I need to be doing in order to make the dreams of the first paragraph come to fruition. I have placed myself in a psychological juxtaposition. I want to be at Z now, without starting at A and working my way through the alphabet. As uncomfortable as it is for me to do, I have to keep exposing my perceived flaws and roadblocks in this space to propel me towards the creation of content that I ultimately wish to create and publish. This is the drivel that I want to look back on and be able to say, “Wow. See how far you have come!? That’s embarrassing. I can’t believe that shit is going to live on the web forever.”
For now, I need to be the guy who writes 430 words (so for) about how he doesn’t have anything to say. I do have things to say, I’m just still figuring out how I want to say them. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be something I’m not. I can be that person, but I have to allow myself time to become that person. In the meantime, what I can do, is direct you towards folks who are doing the work and churning out some great content. Below are some of the folks whom I look to for guidance, wisdom, and inspiration. They embody the tenants I humbly offer above for what a blogger is, and should be.
Don’t let Tom over at Tom Being Tom fool you when he state that it’s just him, talking about stuff. He’s doing great work and tackling some big ideas with heaps of empathy, humor, and class.
M. P. Baecker with A Light Circle produces some beautiful work. I can’t do it justice. You have to go check it out for yourself. You’ll love it. I can guarantee that.
Susan. Dude. I love this blog – Stories From the Edge of Blindness. Her work inspires me to really look at how I feel and find a way to change the course and develop it into something powerful and beautiful. Really fantastic writing!
Naturally Calamity Jane – By far my favorite blog title. This is one of the first blogs that I followed and she has a tendency of publishing pieces that eloquently express thoughts and feelings that I too am having at or around the same time. She writes with a refreshing, disarming sense of honesty and openness that I believe is at the heart of what a blog should and can do for the author and its readers.
16 thoughts on “Speechless In 500 Words and Then, Friends Who Are Anything But”
Jesus. Why did it take me this long to find your blog, Dylan?! Better late than never, I guess! You just wrote something that we all can relate to – figuring out what the hell it is that we want and need to say as bloggers and writers. So, thank you for writing this and sharing your thoughts, because so often they are also mine. This is a beautiful community, and I feel truly blessed to be a part of it. Looking forward to reading more of your blog!!
I am already a huge fan of 3 that you mentioned. I am also a fan of yours. You slice in and do it with such a deft touch and sincerity about yourself and your world. I cannot wait to look at the other blog you recommend. Nor can I wait for your next post.
I have another post in the works that is (hopefully) going to take this a step further in flushing out what is preventing me from expressing what I want to express. It feels entirely silly to express such a sense of detachment from my own wishes, desires, and abilities in post after post, but, I also don’t think I’m alone in feeling that, and as I mentioned in this post, I think it’s a valuable part of the process for which I need to continue to explore.
I appreciate you taking the time to read and respond. I thoroughly enjoy your work!
Never apologize because you are experiencing your own process…about yourself. Why would you even THINK you would need to apologize for that. I love watching is all explore our uniqueness together. It’s like watching humanity connect before my eyes.
Great list and great post. Aren’t we all just collections of words and experiences?? I love all the perspectives I have witnessed from all the talent here on WP.
Dylan, I was in tears reading this, and that was before I got to the part where you overwhelmed me with such amazing compliments and put me in a group with writers who I also admire. Dylan, if the list were mine, you would be on it, my friend! This post is beautiful; it gave me chills and I felt like you were in my head. I feel your struggle, but I also get to be a witness to your amazing arrival. It’s so crazy that sometimes, when we feel we have nothing to say, we say more than we could have imagined. You did this here. This was real and emotional and it is fucking beautiful. You write from a place of honesty in this post that I strive to write from. I felt like crap today (hung over if you want the truth) and I wasn’t going to read anything until tomorrow, but I am so glad I read this. It makes me feel ok to be a bit broken and unsure and ultimately, human.
Dear Dylan, I can’t thank you enough for mentioning my blog and in such a beautiful way!!! I had to take a little excitement walk after reading this! A truly heartfelt THANK YOU to you!!!👏☺️
I think we are on the same wavelength! As I began to read this post, I was so struck by it because I had just had a conversation along similar lines with my husband earlier today! You have expressed it here so well, as I began to read it, I even highlighted what you have captured so beautifully:
“We have academics and journalists to do the heavy lifting. Peer-review, scholarly work that is heavily researched, sited, compiled, and published. Where we fit in is to humanize. To synthesize the humanities and the sciences”
You nailed it brother! 👏👏👏👏I might have to cite you in a future post! This is inspiring!
I find it is often difficult and a very thin line to walk to define one’s blog, one’s niche, one’s voice, and the overall value of this undertaking, especially when the internet and media is rife with academics and journalists who love to belittle bloggers, finding fault in them and feeling threatened. By the way, I just read this article today in the Atlantic that had both smart observations and embodied that standoffish, snobbish perspective towards bloggers: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/09/dont-quit-your-day-job/404671/
But we are not competing with them! We are admittedly subjective! As you say, we synthesize, we synthesize this deluge of information! We are critical thinking, filtering, sifting through those miles of fine sand! Like you, I don’t see academia and news reporting/collecting as my blog’s purpose, though I like to cite certain works to frame/support/balance my stories, explorations and reasonings. Bloggers offer their subjective perspective. One can’t say this often enough, I think that’s where people perceive bloggers all wrong or have us grouped into one category when we are so diverse!
Even when you have nothing say, you’ve said what needed to be said! 💐 Thank you!
I thought this particular post was getting somewhere until you referred us to other bloggers who YOU think are already there. Once you start draining your consciousness onto a page, you’ll discover that it actually IS empty, and you actually have nothing to say. Only THEN do you realize that much of what you read, hear or say is simply a REACTION to something that is taking place in the world at the moment. (Trump said this, did that, for example.) Emptying your mind is just the first step to creating something original and rising above the moment. So keep emptying.
Such an excellent perspective! One of the very first blogs I wrote was about how I had nothing to say, and it propelled me to say so much more. Like George just said, we have to empty the data to get beyond the minutia in our heads! My favorite quote about writing (which I probably quote too much) comes from Hemingway: when we’re stuck, just write one true sentence. The truest sentence you know. Then follow it with another. I quote that so much because I use it so much!
It’s probably already obvious to most people, but I don’t really know what I’m going to say half the time until I write that first sentence. Then, stuff I talk about spills out. <— see, I had no idea I was going to say that. 😉
I am absolutely beside myself thrilled you are in the community, D. You're a godsend. And that, my friend, is the truest sentence I know!!
Sometimes, Things Don’t Suck 
Jesus. Why did it take me this long to find your blog, Dylan?! Better late than never, I guess! You just wrote something that we all can relate to – figuring out what the hell it is that we want and need to say as bloggers and writers. So, thank you for writing this and sharing your thoughts, because so often they are also mine. This is a beautiful community, and I feel truly blessed to be a part of it. Looking forward to reading more of your blog!!
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Thank you!
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I am already a huge fan of 3 that you mentioned. I am also a fan of yours. You slice in and do it with such a deft touch and sincerity about yourself and your world. I cannot wait to look at the other blog you recommend. Nor can I wait for your next post.
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You are too kind. Thank you.
I have another post in the works that is (hopefully) going to take this a step further in flushing out what is preventing me from expressing what I want to express. It feels entirely silly to express such a sense of detachment from my own wishes, desires, and abilities in post after post, but, I also don’t think I’m alone in feeling that, and as I mentioned in this post, I think it’s a valuable part of the process for which I need to continue to explore.
I appreciate you taking the time to read and respond. I thoroughly enjoy your work!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Never apologize because you are experiencing your own process…about yourself. Why would you even THINK you would need to apologize for that. I love watching is all explore our uniqueness together. It’s like watching humanity connect before my eyes.
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Yeah, you’re 100% correct. Well said!
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Great list and great post. Aren’t we all just collections of words and experiences?? I love all the perspectives I have witnessed from all the talent here on WP.
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Dylan, I was in tears reading this, and that was before I got to the part where you overwhelmed me with such amazing compliments and put me in a group with writers who I also admire. Dylan, if the list were mine, you would be on it, my friend! This post is beautiful; it gave me chills and I felt like you were in my head. I feel your struggle, but I also get to be a witness to your amazing arrival. It’s so crazy that sometimes, when we feel we have nothing to say, we say more than we could have imagined. You did this here. This was real and emotional and it is fucking beautiful. You write from a place of honesty in this post that I strive to write from. I felt like crap today (hung over if you want the truth) and I wasn’t going to read anything until tomorrow, but I am so glad I read this. It makes me feel ok to be a bit broken and unsure and ultimately, human.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Again, I’m speechless. Thank you! And, feel better. 🙂
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Dear Dylan, I can’t thank you enough for mentioning my blog and in such a beautiful way!!! I had to take a little excitement walk after reading this! A truly heartfelt THANK YOU to you!!!👏☺️
I think we are on the same wavelength! As I began to read this post, I was so struck by it because I had just had a conversation along similar lines with my husband earlier today! You have expressed it here so well, as I began to read it, I even highlighted what you have captured so beautifully:
“We have academics and journalists to do the heavy lifting. Peer-review, scholarly work that is heavily researched, sited, compiled, and published. Where we fit in is to humanize. To synthesize the humanities and the sciences”
You nailed it brother! 👏👏👏👏I might have to cite you in a future post! This is inspiring!
I find it is often difficult and a very thin line to walk to define one’s blog, one’s niche, one’s voice, and the overall value of this undertaking, especially when the internet and media is rife with academics and journalists who love to belittle bloggers, finding fault in them and feeling threatened. By the way, I just read this article today in the Atlantic that had both smart observations and embodied that standoffish, snobbish perspective towards bloggers: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/09/dont-quit-your-day-job/404671/
But we are not competing with them! We are admittedly subjective! As you say, we synthesize, we synthesize this deluge of information! We are critical thinking, filtering, sifting through those miles of fine sand! Like you, I don’t see academia and news reporting/collecting as my blog’s purpose, though I like to cite certain works to frame/support/balance my stories, explorations and reasonings. Bloggers offer their subjective perspective. One can’t say this often enough, I think that’s where people perceive bloggers all wrong or have us grouped into one category when we are so diverse!
Even when you have nothing say, you’ve said what needed to be said! 💐 Thank you!
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Oh my gosh. Thank you! This is wonderful!
I love the Atlantic and can’t wait to read that article.
There is plenty of discourse for all us to share in. Let’s work together. Words are a plenty!
🙂
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“Let’s work together.”
Count me in!
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I thought this particular post was getting somewhere until you referred us to other bloggers who YOU think are already there. Once you start draining your consciousness onto a page, you’ll discover that it actually IS empty, and you actually have nothing to say. Only THEN do you realize that much of what you read, hear or say is simply a REACTION to something that is taking place in the world at the moment. (Trump said this, did that, for example.) Emptying your mind is just the first step to creating something original and rising above the moment. So keep emptying.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Such an excellent perspective! One of the very first blogs I wrote was about how I had nothing to say, and it propelled me to say so much more. Like George just said, we have to empty the data to get beyond the minutia in our heads! My favorite quote about writing (which I probably quote too much) comes from Hemingway: when we’re stuck, just write one true sentence. The truest sentence you know. Then follow it with another. I quote that so much because I use it so much!
It’s probably already obvious to most people, but I don’t really know what I’m going to say half the time until I write that first sentence. Then, stuff I talk about spills out. <— see, I had no idea I was going to say that. 😉
I am absolutely beside myself thrilled you are in the community, D. You're a godsend. And that, my friend, is the truest sentence I know!!
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For sb who thinks they are speechless, you have a helluva lot to say.
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I kneel at the alter of Irony on a daily basis.
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