Confession: when I look at that picture I am not entirely certain if that is my son or my nephew because the angle makes it hard to see their face but if I had to go on the hair I would say nephew.
Truth is it won’t make a significant difference to anyone outside of two mothers whether I am right or wrong here and that is ok with me because the real point of this post is tied into a writing tip anyone can use to write better copy.
Sometimes You Have To Prime The Pump
I realize I am just old enough to have experience with certain things that have turned into expressions. For example I remember when you really did have to warm up the car so that the engine wouldn’t stall. Or we could talk about how some pumps don’t work unless you “prime” them so that they can begin pumping whatever it is they are supposed to pump.
Writing comes from two different pumps inside your body, your head and your heart. This presents a challenge because your head and your heart are often at odds. Heart wants to just pump out the content and let it all hang out but your head worries about whether people will like it and if they will respond to what you write.
Sometimes it leads to a tremendous battle between the two and if a stalemate is reached you end up paralyzed and are not able to produce anything. It is fair to say it is tied into the myth of writer’s block.
One of the ways a writer primes the pump is by writing about something that has nothing to do with their current project. It is a simple way to get your mind to relax and to come up with copy you feel comfortable with.
Next to exercise it is probably my favorite way to clear the clutter and cobwebs inside my head so that I can just write.
You Can Still Be Manly And Use Pinterest
I used to think that Pinterest was something only women would use and had no interest in checking it out. Every description of it made it sound like it would give me the Victoria’s Secret feeling that men get when we are inside there.
Not going to lie and say the catalog isn’t fun to look at sometimes but when know about photoshop, makeup and airbrushing you don’t really believe that women look like that or that you’ll see them if you go to the shop.
And in my experience the only times I have been there have been on family shopping trips where my son begs me to take him elsewhere and my daughter makes my eyes pop out by trying to imagine how something skimpy will look on her one day.
I shake my head at her and tell her to not be in such a rush to grow up and tell my son to stop whining about being stuck in a place that doesn’t sell anything for us and remind him that I have 983,832 sisters and my life growing up was much harder.
In between it all I figure if I am there I might as well check out the scenery so I casually look around and try to see what is going on.
There is no easy way to do it and you never want to get caught looking where you are not supposed to be so…
But I digress.
Pinterest became far too popular for me to ignore so I checked it out and discovered I was wrong. It wasn’t populated solely by women and I found a bunch of things that were interesting to me too both personally and professionally I might add.
Of Photobombs, Smartphones, Generals and Sexy People
If you haven’t been here in a while or are visiting for the first time you might have missed the posts that are referenced in that subhead so I’ll give you the links and suggest you check them out.
- $5 Billion Reasons Why You Can’t Buy Donald Trump’s Toupee
- The Two Biggest Mistakes You Made With Your Website
- Sometimes The Old Dog Teaches You The New Tricks
- Something Only Smart & Sexy People Will Read/Understand
- General Patton, Smartphones & Effective Management Of Personnel
And I suppose I ought to share another confession, the real focus of this post has been so that I could prime my own pump. Got to run now, but before I go I’ll thank you for spending time here and suggest you follow/subscribe because there is all sorts of nifty stuff to be found here.
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
