Picking a topic

One of the hardest parts about writing, and blogging in particular, is picking a topic to write about. This is why I frequently cheat and write about writing or indulge in some self-revelation.

I find that the best posts and the best articles tend to suggest themselves, and then the words follow naturally.

I suppose one of the big differences between writing for a magazine or a newspaper and writing posts in a blog is that it can be a lot easier to find something to blog about. A good blog post really only has to be a couple hundred words, unedited, and it can (or maybe should) be in response to something else someone already posted about. In other words, it doesn’t have to be terribly original.

I’m reading an interview with Ted Conover, a journalist/novelist who tends to write books like Newjack , where he worked as a prison guard at Sing Sing for ten months, and then wrote a book about the experience afterward.

It’s a really interesting interview, and there’s a part where he talks about how he has drawers full of old, dead-end ideas that he won’t throw away. I feel like all those ideas are all in my blog queue. I can’t throw them away, but I know damn well they make horrible posts.