My sister is beginning a web site (and I can hardly wait to announce it) and, like most web site starters, is struggling with the content. It is easy to graphically design a nice web site, or build the back end programs and whatnot, but come up with actual content, and immediately a bewildering look similar to terror will creep over the face…

I know, I’ve been there … we’ve all been there.

So I thought I would ramble on incessantly with advice to the would-be web site writer or blogger. People constantly walk up to me on the street and ask, “Hey Dude, how do you do it, man? I mean, like wow, you are like always writing some cool shit and stuff, and like you just do it all the time. How do you come up with all those great ideas?”

Ok, so they are pretend people, but I can’t be too choosey right now.

Anyway, let’s begin with the one that I’ve heard in just about every writing class I’ve ever had. Don’t edit yourself during the vomit stage. When you first sit down to write, just write the thoughts in your head. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or even if anything makes sense.

And certainly don’t start worrying about who would want to read this crap, and whether or not you’ll ever be published, and why your father was so hard on your dreams of being a writer and that English teacher, yeah, the old one that hated you… yeah, she was always trying to get you, and you certainly did not deserve that… ahem.

Like I was saying, just write. Get those thoughts trapped behind your skull out on paper… virtual or real. Once they are out, then you can start to play and work with them.

Which brings up my second idea: Pleasure yourself with the words. Forget deadlines or even completion, after the initial regurgitation, have fun with the words. An exercise that I was taught in some watercolor classes was to make washes, where you just swirl multiple colors around and see what happens. You can swirl words around as well, and maybe that swirling will be just the motion of the water after the flush, or not. Don’t know until after you’ve swirled.

My third idea is probably the most important of all, Do it every day. Yes, you can do it before you “do it,” but just write every day. My friend, Po, used to tell his students that it didn’t matter how much or what you wrote, just that you wrote. He said that you could write, “I hate writing” … as long as you wrote those words every day. I also think that it is helpful to write at the same time and same location each day as this helps the routine out a bit, but your mileage may vary with your own tastes.

Another idea is to Visualize your partner. For instance, think of the person you expect to read your stuff, and invite him or her over for a cup of pretend tea and write as if you were talking to that person. Yeah, your writing will be conversational and even a bit chatty, but it sure makes it easier to read. Hell, some of my software documentation has been criticized for being to chatty.

Yeah, whatever. A good friend of mine, Brad wrote a computer manual that started out, “Good morning, boys and girls, sit back and enjoy this manual.” I think all technical crap should be enjoyable to read. But I’m digressing again, huh?

Maybe that is because I’m out of advice. If you are concerned about the high-price of publishing a diary, journal or weblog to the Internet, don’t worry about that. Things like that are pretty cheap. In fact, they could be free… you just have to sleep with a nerd, and talk ‘im into it in the morning. Yeah, chances are good it will his first time, and you probably won’t enjoy much, so stay focused on your… ahem.

Ok, three tangents in a row means I have to quit and go to bed. Good night, and happy diarying.