Travis Arnold

Rambling About Not Writing

how to start writing again

I’ve started maybe 2 dozen blog posts over the past 18 months.

Everything from why choose clipless MTB pedals over flat pedals to death by 1000 cuts – how little things add-up to kill your website.

Some are left with a title, outline and some key points; others are nearly finished, but for one reason or another I abandoned them and left them to sit in stasis in my IA Writer sidebar.

So, here I am (again) writing a blog post that may or may not see daylight. What’s this blog post about? I think it’s just going to circle around how hard it is or isn’t to get started again.

Like I said, the ideas come easy, but when it got time to write or edit or finish, I just didn’t have the give-a-shit to keep going.

One reason could be that we had our first kid, a girl, last year. I don’t really think that’s the reason, but when given the choice to write or watch a miniature human discover bananas for the first time, bananas are gonna win every time.

Another reason could be the lack of focus. I’ve *almost* written things like:
– how to break down problems to the asphalt level
– how to install rock sliders on your truck
– why I suck at bike nutrition
– endurance is the entrepreneur super-food
– marketing sucks, here’s why

And so on…

I’ve always bounced around mentally, but not having a company to worry about for the first time since 2012 really threw a wrench in my mental keyboard. Maybe this is how variety magazines got their start?!

So if a new distraction or lack of focus aren’t it, what else is there?

Maybe it’s just time. Time between doing something always requires a little rust to be removed, doesn’t it? Haven’t ridden your bike in awhile? Then throw some lube on that chain. Haven’t coded an email in bit? Then take a code refresher.

Perhaps it’s just a combination of all three. Yea, that’s gotta be it.

So dear reader, I’ll leave you with the ramblings of a has-been on why I, and maybe you, aren’t writing.

– a new distraction
– a lack of focus
– time away from the ring

I guess that’s it for now. I’m going to go half-write a tutorial on installing a tongue and groove ceiling.

Until next time.

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