Too Many Interests Syndrome (or "What Shall We Write About Today?")

I like to get up fairly early, pour a cup of coffee, and then start writing... before getting involved with what's going on in the rest of the world. It works for me, because my thoughts seem clearer-- less "cluttered"-- before I start thinking about email, social media, work, the political circus and the general "noise" of the world.

Some People Suffer from Writer's Block... While Others....?

This morning I had a really hard time getting going.

Unlike many-- who struggle with "Writer's Block"-- I found myself getting stuck because there were just too many ideas on the table; too many possibilities. Which led to about an hour of doing nothing more than thinking and feeling overwhelmed.

Although society might call it "ADHD," I tend to labor somewhat under what I call "Too Many Interests Syndrome."

I totally admire those who can just zoom in on "cooking," or "camping," or "survivalism," or some other single thing that floats their boat... and then become expert bloggers on that topic. But that has just never been me.

I could write about a bajillion different topics, and have a really good time doing so.

A Moment of Insight

Pondering the issue of "where to get started," I had a couple of surprise insights.

First, I realized that even though I have been blogging on Steemit for somewhat over four months, I'm still not quite back into the routine of "general" social blogging. Which was what a lot of us were doing, back when Facebook and MySpace were first invented-- 2006-ish, or so.

What happened, of course, was that the "social" went to Facebook and blogging became more of a thing for experts and specialists. The whole idea of waxing philosophical about the deeper meaning of dryer lint in your bellybutton right after writing a world class exposé on the shenanigans of some politician... just kind of didn't fly, anymore.

So anyway... I realized that I was still in "niche blogging mode," spinning my wheels over a (self-imposed) need to make sure I had a "proper topic," rather than simply allowing myself to go with the flow-of-consciousness writing that once upon a time resulted in a very widely read blog... at least for 2006.

Many Ideas... vs Content Churning

Of course, just because you have lots of ideas doesn't mean they all come to fruition. 

I was never someone who could sit down and churn out a dozen posts a day on various topics... no matter how worthy the ideas and content might be. For starters, it takes me a minimum of 2-3 hours to go from idea outline, to wording, to clean writing, to proofing, to image selection, to post formatting and them publishing.

But that's not the point.

The second insight came this morning, as I was reading a piece titled "The Sad Phenomena of Tabloid Steeming" by relative newcomer @chelsea88 (she's worth reading-- check her out!) which reminded me why I don't like to fling out every shiny idea that comes into my head. 

Because who the hell wants to keep up with that?

And I have a near-pathological dislike for spammy content that seems to exist for little reason beyond "filling empty space with words." 

Quality Content... MATTERS

Now, we can argue all day long about what exactly constitutes "quality content," but I don't really care to. We each have our own interpretations.

For me the delineation lies in-- to use a general social media concept-- the difference between "followers" and actual "readers." 

Simply publishing something for no other reason than someone might click on a link is not "quality" to me. Unless I feel pretty confident that at least a handful of people will actually read something... and might even come away with a fresh thought or a "hmmm... interesting" or "hmmm... hadn't thought of that" or even "this dude is really pissing me off!" I don't have any business putting it out there.

Of course, that's a personal standard. 

I don't expect anyone else to follow it... but, at least, think about what your own standards are, and whether you're actually following them!

One final thought... which partially explains my obsession with quality content: In the *long* term, quality endures while junk perishes. There are 100s of dead content platforms to suggest the truth of this. Assuming we all want the Steemit Community to thrive in the long run, I see quality as an "investment" in our future here!

How about YOU? Are you a niche blogger with just a couple of main topics? Or are you more likely to write about whatever comes into your head? Were you part of the "social blogging" platforms of old (Xanga, LiveJournal, Diary-X, MyDearDairy and others) or is Steemit your first blogging experience? Are you a "topic" blogger, or more of a "personal" blogger... or both? What are your thoughts on "quality content?" Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- start the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)