Some people eat, sleep and chew gum, I do genealogy and write...

Monday, October 28, 2019

What it takes to write my blog posts


I recently got a word count of the words I had written in the last week. I was busy with other pressing matters and wrote far less than usual but ended up writing just over 54,000 words. In a normal week, the total runs between 60,000 and 70,000. By the way, that is the average word count for a novel in the United States. Since 8 October 2017, I have written more than 1, 522,486 words but my word counter doesn't count all the words I write. At that rate, I could have written at least 25 novels and made some money (perhaps) instead of promoting genealogy day and night!!!

Hmm. Cumulatively, with the three blogs, I have written 11,834 blog posts on a huge number of different topics from butterflies to research in Chinese genealogy.

Many people I talk to wonder how I can continue to write so much. Actually, I have no idea how I do it. I know there are other bloggers that write as much or more than I do. If I get "writer's block" it is only because I am too tired to write. If I stop and take a nap or go to bed and wake up the next day, I always have several topics to write about. Oh, I almost forgot that I have contributed to about 25 published books over the past few years and written in my journal and written thousands of emails and letters.

Where does all this come from? Well, the answer is quite simple. I read. I listen. I absorb. There are plenty of things I could write about such as politics, law, travel, geology, history, and so forth. But, so far, the only topics that can keep me going day after day is genealogy and photography. But, I do write about some other things from time to time.

Do I have any suggestions for a budding writer? Yes. Write. That's it. Just sit down at a comfortable desk with a big-screen computer and start writing about whatever comes to mind. Just write and write and write some more. Eventually, like the infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters (computers?) you might turn up with something great or maybe good. It also helps to use good grammar and to write clearly. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.”

Now did Ralph Waldo Emerson really write that? See, now I have thought of a new topic to write about. As a matter of fact, I spent quite a while looking for the origin of the quote and did a word search in each of the volumes of the Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and could not find one place that identified the actual origin other than attribution to Emerson. There is something for you to write about.

8 comments:

  1. How did you measure your word count? Was that 8 October 2017 (not 2917) or are you writing this back in the future?

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    1. One thing I didn't count is the number of typos I have made in writing all that stuff. I am sure that number approaches infinity. I use Grammarly. It is an OK program but doesn't really correct grammar very well since the program does not seem to recognize some grammatical constructions at all and of course when I type something illogical and stupid. Hope things are going well for you. Are you planning on RootsTech in 2020?

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  2. I doubt that we will come to RootsTech 2020. March is our 50th wedding anniversary and we don't have firm plans for it. Linda can't really walk very far and i'm tired of pushing a wheelchair and not being able to participate in everything. I can watch it from afar and wish I was there while adding to my RootsMagic tree and FSFT.

    Does Grammarly count all the words on your blog, or just in one post?

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    1. Grammarly gives you a count of the number of words you write every week and then keeps a cumulative total. But the program only works with certain websites and applications so the count is actually always lower than the total. It does a good job with spelling, commas, and getting the right word, but the grammar part is a lot less useful.

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    2. Also, we are starting slow down also. We are going to RootsTech, but we usually end up very tired every day.

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    3. This post was timely for me. I am taking (auditing as a senior) a SLCC Writing Life Stories class. I am using Grammarly for first time so I appreciate your comments about it. Our teacher Sharon Carmack has a feature called Writer's Cafe for the class where students share things they have learned about writing from the web. Here is what I shared about your post.
      James Tanner is my favorite genealogy blogger. I subscribe to his blog, Genealogy’s Star www.genealogysstar.blogspot.com. That is just one of his blogs. There is no way I can read everything he writes. He also does a lot of genealogy webinars and lectures at genealogy events. He is a retired attorney. Therefore, I assume he has been doing a lot of writing for his entire life.
      Yesterday (October 28, 2019), he wrote a blog post titled “What it Takes to Write My Blog Posts.” If you read the post, you will know that he is a very prolific writer. You will also gain some insight into how he does it all. Here are two takeaways for me. (1) Do a lot of writing. It will get easier the more you do it. (2) Be curious about everything. Always be asking questions and looking for answers.

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    4. Thanks for the kind comment. For a venue such as a blog, the most important issue is content and a good writing style. Content comes with study and research. A writing style comes with practice.

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  3. Interesting topic idea on the Emerson quote. What I don't understand is how quotes are often attributed to someone famous and the original author does not step forward. Well, obviously a dead person cannot do so. Still. I do wish people would be more careful with their tossing of quotes around.

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