I’ve been called prolific for posting as much as I do, with people telling me that I write more than they have time to read.  Yet I get a seemingly unending stream of emails from people who are putative bloggers telling me that they want to write, but can’t seem to find anything to write about. 

Are you nuts?

Essentially every day, I leave at least a half dozen posts on the table.  Between the law and the world, there is no end of stories, issues, concerns that pique my interest.  Cognito ergo blawg, baby.  Do these things not cause you to think?  Are your synapses not firing? 

The corollary is that someone else, occasionally me, has already written about a case or subject, and there’s nothing left to say.  I call bullshit.  It’s unlikely that anyone agrees with me about everything, if indeed they agree with me about much of anything.  I hear all the time that I’m wrong, or worse.  There’s plenty to say, a never-ending stream of things to say.

The problem isn’t that there is nothing to write about, so stop kidding yourself and fabricating a justification for your failure to sit down at a keyboard and post.  Oh no, the problem isn’t lack of meat.  It’s lack of will.

Granted, I probably type faster than most of you, which allows me to crank out posts pretty quickly.  But it’s not finger speed that prompts me to write.  It’s that the world is filled with things happening the give rise to thoughts the want to come out.  If you have no thoughts that demand expression, then you have no business blogging.  Contrary to those who promote blogging for purpose other than the compulsion to say something, there’s little worse than a bunch of words on a screen that demonstrate the absence of thought.  If anything, the point learned from such posts is that the writer is either brain dead or gutless, neither of which is a particularly good message.

For those who have no thoughts floating about their head, there’s nothing I can offer to help.  When there’s nothing happening, it’s a good time to step away from the keyboard and enjoy the morning cartoons or perhaps a fine GMA interview asking how the parents of a raped and murdered child feel about it.

But I suspect most of you have thoughts, probably lots of them.  The problem isn’t that your you’re thick as a brick, but that you’re afraid of saying something that might be construed as having an opinion.  You want universal approval and validation, but fear there’s someone out there who might disagree with you.  You want people to think you’re brilliant, but fear someone out there will tell you you’re wrong.  You want people to hire you, but fear someone will read your opinion and proclaim, “I would never retain a lawyer who thinks that.”  You may be sitting in front of a keyboard, but your psyche is quivering in a corner, scared to death that you will be revealed as a fool.

Grow a pair.  Take a chance. Stand for something.

Even if it turns out you are stupid, or crazy, or have ideas contrary to what thoughtful people think, the alternative to taking a chance is to be one of the walking dead.  Consider all the people who spend their days alone in their rooms thinking to themselves that someone is wrong on the internet, in court, in life, but never having the guts to write a blog post saying so.  They don’t exist.  Do you exist?

I read other blawgs.  I read media stories.  I see that the many people I follow on twitter are interested in.  I see what I’m interested in.  And by the end of the day, I typically find myself with a list of things I have thoughts about.  Because I do my writing in the early mornings, a particularly hot, controversial issue that arises at the start of the work day will be the subject of a hundred blawg posts before I get a chance to type a word.  So what? 

It’s a big internet.  There’s enough bandwidth for one more post.  And if everyone is played out on a subject, they won’t read it.  The world will not come to an end.  No blawger can make others care what he writes, or force them to read it.  If that’s your worry, then you’re missing the point of this exercise.  Write what moves you, and others will read it if they want, or not. You can’t control anyone else. You aren’t responsible for anyone else. But you are responsible for you.

Stop saying that there’s nothing to write.  If you don’t want to write, don’t write.  If you have no thoughts, don’t write.  If you wet your pants just thinking that someone may call you a mean name for what you think, don’t write.  But there is so much to write about that I could sit at a computer for hours and keep pecking away. 

Let’s be real and stop blaming the world for your inability to put post to screen. If anything, there’s way too much to write about.  But if you don’t have the brains or guts to do it, then turn on the TV and enjoy your Cheetos.  The blawgosphere isn’t the right place for you.


And for those of you who think that blawging is a really great way to brand yourself, here’s the best lesson I can offer.