It has been the talk of the country for the last week and is pretty much unavoidable through the media, word of mouth or maybe you personally know someone experiencing it right now. What started off as a torm off the coast of South America turned into a tropical depression near the Caribbean, which then evolved to a full-on category 1 hurricane. Frankly, we aren’t surprised. In fact, we had been anticipating Isaac to hit the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico for about a week now. But yet somehow the hurricane (hitting New Orleans seven years exactly to the day of Katrina) came as a shock to the system when it arrived. Likewise, when a writer sits down to produce content, whether it is a blog post, article, newsletter, or even a book, their ideas evolve over time. It starts off as a rainstorm, or jotting down fragments of ideas through bullet points, to a full-blown hurricane, or, in some cases, successfully finishing a novel. Here’s the breakdown of why Isaac may be relevant to you as a writer:
- An idea forms..
When you’re stuck on what to write and staring at a blank screen for sometimes hours on end, it’s only natural to feel like giving up. Sometimes picking up and doing something else in a different location can give you that spark to create stellar content. Like Isaac, he started off on the coast of upper South America, and look where he is now! Key takeaway: when you come up with a point or idea don’t hold back: run with it.
- Speeds of up to 80mph
Isaac started from nothing. A small storm that picked up momentum, speed and power, sweeping through islands, countries and now to the US, taking down anything and everything in its way. As a writer, we must develop our ideas from bullet points to sentences to paragraphs that somehow all fits in together. Yes, it takes time and patience to create a masterpiece, but once you start running with an idea and gaining momentum, you’ll soon take off with speeds over 80 mph!
- Expect the unexpected
Whether (or maybe in this case, weather?) it’s Katrina, Isaac, Andrew, Faye or Debbie, we are forced to come to terms with the unexpected. And no, these are not distant relatives popping in for a barbeque. Hurricanes may change for the better, taking a turn and peacefully drifting far off into the ocean, or for the worse, devastating thousands upon thousands and wiping out anything in its path. As writers, we must expect the unexpected and brace ourselves for what may come in the future. Seasoned writers know this to be true of writing and producing content. By learning to expect the unexpected, we are bettering ourselves as content producers and writers. Did New Orleans think over 500,000 people would be without power or water the first day Isaac touched land? No. But the smart ones planned ahead to evacuate well before the storm was a threat to the area or stocked up on survival goods and moved to a safe location away from the water.
You may not have an “eye of the storm” idea right in the beginning, but generating content is a process. Writers must remain cool, calm and collected until that trigger point hits. Don’t be intimidated by the storm, but rather embrace it and drive it home!
Do you have any other comparisons between Isaac and writing? Tweet to us and let us know @TRA360!