Not Writing Excuse #3: Computer Technology

12/17/2023

I woke up in a good, creative mood determined to write. I wanted to talk about the holiday season and what that is like here on the coast with rain instead of snow, about the light parade in Waldport, and the upcoming Christmas show at the Performing Arts Center. Ideas were bubbling in my head until I fell down a WordPress rabbit hole because I did things backwards. Instead of writing the words and then posting them to my blog, I decided to update my website first. There were a couple of changes that needed to be made and I wanted to fix them before I started writing. They weren’t big changes; they would only take a minute or two to fix. Three hours later I was still trying to make the changes and not one creative word was written. My creative energy was frustrated and angry and I no longer wanted to write.

I’m a touch OCD so I wanted to fix what was wrong first. Having designed a couple of WordPress sites some years ago, I thought it would be easy. I could make the changes, write my blog, and still have time to walk the dogs before it got dark outside. Because, of course, you can’t post anything to an outdated website, right?

Two hours later I was still trying to figure it out. I edited the pages. The changes didn’t appear. I couldn’t remember how to change the date on the copywrite page. I was having trouble working with blocks instead of the classic layout. It had been a while since I set up my website. I’m older and slower and rereading instructions I found on the Internet didn’t help. I walked away from the computer. I played a few games of solitaire to calm down. I looked out the window. I was so frustrated I was ready to quit.

But I kept going back. This was fixable, I knew it. I just didn’t know how to fix it. I read countless questions and answers on Google and punched buttons until I was ready to punch a tree. In the end I did get the changes made, but by that time my creative energy was gone and it was dark outside.

I learned something today. Write the words first. Even if technology wins in the end and your website doesn’t look exactly like you want it to, at least your creative energy was put to good use. And you have something creative to read instead of how to untag a page in WordPress.