This is 26

Things that are Just Too Fun to Ignore

Why the best stories don’t come from your meticulously collected writing ideas

On my list of things to write about is a description of my normal writing day. This story isn’t it.

Rather, this is a story about how a writing day gets knocked off it’s rails. Something that happens to me much more often that “normal” does.

I keep a Word document open all the time that has a list of about 25 ideas that I have generated to write about. When I use one, I cross it out, mostly because it feels better than deleting it. When I have a new idea or ideas, I add it to the bottom.

When I have gleaned all the personal back-patting I can out of seeing an item lined out, I then delete the entry. If I were efficient or particularly organized, I would keep the old ideas in a list of previously used thoughts. I can see some benefit from doing so; however, my mounting pile of Word documents in cloud storage and the published articles themselves will have to serve as my assemblage of prior thoughts.

So, I add a few, I subtract a few and keep a relative equilibrium of 25 with about one quarter crossed off at any given point. The number isn’t out of design but rather happenstance, and it holds pretty fast at 25.

The other thing that happens is that the things I put on the list, but delay in writing about, tend to migrate up the list. Typically, if I am really excited about a topic, I write about it right away. If I pick off an item that has languished for a bit, then another moves up the list towards number one.

Ultimately, the ideas I like the least, or are too lazy to write about because they might take a bunch of research, filter to the top of the list. Currently the top “dog” (as in it will probably be a real dog if I ever do write about it) is a piece on a summary of top financial analysts’ opinions on the impact COVID-19 will have on the economy.

That is followed closely by a piece I have tentatively titled, “The Top X Reasons You aren’t Contributing to Your 401(k) and How to Overcome Them.”

Barf. Right?

Meanwhile a story about clandestine feline subterfuge inspired by Kevin Buddaeus went from #25 to published in about a hot minute.

That brings us to today, and two recent articles that never even graced the list — 26’s if you will.

Today was one of those days where I resigned myself to an article in the single digits. Now, I am not completely self-flagellating today, so I went with #9. A piece that I actually think might be insightful and interests me but will take some concentration and bit of research.

I was about 40% through, having hit something of a stride (slow crawl perhaps) when I decided I needed a little break. So, I made the serendipitous mistake of opening up Slack. And, of course, there it was: Something just far too fun to ignore.

Imagine, if you will, an oft-replicated scene from television or movies where two lovers, clasped in each other’s embrace, swipe all the contents of the nearest available table onto the floor and consummate their passion on said surface.

That was me and this idea; metaphorically sweeping that other slow-going article onto the floor in a giant crash and consummating madly with hints of tender sweet sarcasm, intermingled with classic Americana, cooking, puns and just enough sincerity to make one wonder what was really going on.

From that unexpected and glorious coupling emerged this story:

Not at all planned, never gracing my list of fabulous (?) story ideas. This came purely from an interaction between Holly Jahangiri and Tree Langdon ♾️ that was innocently enough couched in a question about how to best search for a particular phrase in a Medium story. By the way, if you want to know the answer, ask Holly Jahangiri, she is super smart in addition to being funny.

I had a bunch of fun writing it, and even more fun responding to Holly’s private notes. The point is, that it was spontaneous and enjoyable; and hopefully entertaining to read.

Something similar happened last Saturday. This time purposefully posed by Sherry McGuinn who cleverly realized that at any given moment there is someone out there that could probably use a touch of humor. Sherry sent out some funny video clips and invited a few folks to enjoy and share. Again, something far too fun to ignore.

I had already written a “list worthy” piece earlier in the day and didn’t anticipate writing any more. But I whipped out this little story in an instant (including finding and re-watching the videos):

Quick, easy and fun to write. And, once again, even more so than writing the piece, I enjoyed the interactions I had with others that Sherry had tagged and engaged and those I included into my rendition.

So, back to today. After I wrote the hot dog casserole piece and exchanged some extremely positive and enjoyable interaction with another human because of it, I reluctantly set about to finish the other article. For about a minute.

Then my brain started to put two and two together and came up with this odd corollary — “Sometimes, the more spontaneous and fun the writing inspiration, the more likely there is for positive interaction.”

I am not sure that it will stand under intense scrutiny, but on a surface level, at least for me this seems to be true. So, the other article now completely shelved for today, this story started appearing on my blank Word document.

Another article that never graced my idea list is created. Another “26”, in the matter of only a few days.

I invite you now dear reader to offer your perspective. What articles bring you the most satisfaction and which ones bring the most interaction? Is there a serendipitous collision of those two things in your experience?

Oh, and by the way, my gift to you: Un-copyrighted, free for personal and commercial use is the 26 concept. You can use phrases like, “26-er”, “Old 26”, “I 26’ed it”, “A quick 26’er”, “This is totally 26’ed”, “26 is the new [anything]”, and “Getting my 26 on”, etc. with impunity. At least as far as I am concerned. If you are like me, an invitation like that might be far too fun to ignore.

Thanks for reading!

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Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.