How DO You Stop A Brainstorm?

OK, so I never know when to shut up. No idea when enough is enough. Too many thoughts, so little mind. Ooops, I mean so little space. I'm well aware that my Blog Posts are extremely long, thank you. And yes, some might even consider them to be too long.

But here's my dilemma. How am I supposed to be able to stifle a thought, an idea? How do you stop in the middle of a tumultuous tale? How can you even begin to put a limit on genius?

If you remove the beginning, how can your audience hope to get a feeling for where it is exactly you're thoughts are coming from? Let alone which direction you're heading? How they got to this point in the first place?


Leave out the end of your Post and it's just a big build up leading to an even bigger let down. Like leading the herd to the edge of a cliff and telling them they will get to the 'ending' [literally] if they just trust you and keep heading forward.


Of course, they do get an ending of sorts so in essence you did deliver on your promise BUT more than likely most of those that did take your advice, choosing to jump off the cliff in search of the 'climax' won't be coming back to your Blog any time soon.

Even if you choose to keep the middle of the story, the 'meat & potatoes' so to speak, what's to keep you from adding the necessary 'condiments', the extras, all the things that turn a snack into a meal? I'm not talkin' Lobster here, just the trimmings.


Next thing you know, it's spilling off the plate. Not even the place mat can contain it all. At that point you're basically FORCED to move forward because even though you've already trimmed all the fat before you even got started, saving all the 'good parts' has only served to create a more appetizing 'nugget' while sacrificing a feeling of fullness. Similar to a Chinese meal, you're hungry again in half an hour.


So difficult to resist the 'add ons'. I mean c'mon, how can you have a decent Top Sirloin without A1 Sauce? OK, OK, I'm not talkin' a Ruth Christ 'Dream Steak' here but a decent steak nonetheless. I also like to throw in a bit of butter and sprinkle on some pepper but hey, that's just me.

Then you have the baked potato sitting there, naked as can be. Butter? That's a no brainer. Sour Cream? You bet. Chives? Why not? Heck, a few of us lunatics [yes, I'm one of them] like to add a bit of ketchup to this delectable American staple and next thing you know, you need a separate plate for the potato as it's turned into a meal of its own.


At that point, your meal looks kinda 'half baked' without a nice, fluffy salad to balance things out. Here we go again, get out another plate!


And so it begins anew. Iceberg lettuce? I don't think so. Not with THIS meal. Spinach, Romaine, anything but Iceberg. Then you pretty much have an endless amout of 'add ons' that will bulk this up to be a 'real' salad, one befitting the rest of your oversized meal. Don't even get me going on the dressing, that's another story entirely.


Hang on! Steak. Potato. Salad. The only thing missing at this point is dessert. The list of delectable choices is neverending, all of which would be perfect compliments to the exquisite meal that you've created.

This doesn't begin to take into account any 'appetizers', let alone drinks. It's beginning to get so painfully clear just exactly how a Blog Post can get away from you in quite a hurry, as this one obviously has from me. Next thing you know, you've got a Novella on your hands. YIKES!


All your attempts to keep it short, simple and to the point have more or less gone out the window. So difficult to get your point across knowing that with each word you write, you're coming closer to the impending end. The edge of the cliff, the point of no return.


Yet proceed you must. There's no turning back, too many hungry appetites to feed. Don't want to leave your readers starving for more. Or do you?

Can you leave them hangin' with a Part Two, let alone a Part Three? Will they be intrigued enough to 'tune in' again at a later date? More than likely they'd have to re~read Part One again before proceeding on to Part Two and beyond, adding a bit of redundancy to your story which simply has to put a serious hurt on the anticipation level of your 'Taller by the minute' Tale.


Maybe if you wrote the complete 2000+ word Post in its entirety, then just 'cut it' into manageable 'chunks' without a 'heads up' as to where in the story line this was going to occur, perhaps this might allow you to keep the level of intrigue at its peak. Hard to say without experimenting with it a few times.

One thing's for sure, this whole 'Post shortening' thing definitely goes 'against the grain' for me. It's painfully obvious that I have alot to say, whether Blogging or in person so knowing that I have to stifle my thoughts ahead of time gives me no writing satisfaction whatsoever. As I mentioned earlier, knowing when to shut up is not one of my strong suits.

Take this Post for example. This was supposed to be an exercise in Blog Post 'limiting', my first attempt at a Post that was high on content yet short on 'fluff'. So much for that experiment.

Next time I think I'll stick with a TV Dinner or maybe even just a bowl of cereal. Something that's more or less 'self contained' with a designated beginning and an obvious ending. Both of which are easily seen right from the start.

Fulfilling? Not hardly. Satisfying? Probably not. But I guess it fits more into the description of a 'so called' Blog Post. At least more inside the general consensus of what a Blog Post should be. So that's a start anyway.

After all this, it still leaves the question unanswered. "How DO you stop a Brainstorm?" I'm not really sure but stay tuned because if I do figure it out, no doubt I'll be blogging about it.