Kiss Your Frogs

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you until it seems that you cannot hold on for a minute longer, never give up then, for that  is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811 – 1896  American abolitionist and author.


Frog

I call my sloppy, rambling, unintelligible, boring writing my frogs.
These are the posts that go nowhere.  They are way to the left of no good; they are lopsided and they croak like an army of frogs on the lily pad.  Did you know a group of frogs is called an army?

This is the awful stuff.  It’s swampy and mucky and holds little promise for a good outcome.  I put these things aside and move on hopefully to something I can use.

And then sometimes when I go back to them days, weeks or even months later, a phrase or a sentence springs out at me and gains a life of its own.  Then I have the catalyst for a new post.

So today I encourage you to kiss those frogs. Don’t rubbish them or discard them.  You may be surprised if one or more does turn into a handsome prince and reward you with a great post.

Frog prince

Note – pictures from Microsoft free clipart.

“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in”
Andrew Jackson, 1767 – 1845
the seventh President of the United States

30 responses to “Kiss Your Frogs

  1. Letting something sit for a while or simmer for a bit can often see something juicy emerge when it comes to writing.

    We have a saying here that sort of goes along these lines: “Eat a frog for breakfast and that will be the hardest thing you do all day”. In other words do the thing on your to-do list that is the hardest, first up and the rest of the day will feel like a breeze.

    Frogs seem to get a hard press don’t they but really they are very clever creatures, adapting as they do to different environmental conditions.

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  2. Ol’ Jackson was one stubborn fellow – his way or the highway

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  3. What is a group of toads called? I have them spawning in my pool cover every spring. No, I don’t and won’t kiss them. I catch them and relocate them down the road to the creek only after scooping out 300 of their little offsprings out of the cover.

    As for my “frog” posts, I usually just delete them or hold them in trash for awhile. Like you said, sometimes a sentence will pop out at you and give you some sort of inspiration.

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    • A group of toads is called a knot. More absolutely useless information stored in the elderly brain! i always save mine as drafts and then go back to them later. Yes, sometimes they do get trashed but not until I have had them sitting there for a while. As we say – watch this space. 🙂

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  4. This is a very good point. On a side note, I love frogs. Tree frogs, as you have pictured first, are my favorite, so thanks for that. Have a wonderful week!

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  5. I love frogs ~ I save drafts and incomplete musings to come back to at a later date. I rarely toss them in the trash.

    When we “eat the frog” (least pleasant task) first . . . the rest of the day seems breezy!

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  6. I love your frogs and have a few of my own!

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  7. Hi Judith. I appreciate this post. I’m afraid I’m not even coming up with frogs lately. Don’t know why. I think it’s time for me to change directions in my writing but I don’t know which direction.

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    • Hi Pat. Well I don’t have any direction. I just write about what I think at the time. Sometimes the frogs get through at a later date.
      Just keep on writing on whatever. As Nike says “Just do it”.

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  8. I do the same with some of my photographs. Every once in a while I go back and find something I like in one that did nothing for me the first go-round.

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  9. That’s a great idea, Judith. You have so much wisdom to share with us! Love Stowe’s quote at the beginning.

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  10. Thanks for the reminder of my unfinished posts. I do love the ability to start a post and put it aside for later. I will need to find the time to go through the many I have. I may surprise myself that there are a few close to completed.

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    • Come now Jenny – You are excused. You have those three delightful young people to keep you occupied not to mentiona ll the other things you do. I am always amazed that you even find time to write posts. 🙂

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  11. I did not know that a group of frogs was called an Army so I learned something new today. 🙂
    I have posts occasionally that are “frogs” but since I consider my blog a personal outlet for myself and a way to share myself with others, I still write even when it’s a “frog” day. Like you said, you never know….

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  12. I love the thought of this… I have several frogs in my draft folder. Perhaps the drafts are mere tadpoles hoping to become frogs. We’ll see.

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  13. Great advice, Judith. I’ve been pondering what to do with posts that have been sitting around for the past year, in a draft state. Perhaps it’s time to revisit them and see if I can’t pull something from them.

    Thank you! 🙂

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