![IMG_20180822_172231942.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmWiCB3ujVs3Ccu6mQeTW2XTLhS58nrEYdD6Krmm3m7D4b/IMG_20180822_172231942.jpg)

Here is my cat laying on top of my computer tower. I like it when she is there, cause sometimes she does find her way walking on my keyboard when I am blogging.

In this blog let me tell you how I come up with stories. Well, first I always try to write to a picture. I like it best when the picture is my own. So I am always looking for something to capture, thinking if I can use it in a blog.

Of course it is better to have more pictures then you need so to have a variety of different things to write about. If I have an idea of what I want to write about, but do not have a picture that will go with that story then I go to pixabay.com to look for a picture that will go with the blog.

This is when I try to develop the story. What is happening a the moment I shot the picture? What do I feel about the picture? Are there other things related to the picture that I can go into then come back to my original thought?

I would try to write as if I am talking out loud. There is this book I found long ago called, If You Can talk, You Can Write by Joel Saltzman. Just the title alone gave me something to consider.

You see sometimes I like to talk. Just by talking you come up with all kinds of words. Well, now I can talk with my writing. It was a different way to look at it.

I like to use a website called, wordcounter.net. So I'll put the picture I chose in the create a post section, then go to wordcounter.net and start to write about it. I like it how they count the words in real time and even let me know what reading level I am writing at.

I usually like to go at least 300 words. There was one time I was on the phone talking to someone that was at a small magazine. This was about the 1990's and I wanted to put an inch ad in that magazine. Well I was talking to what I thought was the ad man, but he was the one running the magazine.

Well, he liked what I was talking about at the time and said, Give me a 300 word article. "I won't pay you, but you can plug whatever you want to." Well you don't want to walk away from free publicity so I did write a 300 word article.

So lately I try to make my blogs at least 300 words and sometimes I will go a little over 1000 words, but mostly I stay around the 500 to 700 word area.

To make sure my writing sounds right at least in my own ears that is. I run my writing through a text to speech program. This way it does sound like a female robot is reading my words back to me.

As I am listening to my words I am making corrections to the text. I keep on doing it until I feel there is no more need for correction. Of course there will be more corrections, but I might have just missed them. That is why I like it that there is an edit option within the first 7 days of the blog that is just released.

During my writing my cat is walking up and down my desk and even getting in front of my screen. It is all good. She wants attention. After I give her some attention, then I go back to my blog.

Then I would copy and paste from wordcounter.net to my Steemit blog.

So now you see a little of what I do in my writing process. Hopefully it might help someone out there in the Steemit blogging land.

If you enjoyed this blog please upvote and follow.
Thank you, David.
Image is mine taken with my Moto G.