This is my 600th blog post. That seems like a lot of…well…nothing. In celebration of 600 blog posts I have decided to start a meme. The concept is simple: The first Monday of every month people write about a topic. Think T-SQL Tuesday, or Un-SQL Friday but without the overhead of hosting or linking back to other posts. I just want to inspire other people to write.

Why? Well, I was given some good advice a long time ago about writing. I mentioned that I didn’t have anything to write about and my friend (a professional writer) told me:

“…then write that. Sit down at your desk, put the pen on the paper, and write out ‘I have nothing to write today.’ And if that is all you have for the day, that is fine. But chances are some extra words will come out. And when they do they will often keep flowing, like a brook that turns into a stream, and then a river.”

And she was right. So I want to give you the paper and pen. If you have felt that you wanted to write about something but never know where to get started, let Meme Monday help you get going.

The meme will be kicked off on the first Monday of each month. The first one will be on Monday, April 4th. The meme will be this:

Write a SQL blog post that tells a story in 11 words or less. (Yes, I was inspired by the same challenge laid down to Ernest Hemingway and we will use 11 words in honor of SQL11 ‘Denali’ and the fact that none of us are Hemingway.) As an example, your post could be something like “Query killed, rollback begins, family waiting while your dinner gets cold.”

I will make my attempt and then tag three others. But don’t wait to be tagged. Just write your own post and tag three people. If you have an idea for Meme Monday just let me know and I will kick it off on the first Monday of the next available month and tag others. But like I said, don’t wait to get tagged. When you see the topic just write your own post and tag some others.

And let the words flow.