Do you ever decide to make a few changes, switch things up a bit, and then run into a snag? With writing, we all know altering one word or one sentence can have a ripple effect throughout the paragraph or page or story … which leads to more changes.

I just experienced the ripple effect with this blog page. Let me explain. Its appearance had been the same for too long. So … I changed the header image.

I caught an early morning picture of the moon, slightly after Super Moon 2013. I thought its image would be a good choice for a blog about writing, inspiration, and the arts.

After all, the moon often appears in a scene or story, whether a werewolf is howling at it or lovers are meeting beneath it or a thief is cursing its brightness. It has mystery, inspiration, lore. It often appears in titles. You’ve probably seen the play Dark of the Moon by Howard Richardson and William Berney. It  had a ten-month run on Broadway in 1945 and is often performed by theater groups. The moon lurks over the scene.

Scene from Dark of the Moon

But back to the blog. I switched the page color to blue-gray to compliment the new picture’s background. Caught in the moment, I added two widgets. The first needed a picture and, the second, a piece of poetry. I went on the hunt for same. Then I retired a page called “Bio Bits.” Was I having fun or what?!

With all of that, the blog now clamored for a new title. (The title at that point was my name, Carol S. Mann. ‘Nuff said.)

And no pearls were dropping.

I jotted down ideas and gradually filled several pages of an Office Max spiral notebook with lists of words, phrases, categories, doodles, water bottle rings, and chocolate stains. Words and phrases about the moon, the sky, light, shadow, darkness, glow, shimmer, shine.

I entered the regret phase, wondering why I’d even begun this change thing. When I started, I wasn’t thinking about a new title and now it was what I  wanted most. A friend told me to relax. Just leave it alone for a while.

So I did.

One morning when I opened the blog, I glanced at the header image and the title just slid into my head. There it was. I noticed the frame of trees. I live in the desert. Obviously, this is where I do my writing. Aha!

Trees. Palm trees. The new title: Written Beneath the Palms. (These were the very same trees I’d cursed because at certain angles, they’d blocked my picture taking of the moon.)

Sometimes you just have to ask yourself, What do I see? What am I looking at? What am I missing? Sometimes, you need to shift your focus, not go with the obvious. Not go with the preconceived idea.