Overcoming Blogger’s Block
Posted on | August 28, 2008 | 1 Comment
I am now the proud owner of a blank Moleskine softcover notebook, blank of course except for this post. Where you not a perfectly normal human being, I would not understand why it is not the most beautiful thing you have ever encountered.
An insert comes with it describing great men who went before, using this very tool. It weaves a story of european artists and thinkers for the past two centuries toting their own notepads across the globe.
I have been suffering from what I would rather call blogger’s block than say procrastination, laziness or an enthusiastic start which you now know became no blog posts for a few days.
Battling Blogger’s Block, a thourough article I found at problogger.net, inspired me to go and buy yet another notebook, but actually fill it with something this time. Now my ideas are recorded and so should yours be. Yes they are that important.
Another tip I discovered in this article is, ‘Combine Two Disconnected Ideas,’ and the only example that comes to mind is Ramon Thomas’ new initiative, ‘The Psychology of Technology,’ sounds fascinating and who would’ve paired those two?
What do your readers need? Do they have questions, do they need to know how to do something or are they craving specific info? Ask them or think in their shoes. Note to self, set up a questions link – I love feedback!
Look at something from another angle, examples elude me here, but there is always the tried and tested, ‘Best sauces for escargot,’ which could become, ‘Why do snails need sauce anyway?’
Here is one that is super scary and I love scary. Challenge is my middle name. To give this sentence its due it’ll have to have its own line to lounge on.
Tell everyone that over the next week you’ll write a post per day on a certain topic and you’ve suddenly made yourself accountable to writing something every day – other people waiting for a post can be just the motivation you need. from here
Whew, now that that’s over, Why is my mind not ticking over, what am I not doing? What is that stagnant mulch doing up in my head? Its not experimenting, not painting, not taking photos, writing, cooking or whatever it is that gets you going. Doodle if you’re desperate, but do not let the mould grow!
What time of day do you find most inspiring, energetic, creative or just clear (in the head department that is.) Write in your best time! or not.
Link Link Link
Link to people you got your info from, were inspired by and mentioned. They have their own traffic and own their words. You can use both. (If you write about someone, search engines will forever link you and them, maybe not on the first search page, but do you want to not take that chance?)
Another great idea is, ‘Lists,’ so easy to read and fun, light reading (if that’s your aim, you also get pretty heavy lists) is always a plus in this attention deficit world. Think, ‘Ten things not to do while driving,’ ‘Five ways to keep sane at work,’ paper clip animals hopefully not featuring on that list.
Memes and Projects – write a post that somehow involves your readers and gets them to replicate it in someway. Start a poll, an award, ask your readers to submit a post/link or run a survey or quiz. from here
Short posts are fine, as long as, of course, they convey something meaningful and aren’t more of a waste of time than reading a long post, writer’s discretion advised.
Keep at it, keep looking out for inspiration and motivation, self motivate and make it meaningful, (Do not run from this big word, even ants are meaningful if you look at them the write way.)
Finally, let me know if you write, comments are motivating too!
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One Response to “Overcoming Blogger’s Block”
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September 3rd, 2008 @ 2:51 am
Zara in another life I would be a illustrator myself because I grew up on a daily diet of comic books. When I hit 50 I will take time off to publish my own comic book or something along those lines. When I have time, which is not often since I started my own business in 2004 I love portrait sketches. My drawings are mostly copies from other sources and I even did some oil painting classes. So my question to is how can I inspire myself to sketch or draw more, and also move to drawing portraits of real people – live – like they do on Leicester Square in London.