The other day I received a letter from a woman asking about whether or not she was cut out to be a writer. She mentioned starting about nine blogs and abandoning them because of having < a href="http://performancing.com/the-only-way-to-beat-bloggers-block">blogger’s block. While I won’t go into whether or not she has what it takes, I will say that good writers know blogger’s block or writer’s block happens, and take steps to deal with it.
It’s frustrating not knowing what to write about, here are some of the things I do to overcome blogger’s block.
12 Tips for avoiding bloggers block:
- Make a list – I have notebook on my desk filed with ideas. If I need inspiration, I look through my notebook.
- Check out other blogs – Not just blogs in your niche either. My bloglines has hundreds of blogs listed and even though I don’t visit all of those blogs every day, I do have daily stops. Making the rounds never fails to provide me with a topic or two.
- Go out for a while – Go for a walk, run some errands or have a cup of coffee with some friends. Take inspiration from the world around you.
- Subscribe to Google Alerts – Set up Google Alerts to notify you of any new news or blogs posts.
- Read past blog posts – Is there anything you can update or expand upon?
- Blog somewhere else – Move to another room or bring your laptop to the local coffee shop, Internet café or library.
- Check out your comments – I get my best ideas from the comments section of my blogs.
- Put it to your readers– Offer a poll, a quiz or take questions from your readers
- Enlist the aid of a guest blogger – Even if doesn’t give you new ideas, it will give you a break.
- Make a list – – List posts are a great way of presenting lots of small ideas instead of one big one.
- Visit some website’s offering writer’s prompts – Many writing websites offer writers prompts to help battle writing block. This may be a good way to get back on track.
6 thoughts on “12 Tips for Battling Blogger’s Block”
Stumble Upon is something I haven’t tried. Thanks for the tip.
I get a lot of good ideas from comments, too. I haven’t tried hiring guest bloggers yet, but that could be a fun way to go.
I often find a change of scenery helps, also. Thank goodness for laptops, right? 🙂
I agree. I get blogger’s block whenever I have too many post ideas in my head. What helps me is when I take a index card and write the number “1” on the card. Then, I pick just one post idea and write it on the card, too. I tape this card on the top of my monitor. This helps me single task and actually write a post.
Actually that’s it, though. The only time I get blogger’s block is when I have too many ideas to write about and don’t know where to start. And that’s when I remember the good old mindmap to organize my thoughts. (Just don’t let the map grow too big.)
.. my bloglines and Google Alerts. Sometimes, however .. it gets to become quite the opposite .. information overload, and instead of writer’s block .. I might find days of TOO MANY ideas to write about, and just end up surfing instead and doing nothing but chatting with my online friends.
Surprisingly, I’m following five out of these 12 tips. I feel bloggers block is mainly due to mental block where mind is already pre occupied on other activities which has to be overcome by following these listed tips.
Good post indeed. I always do the last thing you have stated here. Stumbleupon can bring some of the best blog posts to our notice. I have written many posts after browsing through the StumbleUpon Buzz page.
Comments are closed.