I have several friends (and family members) with blogs that get updated somewhat frequently. Others are far more occasional, and still others, I have to wonder if they’ve forgotten their password.
When I ask them about it, their usual response is, “Well I don’t know what to write about.”
I understand, I’ve had writer’s block before.
But there’s one thing I’ve found that gets me over my writer’s block every time — writing.
I know you’re all looking at me funny now but perhaps I can explain.
In my college journalism class we had a practice we’d start each class with — 10 minutes of writing about anything.
It didn’t have to be a lengthy prose, it didn’t have to be publication worthy, it could be fictional, non-fiction, prose, poetry, whatever — it was just the practice of writing that helped get our muse going and get our minds thinking.
While most of what I wrote was usually junk that was trashed as soon as the practice was over, I also ended up with several good columns out of the process as well.
The practice still works today.
In fact, one of the reasons I was able to finish my novel in a month was because I simply wrote. I didn’t focus on re-thinking or editing during the process, I just wrote.
There’s plenty of time for editing once you’re finished.
So for starters — just write.
Not only will it get your creative juices flowing but it may turn out being something worth publishing (or at least a starting point for something in the future).
And if that doesn’t get your blogging juices flowing, I’ve also put together a list of some other great starting points for your next blog post:
- Share a funny story that happened today (kids are great sources of this)
- Something you liked about your favorite TV show
- Something you disliked about your favorite TV show
- Politics (always a hot topic)
- Professional wrestling – you may laugh but I always get a lot of visits from Google when I write new posts about wrestling. Even if you don’t like wrestling do a quick scan of WWE.com or TNAWrestling.com and figure out how to work in the name of a couple of the wrestlers mentioned on the front page, like The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, AJ Styles or Kurt Angle, and see how many visits you get from it :-).
- What you love about your favorite restaurant
- A favorite recipe
- Mindmap your past posts. This idea comes from Darren Reeves and his e-book 31 Days to Building a Better Blog. Make a list of your most recent posts and then brainstorm all ways that the post could be extended into other posts. This is your chance to think outside the box.
- Take the opposite approach to an issue
- Explore an idea or suggestion someone may have made in the comments of the original post
- If you shared a story, offer an alternative ending (fictional or not)
- Offer an alternative “how-to”
I recently did this with my post, How I found Heaven at What-A-Burger:
Granted, I may not write or publish all of these ideas, but it’s a great resource of ideas.
See how many posts you can get out of your original one and then start writing as the ideas come flowing in (hint: don’t post the posts all at once — schedule them for several weeks out). - Pick a topic and write a series of posts on the topic. If you can find a list of something you’re interested in, blog about each point on the list. I’m doing this with the Simple Living Manifesto over on We Live Simply. Simply blogging each point in the manifesto, I have 72 posts (which will last me through the middle of June 2010). And that doesn’t include mind-mapping each of those 72 posts either.
Of course, while these ideas have helped me — but they may not be your cup of tea.
So what about you? Where do you get ideas for your next blog post?
