Do you suffer from blogger’s block? Do you sometimes struggle to get your blog ideas down on paper, let alone write a full blog post? In this article, we’ll discuss how bloggers can overcome it – there are ways to push through bloggers’ block and get writing prolifically again!
1. Get To Grips With Google Alerts
Google Alerts can help you find articles that spark ideas for your content, and Google indexes thousands of articles daily – sign up for Google Alerts, and you can add and delete alert topics at any time based on projects you’re working on. Include keywords relevant to your blogging goals in your alerts.
2. Go Back To School!
Online webinars, in-person seminars, and workshops, you name it; there is a plethora of free or subsidized training and education out there that will enable you to acquire new material to write about and introduce you to new developments and directions. Seek out online directories of mailing lists detailing upcoming webinars and events in your industry.
3. Podcast Your Net
Podcasts are packed with information on every topic under the sun and best of all, you can listen at your own pace, in your own time – behind the wheel, on a train, cooking a meal, on the treadmill, or your daily jog or dog walk, you name it they are accessible anytime, anywhere.
They can be a fun and stimulating way not only to glean new knowledge or brush up on your existing know-how, but the very activity of listening to them potentially offers a wealth of thought-provoking insights to inspire your writing. Why not record your Podcast or, better still, a series of Podcasts to get your creative juices flowing again and eliminate bloggers’ block?
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4. Self-Impose Deadlines
Writing takes time and can become too easy to put off the task. Deadlines help you to sort the wheat from the chaff and force you to focus on completing an article. Rather than picking a date far in the future, commit to a ‘pre-deadline’ before a blog post or article’s official submission date to concentrate your thoughts and curb the temptation to write too much and go off-topic.
5. Be A LinkedIn Groupie
Being your blog’s sole source of content can be quite a weight on your shoulders. Share knowledge, ideas, feedback, and questions on topics of common interest with other group members. You can see what people talk about and use the information or trends you spot as a writing prompt to help get you started on a new piece of content. Group comment boards can also be a very effective resource for a recent article or blog post.
6. Readers’ Questions
Revisit questions on your blog and social media channels. More often than not, while only one reader may have taken the time to post a question, others would benefit from your answer. Questions can help stimulate ideas for future articles.
If they are a fellow blogger or a thought leader you aspire to, why not interview them for fresh, dynamic content for your blog?
7. Introduce Yourself to Infographics
A correctly placed pertinent information can convey in a picture what it would take a thousand words to say! It is also a savvy way of visually and, therefore, a simpler way of getting across and conveying complicated concepts or discussions with text to pepper it and compliment it. Google Images is great for finding clever graphics of online topics or discussions. Image-based or visual social networks such as Pinterest and Instagram are also rich pickings for the same.
Alternatively, why not create your infographics to help you mind map complex ideas or topics – after all, infographics are the social media equivalent of mind mapping.
8. Nail Those Notebook Ideas
Whether it’s a handwoven, moleskin affair or a simple school-style notebook, please keep track of your thoughts as they occur or flow; even better, keep it with you when you’re on the move to capture your thoughts and inspirational ideas. Or better still, record them electronically. Where you capture your thoughts is immaterial, but the material you register certainly isn’t!
An old idea is never a lost idea, and themes are more often than not cyclical. Refer back to them if you are going through a bit of a writing drought. You may even find some cohesion and a thread of continuity for your seemingly disconnected mind map! Revisiting old ideas may create or inspire new ones.
9. Quotations
Aside from the obvious benefit of illustrating or quantifying what you are trying to say, quotations are a useful way of padding out your blog or article if you struggle to. Still, perhaps more importantly, they are a powerful way to enhance your writing and ideas and allow you to link back to their owners, assuming they are alive and online, of course! Regardless, on social media networks at least, quotations are also one of the most shared pieces of content.
10. Hot Desk!
Something as simple as changing your environment can reactive and stimulate your senses. And if you can’t or don’t want to move, you physically can still very easily achieve the same effect by enhancing your environment with sounds or smells to refocus your writing and re-engage your mind. Familiarity does breed contempt – try a change of scenery or ambient sound to refocus your mind and recharge your writing.
11. Don’t Move The Goalposts
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by goals and deadlines, it would be futile to create further ones unless you are merely resetting existing ones. What I mean by this is re-examining those you have set and seeing if they are realistic and achievable – if not, do something about it. This could be as simple as splitting a seemingly unobtainable target into bite-sized chunks with mini-deadlines.
12. Become A Research Fellow
Use insight from Nielsen, Brand Republic, Gallup, and others – a wide range of research findings can make excellent topics and references for various blogs and articles. Of course, some or all of these aren’t relevant or helpful for your niche or specialists, but take the time to find out who is researching your industry and take steps to see the reports when they’re first released. Even if you redistribute their findings to your networks and followers with some introductory text, you will still point people in the direction of useful and thought-provoking text they will thank you for, hopefully by posting comments to your blog!
There’s no denying that writer’s block can be difficult to overcome, whether you are writing on paper or online. However, the beauty of online writing is the plethora of media available to create new content methods when experiencing blogger block: podcasts, video casts, infographics, top tips, how-to guides, interviews, and so on.
While there is no one-fits-all tried and tested method for all bloggers, finding new ways of sharing your knowledge and reaching new audiences that put you out of your comfort zone may be just what you need to overcome your bloggers’ block.
