Writing is hard: four tips for struggling bloggers
Don’t let anyone tell you any different: writing is hard. If it’s not hard, you’re either fabulously talented and I hate you, or else you’re not doing it right.
Failure to keep up a regular writing schedule is probably the killer of most blogs. I’m terrible at it, myself. But for new bloggers who are feeling the pinch and wondering if it’s all worth it, I have wisdom from my years of blog battling (ok, I’m probably a slow learner): practice enough, and it does get easier.
Here’s some other tips I’ve learnt to help the words flow easier:
- If you have a fragment of an idea for a blog post: write it down. Even if it’s just a headline. I use Windows Live Writer to draft posts but you can use any kind of note-taking application or – shock horror – jot them down in a paper notebook (you know, with a pen).This means I always have a ton of blog post ideas – some are no more than a link and a few words or a title. Some have a paragraph or an opening sentence that stuck in my head. Next time I want to write something but have no inspiration, I look through my drafts and see if there’s something I can continue with.
- Set aside distraction-free time to write. You don’t need to tell me this is difficult – I know only too well. But switch off email and IM and Twitter and Facebook and divert the phone and close the door – then just write. If you’re in a quiet, comfortable place, you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is!
- Not sure where to start? Stuck in the middle? Easy – write the end first! I quite often jot down rough notes about what I want to put in the introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion and then flesh out whatever sections are already in my head. This works well with my first tip.
- Experiment with different kinds of posts. Everyone loves lists – so try writing one. Wondering something about your readers? Run a survey (there’s always at least two posts in a survey: the survey itself, then the summary of the results). Know someone interesting? Interview them. Following a topic getting lots of blog coverage? Write a summary of what you think are the best posts out there.
So over to you – what gets your blogging mojo pumping? Got any tips to share for struggling writers?
I usually struggle for time rather than ideas. Your suggestions are great however. I quite often start a post in draft and forget about it and the mojo for that post passes. I find that I need to finish it fairly soon after I have started or I get bored and go on to something else.
I find that the easiest posts to write are how-to-do-it posts (like this one). Everyone knows something about something that they can share.
I’ve also found that how-to-do-it posts also draw lots of traffic.
Obscure stuff like: “How to change the screen resolution on a Toshiba Portege running Ubuntu”
actually draws lots of visitors.
A great post GL… and quite timely – thanks for that!
My hope is that I can stand by the night’s I’m trying to set aside for this, although the truth is – the best posts I put up (in my mind) come from the times when I’m away, working out and about in regional /remote WA. I’m free to be creative with my own thoughts I guess.
We’ll see – I will say that I have taken to keeping a ‘writers diary’, to do exactly what you’ve mentioned, basically to help trap some of the ideas that pop into my head… I use snippets of conversations I might have heard; cut out newspaper and magazine clippings; draw little diagrams or doodles; basically try in as many different ways possible (that works for me) to capture a thread, so I can work at it another time. This method works fantastically for me, anything other than JUST trying to write it down.
Cheers GL – good to hear others suffer from this ‘bloggers block’ too