Blogging Tips

Writer’s block can be tough. It’s often easier to give in and give up than to struggle through, especially when you’re writing a personal blog and accountable to no one. But that’s not quite true, is it? You are accountable to someone: your readers. Your blog might only be read by five family members, or it might be read by five thousand strangers: either way, you’re providing a unique service to them that they can’t get anywhere else. This service is, of course, your own individual take on the world. No matter how you feel about your skills right now, these people still love you and want to hear what you have to say. So shape up, soldier. It’s time to stop crying and get back in the game.

Memories
Cast your eye back over your old work to see what was good about it, and don’t say “nothing.” A good rule is to begin with entries that received a healthy number of comments, or entries that inspired a discussion among your readers. Seeing that people really like what you write is an inspiring feeling. You might also make a few notes on what made these entries popular, and what you still like about them.

Here’s a tip: the farther back you go, the better. Entries from several years ago are going to look better to you than entries from a month ago, because you’ll be able to look at them more objectively.

Memorandums
When everything you write is sounding stupid to you, it might be time to go back to basics. Before there were blogs, those of us who wanted to chronicle our thoughts had to resort to journals. Buy a small notebook – you can get these in most grocery stores – and carry it around with you. Any time you have an interesting thought during the day, overhear a conversation or see something funny or strange, jot it down. Don’t try to do this with a big fancy notebook, because then you’ll be unconsciously trying to live up to your stationary and will edit as you go. (It’s quite possible this is just a girl thing, or a me thing. I really hate disappointing my stationary.) And don’t try to keep a journal on your computer; it’ll feel too much like blogging and you’ll be right back where you were.

Once you’ve got a few pages of notes, you’ll have some ideas for posts ready to hand. Not only that, but incorporating writing into your day will make you relax about it, and you’ll find it easier to do when it’s time to sit back down at your template.

Make it happen
No matter what road you take, they all lead back to this place: sitting in front of a blank screen, wondering what to write. This is when you get to make a new friend. It’s called your delete button. Try it out: write a sentence and immediately delete it. Now it doesn’t matter how that sentence turned out, right? No one else read it. It’s gone.

Now that you’ve made this special friend, it’s time to completely ignore him. You know he’s there. He’s on your side, ready to erase anything you decide the world isn’t ready to read. So relax, and pour your stream of consciousness onto the page. You can clean it up later. Right now you just want to get it all out there. Do this every day. You can delete it all when you’re done, but you have to write it down first. After a few days of this, you’re going to find you like something you’ve written. Wave to your writer’s block, because it’s gone. (For now…)