This is the third in a three-part series about common blogging
worries. You can find the previous parts in the newsletter archive here:
Today, I wanted to take a look at a final very common
worry about blogging: coming up with a consistent flow of ideas.
All writers need ideas, but bloggers have a particularly tough time because they need lots of them! If you're, say, a novelist or a non-fiction book writer, you might have one core idea that you develop and dig into for months at a time. As a
blogger, you'll need several ideas each month (maybe several per week).
Whatever stage you're at with your blogging, it can feel like ideas are hard to come by. Maybe you sit down to write a weekly post, and you always spend ages struggling to come up with a topic. Or maybe you write diligently, but you feel that your posts are
a bit disjointed or lacking. Or perhaps you have lots of things you'd like to write about, but you feel like other people have already said all there is to be said!
The good news is that you can come up with plenty of ideas. Here are some things that should help:
#1: Set aside time for idea-generation
Sometimes, inspiration might strike out of the blue (and do keep a notebook handy for those moments). More often, though, you'll
find that ideas come to you when you're deliberately, consciously making time for them: setting aside 30 minutes to brainstorm, for instance, or using your lunch hour to read similar blogs to yours to see if anything sparks off a new idea for you.
#2: Don't dismiss ideas out of hand
You might come up with an idea that you think is overdone, or boring, or too difficult.
Don't dismiss it too quickly. Jot it down -- it might not be quite the right idea for you, but it could lead you on to something different.
#3: Don't worry about being "original"
Whatever you blog about, there are probably plenty of blogs covering similar ground. Just because another blogger has written on a particular topic doesn't mean
you can't, too!
You'll always bring something fresh to your posts: your own perspective and voice.
If you read someone else's post and you feel inspired
by it, that's fine: just make sure you acknowledge and link to their post from yours. This can be a great way to extend and develop conversations within the blogging world.
Here's your challenge for today: find at least 10 minutes to sit
down and brainstorm ideas for your blog. Write down anything that comes to mind -- even if you think it's a "bad" idea. See if you can get at least ten ideas in ten minutes. Even if you only end up using one of those ideas, that's still 10 minutes well
spent.
