The blank page waits…
The blank screen stares, lurks, teases, mocks even.
Your inner voice whispers…
Told you you were a rubbish writer! Not a single idea for a post? Now there’s a surprise…
You stare out the window.
You make your millionth coffee.
It gets cold.
Time to give up blogging.
End of…
OK, stop right there!
It doesn’t have to be this way!
Help is at hand…
Here’s what to do when you don’t know what the **** to write about.
1. Don’t despair! The idea is right under your nose, if you look.
Take a few minutes to go through your published posts and find the most popular ones. Perhaps the ones with the most comments, or the most page views.
Now work out, for each post,
- Why was this post popular?
- What problem did it solve for your reader?
- What is the ‘keyword’ for this post?
Now, write a post using the same keyword, or solving the same problem, but in a new way.
2. Take a fresh look at today’s newspaper/magazine.
You know how important headlines are for getting readers’ attention. Look through and pick out the headlines that catch your eye. You’ll be surprised at how many you can adapt for your blog.
Here are some I found today in the weekend supplement.
- ‘Just What You Need Today
- ‘Hot Tips Not To Be Missed’
- ‘The Ultimate Guide to…’
- ‘Believe it or not, this works for everyone!’
- ‘Seven Surprising Secrets To…’
- ‘All You’ll Ever Need To…
- ‘Wouldn’t It Be Great If You Could…’
You’ll be surprised at how easily you can use one of these as a ‘stimulus’ and before you know it, there’s a whole new post writing itself. (Well, almost!)
3. Stop striving to be unique.
I read somewhere that there are very few unique ideas in our world. Nearly everything is inspired or sparked off by something we’ve read, seen or heard. This includes inventions, creative ideas, novels and articles. All our ideas have arrived as a result of something else.
Inventions come because we perceive a need, novel plots are usually based on something we’ve experienced, first or second hand, and articles are written because we can fulfil a need.
The same applies to our posts.
We’re inspired by something. I once write a personal development post inspired by seeing a coat hanger in a tree… (Don’t ask…)
The ‘unique’ part of writing a post is
- how we approach the topic,
- our personal writing style,
- how we arrange the post,
not the idea itself.
Next time you have that ‘What The **** Can I Write About’ moment, take a look at your old posts and some magazines, and an idea will pop out at you…
It works for me!
