3 Top Tips For Never Running Out Of Things To Blog

Got Writer’s Block? Run Out Of Things To Say? Here’s The Cure.

Having had a few conversations about this recently it made me wonder why I nave never really had this issue (trying to rack my memory to see if I’m lying!) But it is a recurring theme with my blog students.

So let’s look at what causes bloggers to ‘dry up’ or have writers block.

You’ve heard the old saying ‘can’t see the wood for trees?’ Well this is often the problem. People will say ‘Sorry guys I don’t have much to say this week so I haven’t been blogging. I will see how I feel next week. Anyways I’m off to go sky diving and then I’ll be fighting a caged lion in Whipsnade Zoo. ‘Bye.’

HNTSO edit top image

I’m reading this thinking,

‘Huh?!! Fighting a lion?! Sky diving?! WRITE ABOUT THAT!’ Bloggers often can’t see the wonderful source of stories in the lives they lead. Okay, perhaps not everyone is fighting lions but actually in truth there are enough people interested in the less action packed aspects of anyone’s life.

I have often said this but the fact that you are struggling to write IS A THING TO WRITE ABOUT! There will be others who are feeling the same and will either come to empathise or come to see how you solved your writers block issue so they can mop up ideas.

Here’s another example:

You close your sad and empty blog page then pop down to the post office. All fairly mundane…but BING! …There’s the topic! – You could talk about how the mundane everyday admin things we are forced to do grind your gears, or how we seem to spend a great deal of our lives just queuing for things. Perhaps once you get there you see something amusing in the post office like a crappily written sign.

How about commenting about the good / bad / slow service or the weird mannerism the person serving you had?

A good example is Ellen Hawley who writes highly amusing posts on anything from fish and chips to immigration but she makes it her own quirky, witty, special thing.

 

Let’s drive this bus!

You could go super creative or sci-fi: what would happen if a meteorite was to hit the post office whilst you were queuing? What would you do? Who would you save first?!!

Let’s go religious: what if Jesus was to walk into the post office and order 14 first class stamps and a stack of self-seal envelopes but you were the only one to recognise him because everyone else had their noses in their phones? Do you go up and whisper, ‘Hey, JC…It’s you right?’ Or do you stalk him to see if he lives in flashy mansion or a garden shed? Plus…would it be rude to take a selfie?

You could go deep like James Clear who takes everyday situations and analyses the feshizzle out of them to draw out his productivity and good living theme.

 

It’s your blog lol! You can go wherever you want with it! Haley Joel Osment saw dead people but I see live potential stories everywhere!

That’s another thing. People limit the subjects they can write about via their blog title and then get themselves in a right old pickle when the subject they chose is not birthing great posts.

Until you are sure, perhaps don’t start a blog called ‘Snails With Three Heads,’ I’m guessing that niche has limited potential! Name your blog something that can grow and flow with your experience.

 

So to sum up there are 3 things from my magic box of tricks that will ensure you have an endless source of material. I don’t think you will ever look at a blank screen again and sigh:

 

1.Always Take A Notebook …Or Device

Always take a notebook wherever you go and jot down things that can turn into a story or a discussion on your blog. I have one by my bed for night ideas, by my desk and I would always carry one in my bag / pocket for when I go out and one in the car.

2. Connect

Connecting with other bloggers not only helps to build your network, you get to see a wide variation of ideas and inspiration from a wide range of people. You can see what works and what doesn’t and what ideas can be re-moulded and told through your own experience.

3. Have A Great News Source

Have a great news source. You may have one but I could not recommend Tinterwebs.com more. In one click you get a sweep of what is trending and being discussed around the world collated in one spot. When I go there ideas for my next posts are popping and exploding like little idea-bomb balloons. There are sooooo many subjects you can latch onto and bring home to your blog to discuss either as a standalone news event or re-sketched from a personal perspective. In addition I noted that Tinterwebs kills 3 blogging birds with 1 stone:

a) It’s Chatterbox feature allows you to connect with other bloggers whilst befriending your potential non blogger fan-base.
b) You can submit your own posts for exposure on T’interwebs and other more specific galleries e.g. the one for parents, fashion, pets, travel etc.
c) It’s a one stop shop of constantly updated topics, news and steal-able virals to use for your blog.

Yes I am in love.

 

SO SCHOOL ME FOLKS!

What do YOU do to stay inspired and find topics of interest for your blog?

 

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60 thoughts on “3 Top Tips For Never Running Out Of Things To Blog”

  1. This is insightful and very much needed, thank you. I carry a notebook in my purse but I find that whenever an interesting idea or question pops up that is epic blog material, I usually reach for my iPod and write in the “Writers Corner” category on my Notes app. I’ve got so many potential blog titles and ideas, I don’t know where to start! 😊

    And thanks for following my blog, I appreciate it.

      2. The whole damn kit-kaboodle! (As in the blog as a whole not just one blog post). I loved the template you chose initially, just lovely, accessible, stylish, neat and easy on the eye, then it was ‘okay there’s some darn good writing here too!’

        I was actually reading the most recent post when another attracted my eye and I jumped to that one! That’s the sign of a good writer when you have to tear yourself away from reading multiple posts (just so I have time to read other folks in the time allocated.)

        Also have to say I rarely see posts with ‘God’ in them that keep my attention. For some reason I find that the desire to write about God and religion doesn’t often match most folk’s actual ability to write about that subject well.

      3. “That’s the sign of a good writer when you have to tear away from reading multiple posts…”

        That is probably the best compliment I’ve received from a fellow writer. Thank you! As for the template I chose for this one, I wanted something clean and crisp, the typewriter is what sold me on this one! lol I want a typewriter so bad!

        I used to be wary about writing about religion, especially coupled with mental illness, but when I started this whole thing I wanted to be honest, like, completely naked. Not just to my readers, but to myself. No sugarcoating anything or Christianizing everything. That helps literally no one.

        If I want to write lies, I can do so in fiction. Honesty is the best policy, even if I’m the only one who reads my writing.

  2. Thank you for this! I´ve just started blogging again and, although the main reason for blogging at the moment is that I have somewhere to dump my thoughts. I know this is alright for now but I know the ideas will get harder to come by.

  3. I tend to find subjects to write in everyday conversation, experiences, or through looking at Facebook and seeing if anything memed about, or talked about, peaks my interest. If I have a message, I write about it. I have also written about personal matters I have experienced that seem commonplace that I have an opinion about. I have gone through a drought recently, mainly because my fiction took precedence, but I wrote about that, and saw you liked the post. I think I am doing fairly well with this reboot, and now that I know your blog exists, I will follow it 😁

    1. You market it like any other product has to be marketed. See my posts on blogging.

      Liking the Steve Biko piece. he does not get nearly enough recognition.

  6. Love it. I agree with your three tips.
    I eat every day, usually more than once! That’s why I have a food blog and a diary blog which is often about what I ate.

  8. hmmmm I need to make a mental note of the points especially taking a device or notebook … but will that help Reminds me I had one notebook shoved in the back pocket of my jeans for 5 years during college.. did not write a single word in it 🙂 🙂

  9. Well hello… I’ve follen off a lot latelt, but I’m going to be getting back at it soon. This certainly helped get the Foggy Bloggy Brain going…. Hope you are well!

  11. Just went to tinterwebs. Saw the confirmation of a news I’d seen on the French press about Oxfam’s deputy resigning. She made 100 000 bloody quid a year? In a charity?
    Seriously?
    Salts please.

    1. That’s what I mean though! Do I write about that or the non human who had sex with a corpse or the town where men are banned or the hunter who got eaten by the lions he was hunting…

      But yeah and they wonder why people don’t want to give to charity any more.
      There was this woman who looked after abandoned donkeys, she was trying to raise more money to continue and ended up selling everything she had to look after them, even moving into the barn with them. Eventually I believe the donkeys had to go – I lost track of her story…or rather she stopped updating and that was that.

      But this is the heart, selflessness and bravery that started most of these longterm charities. Now it’s overtaken by greedy buggers in it solely for the money and position and celebrity chasers who will pay some famous dickwad to fly first class to represent them instead of telling any celebrity who demands that from a charity to eff off.

      I choose my charities as carefully as I choose my friends. I monitor them and their work and see if I can see their sweat and concern. You see that at the coalface – it’s those overpaid tarts at the top you want to look out for.

      I want to see every one treated the same at whatever level – the people at the hard coal face are often the lowest paid with the hardest jobs.

      For me it has to be abundantly clear that the most important thing is the people or the animals they are helping. I’m not interested in that rubbish about you have to pay top cash to get the top people. There are few top people about these days, just cronies and nepotism – you and I aside dear Basil.

      4. It’s okay, I have copied your favourite person and just done a whole bunch of more dubious, legally questionable and morally repugnant stuff so everything is buried in so much paperwork and brouhaha I’ll be 90 before this case sees daylight – and then I’ll just pretend to be senile. Sorted.

  12. Inspiration is everywhere.
    It’s just a matter of listening and the story comes…
    (Paul McCartney said that a long time ago about songs)
    My current excuse, I mean problem, is time. I brought back so much material from Asia,
    I’m not even half-way through sorting it out…
    All in due time.
    🙂

    1. Absolutely! But what it does is pull out your writing skills. I recently read a post literally about nothing much …5 minutes in I was still there, 10 minutes in I was still there.. because the writing was that good. I got the end and laughed because as you say the post was literally about nothing! 🙂

  15. Always take a device, that one works for me. The amount of times I’ve been somewhere and not really thought about it. Denby Potteries is a good example. It wasn’t until I got there and I thought hmmm, there could be a post here 😀 Interesting post 😀

    1. Oh yes, for sure, they have some nice stuff! 😀 Plus…imagine if someone perhaps a little worse for wear fell over the glassware table…how could you resist if you had your device in your hand!!! (Especially if it was a comedy fall and they were fine.)

      2. Ha ha! I have a terrible streak in me for pancakes in the face and things not going quite as planned. But only if no one gets hurt though. 🙂

  19. This year I’m trying to pre-plan (that’s redundant isn’t it? A plan is, by definition pre-, but you get my meaning I’m sure) my blog posts. It’s meaning more organisation but it also means that I can put out content 3 days a week without turning into a stressed lunatic. Also, I try to differentiate my posts. My blog posts are more personal or trivial, my writin- help posts are information driven and on Tuesdays I add a in a two-sentence story to break things up.

    I’ve also learnt, over the years, not to keep doing something just because that’s what I started doing. Sure, three-headed snails might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but don’t keep flogging it if you’re no longer interested in it or it’s not going where you wanted.

    My next goal is to get people to interact more with the blog – I want there stories and questions. But, all in good time.

    1. Oh good for you! It’s great that you have said ‘my next goal’ because it means you are indeed planning ahead and have spotted stuff that could be great for your blog and are penciling it in without feeling overwhelmed by it.

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