I like to write a lot.
I have been publishing entries on a daily basis for the past two weeks because I set myself that goal to do so.
I publish over 1500 words every single day.
Although this might be quite challenging for a lot of people that are beginning into their blogging experience both in steemit and websites such as blogspot or wordpress, the one thing you need to do if you want to make your blog successful is to post every single day.
Posting every single day attracts attention to your site, gets people interested and allows you to build an audience which you can share your thoughts to the world, it doesn't matter whether you're blogging about your life, your dog, a cooking recipe, politics, religion or current events. What matters is your voice and the fact that you're getting it out there.
Sometimes there's a moment in the life of every author where they are just staring at a blank screen not knowing what to do or what to write.
This is a post about such moments.
A blank sheet in your word processor can be as scary as a horror movie, specially after a long day of work or in those days where everything isn't fitting in its right place.
So today I'll be giving you ten tips I use to write when I have a writer's block
1. Don't push yourself
Pressure is your worst enemy. Writing up to five 1500-word posts a day for me has become a challenge but I got to this point by relaxing and practicing. You don't have to force yourself to an action, if you do, you'll just end up frustrated and angry with yourself and everybody else around you, and that isn't the goal. You're blogging as a means to express yourself, and even if what you want to express is anger and frustration, not being able to put that in a coherent set of words won't get you anywhere.
So my first tip is don't push yourself.
There's no ritual to write a post, everybody has a different method and approach, however your writing process should flow naturally from your mind, through your fingers and into your laptop. Writing gibberish just for the sake of it will end up hurting your quality and drawing followers away from your site.
If you take it easy, everything will come to you in its own time.
2. Check the calendar
Go to wikipedia, check the calendar to see what happened on this day, or previous ones, history is quite broad, and everyday there's a commemoration, a holiday, the birth or death of someone important, ¿So why not blog about it? It has worked for me.
Commemoration dates are a great start to apply several writing techniques, research and writing.
3. Go out and take a walk
When I find myself blocked, I stop what I'm doing, close my Macbook and go for a stroll or a ride. So if you're blocked, shut down your laptop and go for a walk, enjoy the nature, go to the mall, the store, the shop around the corner, go anywhere. The very fact that your brain is doing something else will make you see things even more clear. Our brain is a sponge, and if all you do is soak up negativity, you won't be getting anywhere.
Oftentimes the fact that I went out gave me a few ideas to write about and got me to write shortly afterwards.
So give it a try!
4. Brainstorm
In that very blank, scary and empty sheet start to write things that come to your mind. Start easy, with single words, and then work your way up to full sentences. Do this in a way that will allow you to access them easily and build up your writing from there. Maybe you can do a whole post out of a brainstorm, connecting the dots and constructing ideas.
5. Music!
That's right, music, any kind you want.
Did you know that it's just a mere coincidence that Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of The Moon" syncs perfectly to the 1939 film Wizard of Of starring Judy Garland?
Recorded in the legendary Abbey Road studios in London, this album is considered one of the greatest and best selling rock albums of all time, even though it only held the number one spot in the US for a week, it remained in the Billboard album chart for 741 weeks!
Just take a look at that! With just quoting an album from an artist or band, I can come up with a whole post about Rock. You can easily do the same.
6. Blog about what you like
Yep. Blog about the stuff you like, if you're a doctor, blog about health and fitness, if you're a stay-at-home mom, write about your day, and how you take care of your house, DIY's, life hacks and the such.
Our daily routines and the way we use our skills to take advantage of our time are things that are worth sharing, specially if what we do can help somebody else facing the same issues at any given time.
So blog about the things you like, let everybody else know your passion, tell people YOUR story and see where that gets you.
7. Motivational phrases
This is a good one. I remember when I wanted to blog about how I managed to hit the reset button on my life after losing my job and finding myself without a place to go. I decided to move on and get a new job, and meanwhile I was surfing job sites and posting my resumé everywhere, I googled "motivational phrases" and I found some interesting things, some were tacky, other great, and others just plain stupid, but that gave me an idea to write about moving on.
So here's what you should try, open your browser and type in google "motivational phrases", see what you get.
I remember a good quote I stumbled upon by Henry Ford that went like this _"Obstacles are those nasty things you find in your way when you take your eyes off your goals".
Or another one by Thomas Edison, when he was developing a filament for the lightbulb, he had a lot of trouble finding the correct material for his lightbulb, when passing electrical current through thousands of different materials, they just blew up or went up in smoke. Up to his neck in debt and his investors pressuring him to quit, he famously is quoted with saying "I haven't failed, I've found 5,000 ways that don't work".
So motivate yourself into giving your best.
If you try the best you can, the best you can is good enough.
8. Read
Yes, read, cultivate the habit of reading. Read whatever you want, a novel, poetry, the newspaper, kinky books, comic books, the horoscope, whatever, but cultivate within yourself the habit of reading for at least half an hour a day in your routine.
If you're writing and not reading, you can't possibly expect to produce good material for your followers.
So, what happens when you read for at least half an hour every day?
Words will come to you and in the blink of an eye you'll be typing away in your word processor.
9. Ditch your headphones
If you're the type of person that goes out to the street everyday with your headphones blaring, you're missing out on the many sounds that can inspire you to write the most interesting things. Give it a try! Leave those headphones at home a day and listen to your surroundings.
Take note of the most interesting sounds you were exposed to and write a post. You can go from crickets to the deafening sound of traffic during rush hour and how it impacts on your health.
10. Do some research
In my spanish blog at wordpress I write about all kinds of topics, from politics, health and fitness, lifestyles and pop culture, in order to write those lengthy-1500-word-average-long posts I have to do a lot of research, so I put in practice tip #7 every single day.
Sometimes after I do my daily reading, something might stick with my train of thoughts, so oftentimes I end up writing about that by doing some deep research on that subject.
The upside that you have, is that you're not a journalist, and neither am I, and in websites like Steemit or wordpress there's no writing style and guidelines, and as long as you keep the universal rules of respect and courtesy, you are your own editor-in-chief. So have a blast with it and do some research about a topic you like and get those posts on their way
Wrapping it up
It can't get any easier than that. Tell you readers your daily experiences, of all kinds, both good and bad. And make a balance out of those experiences, whatever comes out of that, just write it down.
If your boss went berserk and started to yell everybody around the office, how about a post on "When bosses lose it" or "How to cope with work-related stress?"
A lot of things can happen to you any given day, you might find something interesting worth sharing on your way to or back from work, something might happen in your house. Any event can be a blog post if you set your mind to it.
So there you have it. Those are ten tips I put in practice for my blog. I really hope you like them and put them into use and get those posts on their way. If you find this post useful, please, upvote, share, rested and comment your experience.
If you're going through a writer's block, feel free to ask whatever you want. There are no stupid questions, just people that are too afraid to ask. Steemit is a great community and we want to help everybody share their thoughts and ideas, so this post was made with that intention
If you want to follow me outside steemit, you can find me on twitter at @albertozambrano
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