In Telling Lies for Fun and Profit, Lawrence Block wrote, "...when I want to write and can’t write I find myself possessed of murderous rage." I don't believe in forcing yourself to blog when you don't feel like it, because this is a hobby. It's supposed to be fun. But what about when you really do want to blog but have no idea what to blog about? So frustrating! Here are a few strategies I've collected:
- Plan ahead—I don't know about you, but my desk is littered with note cards that have ideas and notes scribbled randomly all over them. I also have notes on my phone, most of which are completely obscure even to me. For example, "Someone shows up demanding heroine save her true love whom she's never met re: Grimm." I have no idea which episode of Grimm I was referencing there, but interesting idea. Or, "The polis—people outside aren't human. Anna Karenina." Hmmm, I know I wrote that in my Ancient Greek class but I have no idea what Anna Karenina has to do with it. Still, it might fit into another idea I have in the future. Some of these ideas I'll write about when I have time, some I won't, but when you're searching for a topic it's always good to have a list of ideas somewhere to go back to.
- Read through some of your old posts—You can also go through your blog history and see if there are any posts you can expand on or update. Maybe you'll notice a theme or trend in your reading that you hadn't before, or you've been neglecting one of your features.
- Read through other blogs—Another great place for inspiration is other blogs! Naturally I don't mean stealing their content, but maybe you can curate a list of favorite posts by topic, or create a wish list of books or bookish things. You can also respond to others' posts: do you agree with a top ten list (answer: no, no one ever agrees with lists)? What would you have chosen instead? Did a certain article about a topic you care about go far enough? And so on.
- Random topic generators—If you're REALLY desperate or just feeling lucky, you can try a random topic generator. There's a ton of these all over the intertubes. A few I've come across are
- Big Huge Thesaurus http://words.bighugelabs.com/blog.php
- Blog Tap http://www.blogtap.net/blogtopicgenerator/
- Writing Exercises http://www.writingexercises.co.uk/subjectgenerator.php
- and Blog Post Idea Generator http://www.generatorland.com/glgenerator.aspx?id=122
- Go off topic—Sometimes you're just not in the mood to blog about books. So blog about something else! It may feel like cheating, but per Murphy's Law these posts usually end up being the most popular. The most popular post on my blog is the one where I basically just collected a bunch of pictures of Christopher Gorham shirtless, no joke.
Those are my strategies, but I'm sure you have your own! Share them in the comments.
Great ideas :) I've never used a topic generator. I'd like to give that a whirl just to see what they come up with!
ReplyDeleteThey are kind of fun. It would be interesting to do a challenge where you blog from random topic generators for a month, I think. :)
DeleteGreat strategies! I do often use other blogs to inspire my non-review posts. I will always email the other blogger first and ask if I can do a post on a similar topic, promising to credit their blog in the post for the original idea. I think people are usually flattered that their idea was good enough to emulate (and they usually don't mind the publicity either!). :)
ReplyDeleteGreat point. It's very nice and polite to ask, but even if you don't you absolutely should link back to the original post!
DeleteGreat tips, thanks for this post!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Monika!
DeleteLOL!!! Shirtless always seem to get hits! Maybe I should try that one sometime!! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat tips! I have never seen the random generators. I'm curious about those. I do keep a notebook with writing ideas in it. It really helps! And, now I will actually have more time write about them!!! :)