Push Through That Blogger Angst
Jul. 22nd, 2009 by Olivia HayesThere comes a point in every blogger’s life when, despite their best efforts, they find themselves scraping the bottom of the barrel. Maybe it’s the heat in the dead of summer, the fact that everyone is on vacation while you toil away at the old keyboard, or just a bit of old-fashioned burnout.
Regardless of the cause of your blogger’s angst, if you blog for a living, you’ve got to find a way to push through it, Rocky! In general, I find that the bloggers who write the most compelling content are the ones with well-rounded interests, which helps to keep them from regurgitating the same content in different flavors.
Here are a couple of suggestions that I personally find helpful, but I’m interested to hear what you other bloggers do to help shake and bake on your slow days.
Listen to better music –
If you walk around the Ignite office, you will find each of us with earbuds firmly in place, mainly because if we didn’t respect each other’s musical choices by doing so, then we’d all be subjected to the throbbing beats of Brian Chappell’s house music. If you’re feeling a little uninspired, you should probably start by getting better tunes.
The Hype Machine is a site that aggregates content from hand-picked music blogs, giving you the ability to listen right on the site. An interesting feature they just added is the Twitter Music Chart, which lists songs in order of popularity based on tweets. It’s a convenient way to find new music and see what others are currently loving (the past few weeks, it’s been a lot of inspiring Michael Jackson remixes).
Use More Interesting Photos –
Not that I don’t love browsing iStockphoto as much as the next girl with bangs, but sometimes those photos can wind up looking, well, generic. You don’t have to be a Photoshop stud to whip up something that will be fun to look at when you’ve got plenty of photo editing sites at your disposal to help. Here’s a list of 28 photo editing sites and the various effects and styles they can help create. Because a wordsy blog post without eye candy just won’t do.
Play Games –
Specifically, word games. These are excellent for shaking loose some of the Scrabble tiles in your head and getting you into that authorial mindset. The world of social media has us all addicted to the brevity of LOLspeak, so sometimes it can take a minute to remind yourself of syntax and all those lovely vocabulary words you learned for the GRE’s. Word games keep your writerly mind sharp, and when your boss walks by and asks if this is what he’s paying you for, simply smile sweetly and say yes…yes it is.
Stop Talking –
I know it’s difficult, with everyone passing by your desk and telling you about how well their weekend dates went, but stop running your mouth for a sec, ‘kay? Talking utilizes one side of your brain (the left side), and it’s difficult to engage the other side, which is visual and intuitive and can help you get in touch with some of that deeper creativity. Try not talking, and instead engage in some sort of visual activity, like creating your own Jackson Pollock painting. The combination of the two will help you switch over into the more lush creative environments in your mind.
Get a Creative Prompt –
Hanging in our office bathroom is a whiteboard, which serves as the location for some of our most inappropriate creative prompts and questions. It’s a place where we can build off one another’s responses, sort of like written improv. While you may not have such evolved tools at your disposal, you can always visit a blog that provides you with prompts, which you can scroll through until you find something that you like.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments?
About The Author
Olivia Hayes has nurtured multiple corporate blogs from infancy into a healthy adolescence, word wrangled marketing campaigns for clients like InDemand and Sirius, and helped envision promotional event concepts for Planned Parenthood NYC. Olivia is the Copywriter and a contributing writer for Ignite Social Media.Posted in: The Net |
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August 1st, 2009 at 1:10 pm
I like the whiteboard in the bathroom idea, it is certainly a good way to capture those creative prompts
Scrabble is my personal favourite wordgame, and I must say that sometimes it is quite effective to get them writing gears rolling. Now I have an excuse for playing Scrabble on Facebook!
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:55 pm
One of the main ways I push threw and continue to do work is by listening to inspiring music, another one is just talking a walk.
Till then,
Jean
February 8th, 2010 at 1:12 am
I recently discovered that music without vocals is the best solution for soothing your nerves while working. Vocals tend to distract you mentally as you automatically listen to what they are saying. But when you have only music, it eases your mind without taking focus away from your work.
Till then,
Jean
March 8th, 2010 at 4:48 am
большое спасибо!Взяла себе тоже-пригодится.
June 2nd, 2010 at 1:27 am
It’s true that its really tough get out of the bad streak once you get really down on your blog, and don’t know what else to do. Its those times that really will make it or break it I find, and sometimes doing something for leisure to try to get your mind back in it can do more harm than good as you might find yourself staying in lazy mode for a while. So really its tough… and just depends on the individual.
June 20th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I find myself trying to come up with new posts quite challenging at times. I can’t say that it is due to burn out. However, it would be nice to have enough visitors that would comment on a regular basis. I think that without participation, one feels that they are blogging to a brick wall.
This tends to get me down a bit.
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:44 am
It’s certainly very similar to writers block. What you need to revitalize your motivation varies from person to person. Maybe do something you really enjoy to get your drive back to perform better. That usually works best for most people.
March 3rd, 2011 at 1:21 pm
music and work is a great way to work, music is normally my motivation espcecially monday mornings!
May 2nd, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Thanks for the incite. I have been having a hard time and you have help jump start my writing mojo.
May 20th, 2011 at 5:45 am
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May 30th, 2011 at 8:45 pm
Greetings! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading your articles. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with the same topics? Thanks a ton!
June 13th, 2011 at 9:01 am
I have had a real hard time with the motivation and drive with what feels like running on empty. It’s been a challenge but your tips have helped and I feel inspired to push on, this is only a stepping stone.
June 23rd, 2011 at 8:41 am
Hmm it appears like your website ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I had written and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I as well am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any tips and hints for first-time blog writers? I’d certainly appreciate it.
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August 5th, 2011 at 4:58 am
I have a blog on blogger and every time i go to my blog it counts it as a page view even when im logged in. How do i make it only count the views from other people?
August 8th, 2011 at 5:55 pm
very good post, i certainly love this website, keep on it
August 20th, 2011 at 6:59 am
I have a blog on blogger and every time i go to my blog it counts it as a page view even when im logged in. How do i make it only count the views from other people?
September 1st, 2011 at 4:16 am
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January 5th, 2012 at 3:11 am
Q: Why do men float better than women? A: Because they are scum.
January 5th, 2012 at 3:12 am
Lawrence Peter Berra~ It aint the heat its the humility.
February 6th, 2012 at 6:22 pm
Thanks for the motivation sometimes it can be really hard.
April 1st, 2012 at 4:03 pm
thanks for the motivation it can be hard to do.
July 2nd, 2012 at 8:48 am
I recently discovered that music without vocals is the best solution for soothing your nerves while working.
July 3rd, 2012 at 12:06 pm
thanks for the ideas I am always needing them.
August 7th, 2012 at 11:10 am
we all have had a hard time with the motivation and drive with what feels like running on empty. It can been a challenge but your tips have helped and I feel inspired to push on, this is only a stepping stone.
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October 24th, 2012 at 10:40 am
Well written article! This is very useful post to everyone and thanks for sharing with us.
January 1st, 2013 at 9:30 am
It can be hard to get threw the blogging angst. thanks for the tips.
February 15th, 2013 at 1:16 pm
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