I read a great blog today on Copyblogger.com which offered great tips to get over your struggle to find something to say in articles or on your blog and which led me to share some of my own simple tips on getting over writer’s block and creating the kind of blog your reader wants to come back to.
Copyblogger’s first tip on writing content for blogs is a personal favourite of mine, because it’s kind of like the speed-dater’s approach to getting over word-shyness and is a great ‘brain-storming’ technique. The idea is to give yourself a short time slot to write as much as you ca,n about any given topic or topics, which works because it focusses on the AMOUNT you write, rather than the QUALITY. Freed from worry about whether what you write is ‘good enough’ just allows the free-flow of your expressing own thoughts, however they come out on paper.
So if you worry about your own writing, go and get a piece of paper and pen, or open a new word document on your P.C. and set your timer on your watch or phone for about three minutes and just START to write whatever comes into your head!
The idea is to not focus on the results, but to just get into the physical act of putting pen to paper or fingers to keys. The trick here, is to write as if talking to someone you know well, like a friend or family member. Ask yourself, are you afraid of talking to your best friend and saying what you really think? Probably not. So for this exercise, pretend you are speaking directly to someone who is already listening to you in your real life. Chances are when you have finished writing, you will have written some pretty good basic ideas on which to build a decent blog.
Being natural is what will interest people enough to read what you have to say. We all like to feel as relaxed as we can in any new social situation, even if it is only trawling the internet from the safety of our living room! So, be yourself and you will attract other people thinking along the same lines as yourself or wanting to learn about the information and ideas you are sharing. This is a mental hurdle you can practise your way over.
Another adaptation of this simple writing exercise for those a little more comfortable with their own ideas, or for when you are progressing, but still needing to build confidence in your own ability to say something ‘worth reading’ by others, is to think of a specific topic first off that you would like to talk about a little more at length, before you put pen to paper. Then give yourself ten seconds and NO MORE to come up with THREE key words, phrases or concepts involved with your idea. That done, start the clock again and repeat the first exercise, but this time giving yourself five minutes and using your key terms, with one of them being used at least twice in your text.
If you are want to be a little more confident people actually want to read your material, then you can always cheat and borrow the words off Google’s free online Keyword tool and use these terms which other people are using to search with, when they go online to look for your chosen topic. Use Google key word suggestions to ‘speak your mind with. This way, you can select those terms which suit you and which you would like to use to attract visitors to your site with.
The other good thing about this second method is that it gets you used to writing within the ‘frame of reference’ of your ideal readers. So, if 10,000 people locally are looking to find out about ‘grooming my dog’, according to the Google tool, then putting these words into your writing is not only going to give you practice of writing for its own sakes, but it can boost your confidence in terms of being able to speak to those people who search for information on your canine care blog topic anyway.
When you are done, your next step is to put it out there in a safe environment for feedback. If you are not ready to ‘publish’ on your blog yet, read your article aloud to someone whose opinion you trust. This way both you and they get to hear your voice and you can learn a lot just by hearing yourself speak. Don’t worry about stopping and tweaking; it’s all good.
The important part of sharing your writing with another, is that this person has to tell you truthfully whether what you say sounds like you! Simple as… If they think it does not sound natural, or quite right, then your next step is to put the paper down and just speak aloud for a few minutes on the same topic, (referring to words or phrases you have written down already if you need to). Get your friend to then scribble down which words or phrases they like as you speak and then give you feedback on why they liked these parts of your mini-speech.
This two way dialogue is how we naturally ‘find our voice’ during normal conversations as we grow up, without the fear we may attach to our ability to write those ideas down. The trouble comes in the voices we have in our own heads about what we have written in the past. Just for a moment, think back to the red scrawl your English teacher penned all over what you thought was a really good piece of work and how crushed you felt. It felt pretty crappy, right? Chances are there was part of you deciding right then that writing was not for you.
Sadly, many people bring this rubbish about ‘rules’ of writing through to writing on their blog.
NEWSFLASH! The world has changed since then, thank goodness! So WHO CARES about old fashioned rules? They do not apply to blogging!
Writing conventional, formal articles is fine, once you develop and want your work syndicated on Article Directories or when you want to produce a press release for the launch of your latest service or product, but at this stage your focus should be purely on YOU feeling O.K. to speak freely and clearly. Nobody is going to criticise you heavily at this point. On a blog, they will merely hit the back button on their computer and you will never know they were even there. Even if they do leave negative comments, chances are they will be drowned out by the positive feedback anyway, OR they will even actually offer constructive advice and you can continue to learn from your new fans… even better.
Copyblogger sums it up perfectly here:
“Yes, writing must communicate a message, and to that end the conventions of standard English are important. But in many instances, those rules actually hinder our ability to create a realistic voice… the rules of our language evolved over time with the specific purpose of creating clarity. If breaking a rule will enhance the clarity of their writing, then they should break it — and so should you.”
So for instance, your teachers taught you that a ‘paragraph’ meant a few sentences put together before you left a space for the next subject.
RUBBISH!
It all depends is the truth here. The short answer to this ‘rule’, is that you OWN your blog, so you can say what you want. So for instance, I just highlighted my personal response to an idea about ‘accepted’ rules of writing in a line and paragraph all of its own, by saying “Rubbish!”… I wanted your attention focussed on my opinion… and that is fine…Did you get irritated when you saw me doing it? (If you did, then need to get with the program here!)
As for all the ‘dot, dot, dot’, stuff I often use in my own blogs, we never got much of that in our school essays without being told to complete our ideas or to put it ‘in quotes’. I put them in my blog because I want my readers to fill in the gaps for themselves as they read, so I am not just talking to them, I am acknowledging that they may also have a reaction to what I say and I am making room for that… Make sense? : )
So writing fragments rather than complete sentences might break the received wisdom of writing in traditions of written English, but like adding an apostrophe (‘) or missing out letters of words to speak with a regional accent in colloquial English, breaking and bending rules of writing is GOOD. It conveys YOUR personality, which is after all, what people like to connect with when they choose to hear YOUR voice over the next blogger.
Your blog is written with YOUR rule book. It’s your party and you can blog, blawg or blarg… if you want to! Forget the rules. Write in your own way, without worrying about correctness and then re-read it. If it sounds good to you, it is because it SOUNDS like you and will sound good to someone else (or why else would people bother speaking to you day-to-day at all?!)
O.K. So now you are moving from a few short paragraphs hastily thrown down in five minute bursts and you are now wondering WHAT you can possibly write 500 words or more about. First piece of advice, take a deep breath and ask yourself if you ever went on and on at somebody about a subject you cared about and which you thought you had a valid opinion on. You opened your mouth and came out with it until you had made your point, right?
So, what is so different about finding a subject about which you are passionateand putting that passion to paper? Mine’s reading and writing, in case you had not guessed already! So much so, believe it or not, we are currently at over 1,000 words. OK, perhaps I have had a bit more practice, but the point here is that all I am doing is speaking digitally to you about a subject I know something about. And THIS is YOUR KEY to writing what other people WANT to read.
If you are not confident about knowing ENOUGH, then simply do a search online for other people blogging about what you are interested in. Copy and paste tit-bits and then re-write them (DON’T COPY OTHER PEOPLE FOLKS! You will not gain popularity for that!). Do your research. Look up some facts and start sticking the bits together in a way you would explain about a new subject to your best friend, so that they follow you and understand what you are telling them even though they perhaps knew nothing about the subject before.
One of my teachers advised me at school to write about a subject assuming the reader knows nothing. This advice stood me in good stead for years. I still apply that principle partly, but also I assume that the reader of my blog knows something, or they would not even be interested enough to visit in the first place. People sometimes just need gentle coaxing to remind them of stuff they know already, but perhaps have forgotten.
Remember that rule of writing you were told about not repeating yourself? Well here’s another rule you can throw out if writing online. Guess what? Your friend does not always ‘get it’ the first time you tell them something new, so sometimes you have to translate what you are saying by paraphrasing into words they can understand. You make it SIMPLE and GIVE EXAMPLES from your own life perhaps: “Remember that time when…well that’s what this is.”
So by now, you are rocking and roller-penning! You are almost there! Gradually getting all unblocked and blogged-up! (There’s another freedom I permit myself in blogging right there… the liberty to make up your own new expressions or words that folk will understand and enjoy… Us bloggers LOVE creativity!)
I love learning new words…
ANORAK CONFESSION: I love it when the Oxford English Dictionary up-dates their latest edition annually and hearing their latest additions that have entered our everyday language. I remember when ‘skanking’ was included and the officionados wanted a definition, so they called on the poet, Linton Kwesi Johnson. He turned up with his ghetto blaster, switched on a killer reggae song and proceeded to skank for about five minutes. When the reggae song finished, he turned to the lexicographers and said: “now describe that!”. I’d love to have been a fly on the wall; it always makes me laugh when I picture it.
But I digress (because I can without fear of red penned lines across my page!) The point is, you can say what you like as long as you are getting your ideas across and speaking as yourself, with your own true perspective and your own voice. We can all tell a faker when we hear one; the same applies to the written word. If it is not in your own voice, people will generally know and this is off-putting amongst the bloggerati.
I am saying this also because I recently had my own personal revelation about writing… Now reader, I think I am lucky… I was a curious child and read far too many books than was healthy for one who could have been climbing walls and showing off how clever I was with other kids… I kept a diary as a child and wrote letters to friends of family abroad. I felt O.K. to say my own stuff… I was fearless. It didn’t matter even if the words were a little jumbled, as long as I got the news across. The thing is I was RELAXED with what I wrote for the most part and felt ok to be myself. This is the heart of many peoples’ writer’s block.
It is this psychological hurdle you have to simply write your way out ofby just doing it. The first time I made cheesecake, it was pretty disgusting and fell to pieces as you tried to eat it. The next time was marginally better, but still didn’t taste great. I was never going to be a great cake baker, but I improved with practice. could probably do a half-decent one now if I put my mind to it. What’s interesting though is that I do not enjoy everyone’s cheesecake either: too sweet, too buttery, too rich… But my sister… well now… it’s what she loves doing and she makes cheescake to die for… It’s all a matter of practised skills and taste.
So, my tips for getting over blogger’s block: Firstly, find a subject with which you are comfortable; if you are passionate, even better, you will research it and become an expert people seek out. Second: Practise being that ‘passionate pen’. People appreciate it, the more real you are. Third: Ask readers for feedback. Fourth: BREAK THE RULES and limits you didn’t realise you had set up in your mind all those years back. They no longer apply. The more renegade you are as a writer, the more irresistably readable you become to a growing number of fans.
Welcome to the world of blogger’s writes! Have fun!
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