Writing is fun, but let us face it, there are days when you just can’t seem to find the inspiration to write even the simplest blog post. Writer’s block happens to everyone. The cause may vary too. You are pressed for time and with so much happening in your life, concentrating becomes difficult. But no matter what the cause maybe, there are so many ways to overcome writer’s block.
It gets overwhelming sometimes as we both have full time jobs but that does not stop us. Having fun is always at the top of our list and second to that is inspiring each other to be the best we can be. The beauty of being in a partnership here at PodJamTV is that we get the chance to encourage each other and in our own personal way, inspire each other to sit down and write our posts and create video content. We love to inspire others too, so we hope the things we practice can help you at times when you need inspiration for your blog posts.
1. Take a walk – The best way sometimes is to just leave your computer and take a long walk, clear your mind and give yourself time to just relax and free yourself from the problems and stresses of life. When your mind is clear you will often find it easier to find ideas for your next blog post.
2. Check your social media streams – Since we both love social media and are active on several social networking sites we often check our Twitter, Facebook and even Google+ streams to see if there are conversations on topics that we could expand on or even check for questions posted that might need answering. Check your streams as they can be a gem for ideas.
3. Post questions – Asking questions on Twitter or other social networking platforms can give you a ton of ideas to write about. Crowd sourcing is fun too, you get the community to join in on the fun. We love doing this as it also help us highlight people that interact with us.
4. Create polls- There are so many tools available out there to create a poll and get people’s opinions on certain topics. You can curate the answers and then share your findings via your blog post.
5. Check comments on your previous blogs – Go back to your previous posts and check comments made by your readers. There are always questions there that you can expand on. There are times when the comment area is not enough to answer and delve into the topics.
6. Travel - One of the best thing you can do is travel and find inspiration in the places you visit. It does not have to be a long trip, it can just be a quick trip out of town. We both love to travel and we have already come up with some ideas for a blog post while planning our trips.
7. Read books and blogs – Reading books and blogs and searching Google can help you find inspiration for topics that you want to write about. Just make sure if ever you find an interesting article and want to use a portion in your blog post, give proper credit to the original author or blogger. We have seen so many people just copy blog posts word for word and that is not a good practice. Your own original content is still the best.
8. Mind mapping – Mind Mapping tools are available online too. You can check them here. Mind mapping can help you diagram your thoughts and ideas into buckets. From a keyword you can branch out to certain topics that you can then use for a blog post.
9. Exercise – Exercise like running or even competitive sports can help clear your mind. We usually get the best ideas for blog posts when we are exercising, or even while we do our house chores. The key take away here is that again, you clear your mind and inspiration will come.
10. Brainstorm - Go to your friends and brainstorm ideas. Sometimes meeting up with your friends over coffee can inspire you with wonderful topics to write about. One cool thing that we do, is have a space where we just write down our ideas. We may not write about it right away, but the bucket helps us when we need inspiration for our next posts.
There you go. We always find inspiration from you our readers and it is our pleasure to share our experiences. We hope you find them useful. If you have any additional ideas, we would love to hear from you.
About the authors:
Marty McPadden founder and host of PodJamTv is a professional photographer, videographer, blogger, apple geek and a Production Supervisor at ESPN one of the largest sports network in the world. His vast knowledge in the above mentioned field will allow you our readers to tap into tools, apps, reviews and tips that he has learned and mastered over the years. How to’s and hacks that will allow you to have a richer online experience.
Misty Belardo co host and co writer of PodJamTv is an experienced blogger, designer and a self proclaimed Twitter-holic and an avid Facebook user is a Senior Production Manager at Barefoot Proximity, one of the most awarded advertising agencies across the globe. Her experience with writing, designing, SEO and brand and advertising strategy will give readers a point of view of what happens behind the scenes in the digital sphere.
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