Creative Blocks in Blogging

Today I’m participating in a Blog Carnival about Creative Blocks. Don’t miss the 11 other amazing contributors who wrote on different creative blocks linked at the bottom of this post.

“What the crap am I going to post about this week?!?”

If you have a blog, then you’ve had that thought run across your mind at least once. Or maybe once a week.

In my opinion creative blocks in blogging are some of the toughest there are, for these reasons:

3 Reasons Bloggers Experience Creative Blocks

1. Bloggers Have A LOT of Deadlines – Whatever your post schedule is, the point is this: You Have One. Whether you post every day or twice a week, the next deadline is always just days away.

2. Bloggers Usually Have NO Boundaries – Though most blogs have a theme or a focus to them, the fact remains that your next post can be about anything you want it to be about. Anything is in play.

3. Bloggers Often Lose Sight of the Goal – People maintain blogs for different reasons, but the one thing we all have in common is that we can easily forget why we’re doing it. When we fall into the mindset of “I need to get a post up today because I’m supposed to,” we run the risk of losing the creative oomph we had when we first got things going.

So how do you fight against these evil forces?

5 Ways To Beat Creative Blocks in Blogging

1. Remember Your WHY – When you find yourself mired in a creative slump, pull back to a 10,000 ft view to get some perspective. Why are you blogging anyway? Are you doing this to connect with people? To share your expertise on a subject? To build an audience? To help people get in shape?

Over time we tend to forget about these initial motivations and we start chasing blog stats, high comment numbers, and quantity over quality. If you’re nodding your head right now, maybe it’s time to reconnect with why you started blogging in the first place and let that motivate your next few posts.

2. Make a Passion Play – If I asked you to list out 3 things that you are incredibly passionate about right at this moment, what would they be? Got your list? Great, now go write a blog about one of them.

This isn’t a great way to create a majority of your content of course, but it works once in a while because it’s based on this important principle: If it’s not interesting to you it won’t be interesting to anyone. Write about things that move you, and there’s a good chance I’ll stick around to read what you have to say.

3. Get ahead, Stay ahead – Few of us can maintain a blog schedule where we’re writing content today that we won’t post until next month, so don’t worry – I’m not going there. That being said, getting ahead of your calendar – even just by a day or two – can be a HUGE creativity booster.

It’s tough be be creative when you’re trying to write the first and only draft of a post 60 minutes before you plan on publishing it. Start small. Try writing most of Monday’s post on Sunday night. Then on Monday spend a few minutes on a final read-through before posting so you can spend a majority of your time on Tuesday’s post. Neuter your deadline by staying ahead and watch how your creativity flow.

4. Look to the Past – Here’s a simple trick I use all the time when I hit a creative block: Go back 6 months or a year and read your own blog.

Every time I do this I’m reminded of a series I used to write or a post idea I had that I forgot about. Be inspired by what you’ve done in the past and let it spark your creativity for the future.

5. Fight Through Them – Don’t treat creative blocks like traffic jams that will eventually dissipate on their own. The thing we all hate about traffic jams is that they leave us powerless to do anything. We can’t go forward or backwards, we’re completely at their mercy. If you treat creative blocks like this, you’ve already lost.

Instead, think of creative blocks as big boulder in your path. Yes, you’ll need to make a change to get by, but there are plenty ways to do it. You can go around, go over, or blow the thing up with a stick of dynamite.

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Creative blocks in blogging are going to look and feel different for every blogger out there, but we’re ALL going to experience them and we’re ALL capable of working through them. Hopefully the above tips help you out the next time you get stuck! (If you’re looking for more help with blogging, check out what I’m doing at BlogRocket.com)

And if you have tips you’ve used to get through creative blocks as a blogger, please share them with us!

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Here’s the full list of writers who participated in today’s blog carnival. Check out some of the other posts below:

Bryan Allain– Creative Blocks In Blogging