Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Writer's Block Overcome for Good


Do you find yourself brimming with blogging ideas, at all the wrong time? Do your best ideas usually come to you in the shower, while doing chores, or when trying to fall asleep at night? They do for me, brilliant ideas (in my opinion) but when I sit down to write, I HAVE NOTHING writers block at its best.
Perhaps it's your mind is giving you a warning, creativity cannot be forced, or called upon at will. Instead creativity has to be captured when it pops up, or may be lost for good.

Not anymore

Your goal, as a blogging artist, is to capture the ideas when the arise, and save them for a time when you can expand upon them to turn them into valuable site/blog content
How You ask?

Capture the Ideas RIGHT When They Arise


Keep a pen and paper handy at all times

Wherever you go, whatever you're doing, make sure you have a paper and pen handy. When the idea strikes, take notes. If you're out shopping, mark up a receipt. Eating out? use a napkin. And of course you can keep a handy little 'idea notebook' in your purse

Keep a Recorder Handy

I recently downloaded a recording app to my cellphone. But you can also use any any other recorder. Be sure to keep it in your pocket at all times. Verbally recording ideas work even better than writing them down, for 2 main reasons

1- Most People Think Faster Than They Write/Type

Even if you type fast, you probably think faster. When an idea comes to you, the creative thoughts will be flowing in every which way, without rhyme or reason. Taking the time to write this down forces you to slow the creative flow and squeeze huge concepts into a few words or bullet points. But a recorder will allow you to ramble on with any idea allowing the puzzle pieces of thought to fall into place

2- Most People Speak Better/Easier Than They Write

Let's not start blaming every middle school English teacher out there, but the truth of the matter is, most people talk better than they can write. Personally, even when I do have a paper with jotted down notes, I still find myself at a loss of how to put the ideas into words. My posts turn out very short and not alot of fun to read
But if you're anything like me, then you can probably talk a mile a minute. So use that to your advantage, and translate your chattiness into blog content.
When the idea for a blog post strikes, or if you have the time to elaborate on a previous idea, simply whip out your trusty recorder and go to town. Start the creative process by telling yourself what you are about to discuss, for example: "This is a blog post idea on the topic of ..." And then simply talk
Imagine that you are speaking to a friend. Tell this friend, your recorder, why you want to speak about this topic, and what aspects of this topic are important to be discussed. Once you get into this habit, 5 minutes is all you will need for a content-rich blog post
Using this method the question of 'what else can I write about this topic?' turns into 'what can I cut from this topic?' because you will probably have an abundance of ideas recorded on a single topic
And the best part is, you get to capture every aspect of the idea as it comes to you. Even with a fresh idea, if it takes so long to type, some of your idea may be lost by the time you get to typing it.
(I forget where I heard this one) But if you don't have a recorder, call your own cell phone, and leave yourself a voicemail

What methods do you use to capture your ideas as they happen?

Let me know in the comments below

This post was brought to you by Leah from Blogging For Online Artists
Learn more about my art-blogging experiments by visiting my site HERE

16 comments:

  1. Great ideas, tips & advice, Leah! Enjoyed your article :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I need these tips lol not the Best Blogger here TY

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am not the best blogger, ideas fail, perhaps I have a bit of this "writers block" too. Thanks for some tips and pointers to help get me thinking :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the post Leah! I so need to write down my ideas. Blogging doesn't happen too often for me!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm never without a notebook for this exact reason. Thanks for the reminders Leah. I never thought of using a recorder. I'll have to try that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you for this informative blog post, Leah!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Brilliant post, I always struggle with this so these tips are great!

    ReplyDelete
  8. These are great suggestions for everything. I have paper and pencils all over and make notes and sketches like mad. Now, all I have to do is to find where I put that last note to myself.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for all the good ideas!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. THANKS!! my notepad is out and ready!!! now for those thoughts :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love your ideas... pen and paper I do but love the recorder! lol... because I usually think of something when I have no hands to write with.

    Going to find myself a little recorder!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great tips! When I was writing music more, I always carried my lyric notebook with me. I'd use the voice recorder on my phone when a line struck me in the car though, which was particularly nice because 1)I could still drive and not kill anyone and 2) I could actually sing the lines.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great ideas! I also put my topics on a calendar so I don't forget and can plan.

    ReplyDelete
  14. uniquecozytreasures-Thanks for the tips. I do use the method of keeping a small tablet handy to jot down ideas as they pop into my head. I keep a running list of ideas to write about. Writing early in the day when my mind is fresh rather than later in the evening helps too.

    ReplyDelete