Most bloggers start with a seemingly unlimited enthusiasm to write. After a while, some gets distracted to other activities and blogging looses the shine, I am not going to be overzealous and ask them to restart the blogging pursuit. To each his own decision. But then there are many who gets into writer’s block and since we are talking about blogging, Blogger’s block. So how can one avoid Blogger’s block and find topics to write?
World is buzzing. (Am not talking about Google Buzz alone). We are bombarded with information of all types. From the plain vanilla newspapers to Facebook, Twitter and the recent Buzz we are constantly updated and downloaded with news, stories, trivia’s, opinions, relevant and irrelevant contents. Forget the technologies; there are stories to be told in people we see and hear, event that happens before us. Everyone have many stories to be told. Every technology has stories to be told. Every event has an opinion to be taken.
So with so much information around, why do one suffer Blogger’s block?
The answer lies in effectively filtering the information.
Most information we get bombarded are inconsequential to us. But in the process, you may lose out some interesting information. So we need to filter out the information that is in sync with our thought process.
Once you filter it out, we need to work on the information.
We can sum up the process as O-U-P
Observation – Understanding – Presentation.
Observation: Observe the world around you. Observe the virtual world as well as the real world. Observe the stories evolving , observe the events happening, observe the people around you, observe your interactions. You will find your story. You will find your opinion. Your will find facts. You will find your blog article. Whatever niche you write upon or even if you are a random personal blogger you will find your article for sure. Don’t get excited and jump into writing your next article. There are two more steps before that.
Understanding: If you want people to be a good blogger, you need to understand what you write. Don’t hurry in publishing an article without understanding it. Learn more about the subject, analyze the subject, and find your view point on the subject. In short, know well the subject.
Presentation: Many times you will find many people writing about a same subject. So you need to focus on the time of presentation and style of presentation.
Time of presentation is a very important factor if the life span of the subject you are going to write is short lived or seasonal in nature. You can’t write now a post “Obama wins the US election” but you can rather analyze his performance or his actions, reactions or inactions. You will find audience. But upholding the free spirit, no one is stopping you from writing it if you still decides to. People may just say you Good morning. So whatever kind of blogger you are, pay attention to the time of presentation. Write when the news is hot. Else, find a strong flavour to your article to make stale news hot. The powers of words are within you.
Now talking about the power of words, comes our next point in presentation – the style of presentation. Remember you may not be alone in writing a subject unless you pulling out something from your own imagination. Even if you are pulling an imaginative hair from your thinking hat how you present the article is very important. The style of writing, illustrations that accompany if any, the fonts, the title all have their own due importance to position you as a successful blogger.
You observe, you understand but sadly you also forget. (I do most times) It is very much important to capture the random flash of thoughts that comes in your mind.
So how do we store our observations and understanding? How to make sure our thought process are not lost before we sit before the computer to write down. Not everyone carry laptop, even if you carry not under every situation you could open and write. So you need to find out your own comfortable method to note down the spark for your next article, the information or anything related to your next article.
Have a scribble pad to jot down, what is on your mind.
(Or) Key it in your mobile instantly before you forget it.
(Or) if you are gifted with amazing memory unlike me, consider yourselves damn lucky .
You can find your own suitable methodology. Since I forget to carry the scribble pad most times, Mobile is my obvious choice.
Most of my sparks for articles comes either while driving or taking bath. After my close accident couple of days back, I would advise you not to mix thinking and driving, stick to concentrating on road. Still if you get a good idea or line for the article, take side and note it down. If you get the spark in the bathroom I hope you don’t scream eureka and run out like Archimedes.
Happy Blogging! Let’s sip thoughts!
True to the core, the principle of O-U-P applies to blogging. This will be a big help to many people..
i use the principle of ethos pathos logos… which i wud like 2 mention here…
Pathos is an appeal to the audience’s emotions.
Ethos is an appeal to the authority or honesty of the writer.
Logos is an appeal to the audience’s logic.
Thanks a lot…
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Hey Sid thanks for sharing your funda.
Pathos if i figure out what you meaning is reading the pulse of your audience. Though I don’t think bloggers should write with audience in mind but then the style of one’s presentation should appeal to the audience. When you measure your pathos right, the audience will identify with you. Having said that the style should be natural to one’s sense of writing too. You cannot force yourself to write in a style alien to yours.
About Ethos, yes one should not fool himself and the readers by writing something that he himself is clueless and is not honest about the subject.
Logos – Appeal to the audience logic is bit tricky. We cannot expect all our readers to fall in line with our logic. The differences in logos creates debates which can be often productive if the debate is healthy and builds a good author- reader bond. And the synchronization of logos forms regular readers who identify with your logic/views.
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i was just thinking about this yesterday…and created a group on facebook.
Bloggabank.
Essentially – a forum where people can share what they are about to write…this in turn will create a pool for people who are in the middle of a writers block. They can get ideas, a sort of a central post library or a bank – where they can see what others are writing and get started on their own.Often times – it s just that small spark or a word that ignites the whole post thought process.
I think having a forum like this will be exciting for everyone.!
Here’s the link. -
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=311817972293
cheers
GB
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I have been diagnosed with it man!
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I often face blogger’s block
Let me try to follow these suggestions.
Btw I had one doubt about finish the story contest.I registered myself for it but I can see the topic names of others who have submitted the draft. Is there a way to remove that? Because now I know the topic names of the bloggers and hence once the posts are presented for voting, I know who wrote what (even though it’s not mentioned there).
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hi avada . nice to know u are onto it. thanks for pointing out the issue. will take care of it immediately as soon s i catch hold of rajan,…Rajaaaaaaaaaaaaan! where are u? we have a problem
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Avada First of all thanks for pinpointing out the oversight. I had immediately quick fixed it
Btw, hope you will be able to over come the blogger’s block and we see good posts from you
@ Mani
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hehe hopefully I will overcome the block
Thanks for fixing it!!
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I’ll remember O-U-P principle also when I am out of ideas or hit the bloggers block I do another thing I start reading other blogs(you have hell lot of ideas out there) and after sometime I see the flow of thoughts is back it worked a couple of times for me ….
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Ya that is exactly what i meant world is buzzing with information. so if we listen to the world, we will get our inspiration for our next article
Hope to see wide variety of post in your blog once you settle back to routine in April
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Best in this concern. I have been facing one for quite a long time. I hope I come out of it after this. Thanks.
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Hi Pram hope this helps in overcoming your bloggers block and see you soon with great posts
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Good write up. One should not write and blog just to gain ranking or hits. Wait, Think and than proceed should be the mantra.When you feel from heart ‘All is well’ than only post!
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Hey boss ! Great one…Errr! Are you sure publishers haven’t contacted you yet???
ok now lets get to some work. waiting for you in G
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Hmmmm….Writers block!
But for me there are always 10-15 posts lined up to be posted but I dont get the time!!
And when I pulish 5-7 posts in a flurry to reduce the load I find much more new posts to publish!!
Well thats 1 advantage (or disadvantage) you may have if your blog has multiple categories!
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[...] How to avoid Blogger’s Block? by Lakshmi [...]
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Really Really helpful post… I’m gonna link back when I use the above method next time
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This was really interesting
I agree with you, the time of writing a post is also important.
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i guess everyone has a time when they strike the block… OUP is quite a goood mention…. especially understanding.. as so many publish without reading it as yu say!
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