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| Photo credit: djwtwo on Flickr |
“I was wondering if you always knew what to write about on
your blog. I post only when I have something to talk about. But you need to
post three times a week. Seems hard to me.”
Well, lovely anonymous follower, to the first part of your
question—no, I don’t always know what
to write about. In fact, I often don’t figure out what my post will be about
until the day I write it (like ehem, now).
To the second part, here’s a secret: it is hard. And it’s also easy. Allow me to explain.
I suppose I could wait for a blog post idea to come to
me—I’m not going to pretend it never happens, it does. Sometimes when I’m
driving or working on my WIP or just daydreaming in general, I’ll come up with
a good idea for a post. Then I celebrate a little and write down the idea.
But ideas don’t just come to me three times a week right in
time for my Monday, Wednesday, Friday blogging schedule (that’d be too easy). So
if the day before I’m supposed to post comes and I still don’t have any posting
ideas, I sit in front of the computer and stare at the blank screen and flip through
my blog archives and refuse to leave the computer until I’ve started writing a
post. No exceptions.
Because yes, I could
wait for an idea to come to me, but like most things in life, blog post ideas
don’t often fall from the sky and land on your lap—sometimes you have to get up
and go find them. And some days it’s hard—some days I sit at the computer and
stare at the screen for what feels like years and the schedule-loving part of
me whispers you need to write this post
today so you have something to post tomorrow. You’ve never missed a day, Ava.
Don’t start now. And I stare and stare and stare and it feels like I’ll
never figure out what to write about.
Except I don’t give myself an option. I don’t allow myself not to write a post when I have one due.
If I’m supposed to post tomorrow, then I’ll come up with a blog post idea if it
kills me (and I’m still here, so the strategy seems to be working pretty well).
And some days it’s easy—some days I write a post and it
spawns two or three other post ideas, so I add it to my list of running blog
topic possibilities and then I do something else and sometimes more ideas rain down on me like
wonderful gifts from the heavens. Some days I whip a blog post draft out in ten
or fifteen minutes and I dance around in little circles in my mind because I
feel accomplished and now I have all this extra time to do other things.
Yes, those are the easy days—but it’s certainly not every
day, or even every other day. In fact, most days fall under the first category
and the truth is, I don’t mind it.
Because blogging has taught me something important—that
sometimes the best ideas don’t just fall in your lap, sometimes you have to
chase them down and wrestle them onto the page. And it’s not just blog post
ideas—it’s any sort of idea or
inspiration that you need to keep writing.
Because yes, you can wait for the ideas to come, but why
wait when you can go get them yourself?
I know it’s not as easy as it sounds, so I ask you—do you wait for blog
post ideas to come to you or do you generate them yourself? Where do you get
your posting ideas from?
