It’s that time of year when everything is frozen. From the local fishing pond to windy mountain roads, everything, it seems, is covered in ice. Even those of us who do blog writing for a living get frozen from time to time. It isn’t uncommon to turn on your computer, look at your blank screen and think, “Oh crap. I’m utterly out of ideas.” This deep freeze of creativity (also known as writer’s block) can really slow down a blogging-for-business campaign — and can feel incredibly frustrating. Luckily, we’ve overcome blogging brain freeze dozens of times. Here now are a few of our favorite hints to help warm that brain right up and get your blog back on track.
Make a hot soundtrack: Nothing defrosts a frozen tundra of a blog faster than the right music. Whatever artist, band or genre gets you moving, makes you smile or motivates you is exactly what you should be listening to while researching and writing your blog. Music has long been used a prompt to inspire writers to get moving. In fact, if you feel so inclined to sing along or drum with a pen, do it. Studies show that singing, dancing and drumming releases endorphins which are the bodies naturally way of making us feel happy. Happy writers usually produce more, so we say pump up the jams!
Good artists copy: But according to Picasso, great artists steal. So in lieu of recommending some unlawful activity, we say go “borrow” ideas from other blogs when your own ideas won’t show up. Reading blogs similar to your own is a good trick to get your juices flowing while also seeing what your contemporaries are writing about. Reading anything — great novels, trashy novels, business books, meditations and, yes, even other blogs can quickly heat up our own creative juices.
Don’t stop: Sure, taking a break is always a good thing especially when doing creative tasks like blogging. But sometimes, in order to get writing, we need to keep writing. Setting a timer for 10 minutes, putting your pen on a piece of paper and just writing without focusing on results, form or content is a proven method of warming up. Think of exercises like this in the same way we know it’s good to stretch before running or getting in the pool. With branded blogging, we’re usually super-concerned with the intention of our posts, how they look and if they make sense. With 10 minute exercises, throw all of that out the window. Just write and do so fearlessly and without stopping. These sprints help running the longer marathons down the road.
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