10 Tips for Conquering Writer’s Block on Your Blog

"Writer's Block" by ibran

Stuck on a blog post? Can’t get the words out? Can’t think of any new topics to cover? Overcoming writer’s block takes some determination, but it can be done. Here are some tips to help you get past it.

1. Sketch Out Ideas on Paper

Whether it’s some bulletpoints for a new post or you’re planning a series of related posts, writing things down on paper can be a good way to get creative. It’s also good to take a break from your computer.

2. Break From Your Usual Style

Always writing structured posts? Write a free-format post. Sick of writing with headers everywhere? Put it in a list. From time to time, you’ve got to mix it up a bit. It helps to keep your writing fresh.

3. Write a Guest Post

Writing for someone else’s blog can be very stimulating, especially if you get some comments. You could also invite guest bloggers to post on your blog. They might come up with topics you hadn’t thought of, or you could give them a post title you haven’t been able to finish. This can help you to look at your posts in a new light.

4. Write a Follow-Up Post

Was there a post that your readers loved? Why not write a follow-up? You could also write a continuation of a post that hasn’t had much exposure, as it is good promotion for the old post as well as a good subject for a new post. Or you could write an alternative viewpoint.

5. Change Your Layout

For some reason, it helps me! Every time I have a new design on one of my blogs, I feel compelled to write new content – so I can “see it in the new design”. If your theme is flexible, you may be able to change the layout of the homepage without redoing the whole theme. This is a good compromise to keep things fresh without changing things constantly.

6. Reply to a Commenter in a New Post

Sometimes, comments go further than the post itself. Why not develop a reader comment into a post? This is a great way to highlight a particularly good comment. The author will appreciate it, too.

7. Read Other Sites for Inspiration

Perhaps they’ve written about a topic you haven’t featured yet. Make sure you take the topic and add your own thoughts – don’t copy someone else’s post.

8. Promote an Old Post

I covered this in #4 above, but this is more to do with promoting an old post than writing a follow-up post. Find one of your least viewed or least commented posts, and share the link to get new comments and insights. Not everyone will have seen it the first time around.

9. Clean Up Your Categories

If you’ve got a few similar but very specific categories, why not combine them and give the category a new name? This might spur on a few new post ideas.

10. Start Another Blog

Well, maybe. This depends on how much time you have to spare, and how many different topics you could write about. You can only run so many different blogs, but you don’t have to update all of them daily. Writing multiple blogs allows you to move from one blog to the next if you get bored. This can really help with writer’s block, and allows you to revisit the other blogs once you’ve regained your motivation.

Discussion

Do you get writer’s block? How do you get through it?