By Leo Babauta from Zen Habits.
Many of the problems that many bloggers face — not drawing enough readers, not knowing what to write about, not writing well enough, not finding the time to blog — can all be solved with one solution.
And that solution’s name is Passion.
All of the problems mentioned above, and more, arise from forcing things. When you write about something you don’t care much about, you’re forcing it. When you sit down to write but have nothing to say, you’re forcing it. The blogger who has no time to blog, to make his blog better and really produce the great content needed to attract a larger readership, is forcing it as well.
Forcing things makes them worse. It’ll show up in your writing. Readers aren’t interested in reading something you’ve forced, and they’ll go elsewhere.
Passion is the exact opposite: it will infuse your writing with excitement, make it more interesting, compel people to read. They’ll share your posts and the passionate content will draw others.
It’s not the answer to all problems — you still need to be a decent writer, and share really useful information, and help people solve problems, and write great headlines. But focusing on passion can really transform everything about your blog and you as a blogger.
Here are a few ways:
1. Write what you’re passionate about
What do you really care about right now? What have you been reading online, passionately, and what changes have you been making recently in your life? These are good indicators of what you’re most exited about at the moment. And if you write about these things, you’ll write well, and won’t need motivation to write.
2. Find something to be passionate about
If you don’t already have this passion, you’ll need to find it. Don’t live a passion-less life — not only is it boring, but bloggers who don’t lead interesting lives (in one way or another) are boring. To have something to say worth listening to, you need to care about something, deeply. Seek out this passion by opening your mind to it, by looking for things that are interesting to you, by reading about interesting people and emulating them, by trying new things and being willing to make mistakes, by getting good at something through intense practice, by allowing yourself to get excited! You might not find this passion on your first try, but by looking, you’ll start the process and eventually find it.
3. Write when you’re excited, not on a schedule
There’s something to be said about writing at the same time, every day, but when it’s forced, it’ll show up in your writing. You need to notice when you’re getting excited about something, and take that opportunity to sit down and write, right then. Close off the distractions of the Internet, and just write. Let the excitement of the moment pour out into the writing. Seize the moment, wherever you are, to write.
4. Pump up the jams
The right music can get you excited, and help motivate you to write with passion. I like anything with a good beat, from heavy metal to rap to punk. Avoid the mellow stuff — while it’s incredibly beautiful and soothing, it doesn’t induce passion.
5. Coffee
Lots of it. Gets the passion flowing like nothing else. Interestingly, the worse the coffee, the better it works.
6. Write passionately, become a better writer
When you write with passion, not only does it show in your writing and help motivate you, it actually makes you better. You’ll falter at first, but the strength that this passion gives you will pound at your writing and pound at it until the writing has no choice but to be better. This happens over time, but it’s inevitable — the writing becomes transformed. It’s not a magical quality — it’s basically just the idea that the more you do something, with intensity, the better you’ll be at it.
7. Read others who are passionate
The best writers and bloggers have passion, and reading them will inspire you to do the same. I like the inspired rants of Aaron Swartz, the poetry of Idle Words, the lyricism of Textism, the humor of Dooce, and many others. Find your own muses, and let them fire you up.
You can read more from Leo Babauta on Zen Habits or on his new blog on minimalism, mnmlist.com, where he is offering a new free minimalist WordPress theme called mnmlist. Follow Leo on Twitter.
All I know Passion is what make work for everything. This is good that writers are focusing now let the people know about the online life and the connection btw of them with real life things.
p.s. thumbs to the writer, ‘Leo Babauta’ – a very nice writing style.
Golly gee, Leo … Before you recommend that people slurp up lots of coffee before they start writing, could I suggest that you google coffee and its contraindications? Its side effects?
Also, although “passion” seems to be a popular term term these days, it’s by no means the only way to write well. Other approaches to good writing work, too … some of them even better than passion.
Just my 2¢
:)
Amen! I can’t agree more.
I’m guilty of forcing myself sometimes in fact i even settle in posting just a music video. but sometimes though I think it’s necessary just for continuity. but better content even seldom is better than to have a lame one.
Thats greate ….
Thanks.. Leo Babauta
Great tips Leo.
I agree you will be a better blogger if you about the things that you are passionate.
A subject I try gustaríaque is the malicious comments on twitter. There are bloggers who make comments detrimental to other sites, thus influencing people and giving negative view on blogs.
Can you have passion but if they think negatively and intentionally against a Shiite passion is not worth
Thanks for this amazing post! Motivation is definitely key to becoming a more successful blogger and writer, and passion plays into that. If you’re bored when you write something, you’ll know.
As my teacher once said, no matter what you write, write about it as though it is the most important thing in the world to you.
I so agree with you Leo. I have’nt done a post for awhile now and it’s not for the want of not wanting too. Darren’s timing in tweeting this post was right on time. I will be implementing number 4 “Pump up the jams”.
Thank you so much for this post.
@Leo Awesome :) I can see why so many people quit.But you have to keep it real and a little mix like you do on your site :)
Really motivational post Leo. I’ll have to up my coffee intake for sure.
I love writing when I’m excited…like you said any other time it looks and sounds forced. When I’ve got the energy, I make videos, write as many posts as I can, and keep the fire burning.
When I don’t feel like writing, I spend time looking for inspiration and reading other blogs. I also use this time to handle the mundane parts of business.
All good points and things that I’ve followed for my own blog. A catchy blog name and the use of big clear images seem to help too.
Great post thanks. I love how you say Passion will make us a better writer. I think this is something you have to believe in order to see it.
I have had too many people tell me you can be successful without passion, but I have never seen it actually work.
Keep these great posts coming.
JP
Coffee is my friend.
I owe a lot to coffee. 3 college degrees. 2 blogs.
Coffee lets me sit in my chair and do work. Otherwise I need several *hours* of exercise… that’s hours… unsupportable by both culture and current economic climate. :(
But sometimes, I have to write without passion. The work has to get out for other reasons. I don’t have a problem going back and injecting passion later though!
I especially like the coffee suggestion. Caffeine is our friend :)
I heartily concur. Coffee and music are the two motivators that get me going. Everything else flows from there. It also helps to have the right tools to help you blog with ease. I just downloaded Scribefire for Firefox, which makes it easy to blog from *anywhere* on the web. So when I get that **Lightbulb** moment about what my next post is going to be, I get started right away.
Awesome post.
Excellent , thanks Leo
I agree and disagree, but mostly agree.
Writing about your “passion” is advice best taken by new bloggers. Someone new to blogging will lose interest VERY quickly if they force themselves to write about digital cameras, Ipods, celebrities and the latest “hot” thing if they have no interest in those things.
Of course, therein lies the problem. To earn money blogging, you supposedly have to find a balance between writing about hot topics and things you’re passionate about. Should you blog about something in a market that’s under/over competitive?
I wish I could answer that question, but I still don’t know the answer. I started a Make Money Online blog about a week ago, despite every guru and his uncle advising against it. However, its something that I’m interested in. It doesn’t feel like work when I update it. Even if it takes me a year to make a dollar, I don’t care. By then I’ll have enough experience to make the tweaks necessary for it to jump off.
Check it out at http://www.vipinternetmarketing.com
Of course, if you plan to eventually have 20 blogs under your belt, you’ll have a hard time finding 20 topics you can passionately blog about on a daily basis. This is where the coffee will come in handy ;)
And for those who listen to rap music, I recommend http://www.dirtysouthradioonline.com
I love coffee. To hell with health. For now :)
Great post Leo! Motivation is the key factor in everything I do. Not big on coffee but do drink it from time to time. I like listening to the Goo Goo Dolls and Disturbed when I write. This does help a lot when writing. Thanks for the great information.
Passion makes the old medicine new:
Passion lops off the bough of weariness.
Passion is the elixir that renews:
how can there be weariness
when passion is present?
Oh, don’t sigh heavily from fatigue:
seek passion, seek passion, seek passion!
~Rumi
Great post! I wrote something sinilar last month on my blog. I suggested don’t write what you know, write what you want to know more about. Tapping into the early passion when you discover something new and exciting can give a huge boost to blogging creativity. :)
Coffee. Passion. Reading those who are passionate inciting your own passion. Writing when you’re pumped, rather than because you’re on a schedule. Driving music in the background instead of stuff that soothes. All these are things which work for me. Did I mention coffee?
Having a post calendar helps, and planning helps — but passion definitely drives my keyboard, and in turn drives comments and link backs and inspires new subscribers. Well-written & passionate is the best combination, but Id far rather read something readable and passionate than a brilliantly written but soul-less piece.
Reading this felt like I was recharging my blogging battery. Thanks for taking the time to remind us that without passion blogging is just a bunch of non-important words.
Hi Leo,
Nice article but a quick modification to point 3 – Write when you’re excited, not on a schedule. I would rather say – Write MORE when you’re excited, not on a schedule… The reason been though you are passionate about a thing, there will be times when you just dont feel like doing it. This will occassionally happen but will disrupt your posting schedule, so the solution is when you are charged up write more than 2 articles so that you have a backup .. right ?
Regards
Chanda
Great… Passion has a greater power in blogging..
You know, I’m quite passionate about writing, but I don’t particularly want to write about that. I’m also passionate about theatrical arts, but it is quite the same thing — just not something I want to write about.
My love of the things I blog about (marriage, The Sims — lol, motherhood) is a type of stable, steady love that one has after being married for several years. Not the passion of the early infatuations. I like it that way: it allows me to blog with a steady head and to feel good about what I write.
I have, however, learned from reading this blog that it is always best to write with passion… And I do find myself fired up when I begin writing — I fall in love with these things all over again!
@Elizabeth Adams: Sure, there are other approaches than passion … what are some of the ones you think work better?
As for coffee, I never said it was healthy … just that it gets the juices flowing! :)
Coffee, works anytime but I do prefer a good espresso :-D
Great advice. So I am currently passionate about a busted relationship. And I would love to write about it, but the old interest is an RSS subscriber. And so are his friends. What do you advise in situations where you risk pissing off half of your readership to speak to your passion?
Timely post for me. I am in the throws of a redirection of my blog purely based on passion. I realised I’d lost the passion for my topic, did some soul searching and found I needed to change tact.
It’s worked, I am now re-energised, motivated and the redirection is going great!
Love the tips. Espeically the part on coffee, my favorite vice.
Good ‘ol Starbucks helps with inspiration!
Hi Leo, interesting post, you are right about the passion, you can almost feel it when you are reading blog posts.
You are also right when you say:
“The blogger who has no time to blog, to make his blog better and really produce the great content needed to attract a larger readership, is forcing it as well.”
My point is that when we are brand new on the blogosphere we need to write passionate content to increase readership, but at the same time we have our regular job and family stuff to take care, so we don´t have time to blog.
It´s pretty much a dead end isn´t it? we need time that we don´t have to create good content, and if we don´t create good content the blog will fail.
It´s certainly on this fase that the great majority of the blogs shut down, how did you got around this?
Hi,
I agree on the “coffee” point but I need really good coffee. I am passionate about really good coffee!
Best,
Bob
Well, Leo, I’ll say this for you: You’re certainly on your toes as a guest blogger!
In order to answer your question, though, I have to assume that you’re asking it in good faith … that you really want to know the answer … and that you’re not just asking me in order to get a good old-fashioned controversy going on, here!
And let me just say, to all who may one day read this, that it isn’t my intention to offend anyone here, but rather just to answer Leo’s question according to how it looks from where I sit.
Passion vs. Inspiration
Inspiration “works” better than passion for the simple reason that, when you write from passion, your writing tends to be self-oriented; whereas, when you write from inspiration, your writing tends to be other-oriented.
People come to the world wide web because they’re looking for information about something *they* are interested in. They’re always playing their favorite radio station in their heads: WIIFM … “What’s In It For Me?”
So if they’re interested in finding some information about “blue ferret sweaters”, let’s say, and you’re absolutely passionate about “pink ferret sweaters”, and you’ve taken a speed-type drug in order to fan your passion for pink ferret sweaters to a white-hot heat before you write your article about them, how do you think your article is going to come across to a person who hates pink?
We’re all so self-oriented by nature that learning how to be other-oriented can be a real challenge, especially if you go into it with your heels smoking!
It’s actually quite easy, though, if you “roll with it” and relax and lean back and close your eyes … maybe in a nice warm bubblebath fragrant with lavender oil … and whisper in your mind to Your Higher Power to “please help me with my perceptions of this matter” … and then just let it go … to work what wonders it might.
Suddenly you will spring out of that bathtub naked as a the day you were born and shouting “Eureka” !!!
And you’ll go haring off to your keyboard — dripping wet! — to capture the flow of unalloyed brilliance as it passes through your humble self and on out to all those who may one day chance to come across it and marvel.
What I’m trying to say, Leo, is that when you go to The Source, the possibilities for your writing are limitless.
Whereas, when you go to the coffee pot, you’re basically just whipping a tired horse in order to get a few more miles out of the poor beast before it croaks on you.
Boring vs. Interesting
There was a study done with school children some years back that started out by showing them pictures of lots of different animals and then asking them which animals they wanted to know more about.
Their answers the first time around were things like cats and dogs and bears and so on … the more commonly-known animals, in other words.
But then the researchers showed the pictures again, this time telling a little more about each animal.
When asked the second time which animals they wanted to know more about, the children picked some of the other animals … like gazelles and flamingos, etc.
And then the researchers really poured on the information. They told wonderful stories about all the different animals as they showed their pictures for the third time.
And the result was that all the children were suddenly hungry for more information about all these wonderful animals that they never even knew existed before.
The 100-Topic Challenge
If you picked 100 topics at random with which you are completely unfamiliar and dug into them and started finding out things about them, I seriously doubt that you would be as uninterested in them at the end of your researches as you were at the beginning.
But I am willing to have you prove me wrong!
How about it?
Warmest Regards …
Elizabeth
:)
P.S.
The real point here, Leo, is that your post is true enough as far as it goes. But the problem is, you see, that it doesn’t go far enough.
Of course, maybe you were just being lazy and waiting for somebody like me to come along and finish the other half of it for you!
:)
@Elizabeth: I definitely was asking in good faith! Thanks for your thoughtful answer.
However, I think the confusion is that you’re defining “passion” too narrowly. My definition encompasses inspiration.
if you’re really passionate of what you’re doing then everything will flow naturally
When a person is passionate about whatever interests or inspires them, they become very influential and empathetic to their readers.
Being passionate, or highly infatuated, with your niche also means that you probably do more research or have more experience in it than others.
If you really love doing something alot, of course you are going to be more knowledgeable and influential with it. It excites you. So, naturally you will excite others who share your common interests.
I agree with the topic itself, but some of the strategies do not work for me whenever I’m writing and article or copy.
I personally do not drink coffee, because it puts me to sleep.
I also do not listen to music when I write. It actually causes me to daydream and I start to fall behind. I listen to music when I take a break…or play video games.
But, a person’s work-flow experience is their own.
Alot of times, if I do have an A-HA moment, that’s where my notebook and voice recorder comes in. You’re greatest idea comes at unexpected times, so it’s best to keep one or both nearby so your ideas and thoughts on topics are always recorded.
This article was pretty interesting. I just find my inspirations and motivations to write “passionately” about my topics from different resources.
Then again, it’s pretty much what I stated earlier: To each his own.
Was just thinking about passion the other day in relation to my blog.
My blog is only a baby and I have tried to write on a schedule but it isn’t as effective at all. Also writing about things you’re passionate about is a must. I will be sure to show my passion and excitement in future posts.
Only thing I don’t agree with is the coffee – I’ve never had a coffee in my life (just sips). I substitute coffee with great music. Perhaps a great rock ballad that just pumps me up and gets me in the mood ;)
Yeah, when I first started blogging, I had no idea what it is. I guess at that time, my passion is copying and pasting articles, very funny :).
But now, I have the real passion, I don’t only think about how to make money online. Because I found that if you always think about the money, you probably will fail in it.
In fact, if you focus on building a great blog with your passion, chances are good you will succeed :).
Thankfully, I have had the PASSION to blog about the way I try and live my life. It usually isn’t the problem. It’s finding the time. Prioritizing has become a major factor in my development of my blog.
Thanks for the advice Leo…
Dave
LifeExcursion
Hi Darren,
I thought long and hard about what you said about passion and a quote can to mind “If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you.”
— T. Alan Armstrong
I believe you are really trying to help people by getting them to look inside theirselves to decide if this is real for them, because they will in the long run get frustrated and fail and not expierence the happiness and success if they would have looked inside first, and it will show in their writing and other things. I mean really our blogs and things we do are a direct reflection of what is inside of each of us. I am a newbie to blogging by way of Dean Holland at Starting With Marketing and one lesson was to go out and watch and learn from those who are successful in your niche to get ideas and ways to improve ourselves and blogs. Number 3 hit home with me as I am just starting and doing a day job, so I think I’m going to take time to seperate myself from any outside interference so that I put the best quality and value into my posts and content to maximize the benefits to my visitors.Thank you for being and creating such a successful example of what blogging really is like with passion.
Thanks and Keep It Coming!!
Passion can bring you a long way with anything you do. I am not a huge coffee drinker but do drink a cup here and there. Music does help me as well, it helps me get into a certain mindset when writing. Great post Leo, there was a lot of helpful information.
amen, a good writer deserves that attitude to post their topic and story in mind, reading your blog brought me an idea of how to do it specially the traffic that we want to. good luck and god bless..
Anything that you should be doing is with regards to passion.
This post is a great encouragement, Leo. And you’re right about a cup of coffee. It’s a healthy beverage in many ways — contains antioxidants, decreases the risk of various diseases, improves performance of various cognitive processes. It also makes you feel perky, and helps you type faster. What’s not to enjoy?
I am finding that out about the passion. Really good article. I really look forward to writing, because I am passionate about my subjects. That really does make a difference.
I like your third tip very much. I agree that the content of the writting in better when you aren’t struggling. I enjoy writing, but when it becomes tedious I have to take a break.
Love Leo, and love these tips. (Especially #5.)
I do prefer the good stuff, though – I have no choice if I make it at home.
Passion is bad…
I thought, and I might be misinterpreting the readings I have seen, but I thought a Zen Buddhist is to avoid passion whenever possible. I thought passion was the rope that tied the unenlightened to the wheel of life.
I really love to be passionate and don’t pretend to be an authority on this, but that was my impression. Can you help me understand what I have misinterpreted?