This guest post is by Tricia Lawrence of trishlawrence.com.
We’ve all heard the term “writer’s block” thrown around like it’s an actual medical or mental condition, and a few have attempted to coin “blogger’s block” even though it’s essentially the same thing.
It’s what happens when you open your laptop and as the cursor is blinking, your mind goes blank. Soon, you’re sure the cursor is mocking you and you slink away from the computer to eat some junkfood, play Nintendo, think evil thoughts about your ability to keep this blog going, and pretty soon, you’ve wasted four hours and the blog post is still not written.
Sound familiar?
We’ve all been there and we’ll all be there again. I, however, like to “light people up,” especially with regard to blogging, so here are some ideas to blow that writer’s block to smithereens and to get those fingers tapping away on your keyboard.
Make art by thinking about how you feel and how you want your readers to feel
This is a hard one, because most of us have numbed out to how we feel, so how in the heck are we supposed to know how we want other people to feel?
Art is where that edge is. It’s where you take a feeling and you explore it by creating something that takes people somewhere. A painting is like a blog. But too often, I think blogging has taken on this sort of half-robotic feel.
Too many of us recycle what has already been said, harp on someone doing something innovative because it makes us feel uncomfortable, or we hide from our readers and use our blogs to do it! We throw up all these fancy plans, or narcissistic “look at me” posts, when in reality, isn’t the goal of blogging to connect with readers? Isn’t it to share how you actually feel? Do you really feel good today? Do you really feel in control? There are moments we do not. That is where the art comes in.
Tell it like it is. Make art. Build it into the blog.
Make art by stepping away from the blog and actually creating something tactile
Cook something, sew something, paint something, or weld something. We’ve numbed out by sitting behind our computers and forgetting what it means to do anything else. Step away from the computer!
This activity doesn’t require the same blogging brain cells that have frozen up on you, and thus, as you make something awesome, those cells will begin to thaw out and suddenly, you’ll throw down the welding torch and rush to the computer. As they say, if you run a marathon, you’re more likely to also write a book. One thing begets another. But please take care! Don’t try to write a blog post while holding the welding torch.
Make art by dreaming big
This one fires me up. I can dream up huge results from my paltry blogging. Some days I want to be on America’s Got Talent because of a blog post, I want to get a book deal from the blog, I want to meet Richard Branson.
That sounds so huge and unreachable, but then if you put those goals in print somewhere, you are focusing yourself on them. Your brain will try to figure out how to make them happen. You suddenly see Richard Branson references everywhere. America’s Got Talent automatically TiVos every time it’s on and you have time to watch it, someone shows you a book that you swear you could have written yourself and the art begins to happen.
Perhaps you’ll hire a PR consultant, or you’ll outline the roughs of a book proposal. Perhaps we’ll one day see your welding-while-juggling (or blogging!) act scaring Nick Cannon half out of his wits! That’s doable! That’s making art!
The blog of art is more about you than about the blog. And that’s where the magic happens, I promise.
Tricia Lawrence is CEO of real/brilliant, inc. and blogs about the Create Now! Revolution at http://www.trishlawrence.com.
