How to Beat Blogger's Block

Recently I've been so busy working on the redesign of my technology blog that I didn't find time to plan for the content.

When I finally got the time to post I was struck by the blogger's block. I scoured the Internet to find something unique and noteworthy to write about so that I could attract traffic to my newly designed blog.

To my utter disappointment I did not find anything fully satisfying, although some of them did open up my mind a little but no breakthrough. So i decided to devise my own methods (based on the methods suggested by other bloggers) of dealing with the blogger's block.

Here are my Tips for Getting Past the Blogger's Block

Let Go For a While

If you cant think of anything to write about, may be you shouldn't. Take a break! Casually browse the web, read something that intrigues you. You must have noticed that the best of your blog-topics came to you unexpectedly, out of the blue! So push the i-have-to-find-something-to-write-about thought completely out of your mind. Something interesting is sure to pop up!

Free-writing

Its the best way of writing! take a random topic Example - What all did i do today?. Alternatively you can find some writing promts to get you started. Start firing words left, right and center no thinking, no formatting, no substituting words just write what comes to your head.

Some writers suggest that it helps exercise your right brain – I’m not sure of the technicalities of it – but I find that it definitely gets the ideas flowing. One of the hardest parts of writing an article can be starting it – and this technique attempts to help with that.

Present the Other Side of an Old Topic

Read through the archives of your own blog or someone else's and find topics which you think may have another angle or level to them. In short, express your opinion on some of the already talked-about topics.

Finding topics to write about in your older articles is the easiest way of getting rid of the writer's block as these old articles are already about topics you are passionate about. Also, you can try to improve upon your older articles if you don't find any new angles to it.

Read 'reader comments'

Its all for the readers! why not see what they want/think? Darren Rowse of Problogger has provided some great tips to overcome writer block on his blog one of them (one that I liked a lot) has been quoted below -

"Start a Question File – I get questions on most of my blogs every day or two from readers wanting information on the topics I cover. Collect questions like this and put them in a file for one of those days when you can’t come up with a topic to write about."

Trending Topics on the Web

Express your opinion on topics or events popular around the web. If writing is a source of income for you covering the trending topic will give you a ready made audience.

I'm listing some websites below where you will find the most talked about topics -

1. Google Trends
2. Trendsmap
3. Buzzfeed
4. Digg
5. Social Mention Trends

According to me, looking through trending topics is one of the best ways to overcome writer's block.

These are some the ways that I have used and found useful to beat my blogger's block. They may or may not work for you. If you have any of your own ways of dealing with the writer's block, please share them in the comments so that others can try them out too.