At one point or another, most bloggers (myself included) find themselves drawing a blank when thinking about what to write next. I suppose it’s much like in other aspects of our life, such as going to work, managing a household, going to the gym or doing a sport: when we get too caught up in the routine of things, we find ourselves in a rut.
This feeling of being blogged out can happen because of various reasons. For one, you may be burnt out because of the intensity of the demand placed upon you, whether this is self-inflicted or not. For example, if you are expected to produce five posts a day about the same topic. You definitely will run out of things to say. Another contributor to being blogged out is when your offline life also places excess demands on your mental, physical and emotional health. These stressors may strain your ability to think and be creative. As such, you end up facing your computer screen with a blinking cursor that is going nowhere.
What makes facing a blank wall of no ideas even worse is that when you are a blogger, you kind of have that sense of obligation to your readers. After all, they take the time to come see your site, right? If you have nothing new to offer, then you are essentially letting them down. Of course, there are also those issues such as your sites optimization and maintaining blog traffic that can suffer if you remain “blogged out”.
As mentioned, most bloggers face this “bloggers’ block” every now and then. I bet if you tried to search for this in various search engines, you would find a lot of posts about it. Reading about others experiences of running out of steam in terms of blogging is one of the most effective ways of getting your groove back. Through this, you may be able to be at peace with yourself, thus allowing your creative juices to flow again.
Other things you can do to break that writer’s block can include the following:
1. Talk to other bloggers off- or online.
Blogging can, at times, be very isolating work, especially when you are in the midst of developing content. Further, even though people do drop comments on your site, a lot of times there is no discourse involved. Being with other bloggers and discussing things with like-minded fellows can help stimulate new ideas and inspire you to try new things.
2. Check what others have to say about your posts.
Many times we browse through our readers’ comments and acknowledge these briefly. Perhaps you can check out old comments in your site (or other sites for that matter!) and see what they have to say. This may elicit new ideas and kick-start your thinking gears again
3. Bloghop! Go see what other bloggers are writing about.
This can help expand your horizons and make you see things in a new light. If you’re feeling extra adventurous, maybe you can check out sites that don’t necessarily fit your personal niche.
4. Expand your horizons.
Granted that blogging demands establishing a brand, or at the very least carving out a niche for yourself, it would help if your type of blogging was not very rigid or one-directional. Try tackling issues from different points of views, or through different aspects. For example, if you blog about movies, try blogging about more than just a movie review. Why not do a feature on the fashion or costume design of said movie? Or perhaps writing about the soundtrack of the flick? Same theme, different perspectives.
5. If you’re a bit unsure about branching out in your own blog, try doing guest posts.
This can allow you to try out new fields, without necessarily having to commit to the change.
6. Take a break.
One reason we get burnt out is because we get too entrenched in what we are doing, thus, we lose sight of the bigger picture. Sometimes the best way to beat writers block is by walking away from the computer for a couple of hours and doing something else. An example would be taking a walk in the park, playing a game, or reading a book. Anything you deem fun would be a good way to take a break.
These are just a few of the things you can do to beat the “blogged out” feeling. For the most part, being blogged out can be an expected part of your journey as a blogger. The trick is not to let it beat you!
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