Hey Paul
After reading your post Let’s face it blogging is a chore I can sense that you have blogging fatigue. I have that at the moment too. I don’t think sometimes it happens because I am bored but because I have so much more on my plate now then when I started blogging (but yes sometimes its because your just bored). It was much easier to blog when I was at my other job. It was easy to wake up early at about 4 am to write. I was able to arrange my day so that I could recover those hours and take a nap at lunchtime. Right now my new job is very involving and there is no time to take a nap during the day. This means that I am unable to wake up early to blog, despite the million alarms and snoozes that I have on my phone.
Some of the reasons you could be feeling that way is
- Your overworked (this could be because like me you started a new job and are getting into the rhythm of the job and you’re working your butt off doing probation)
- Your subject matter has become boring to you
- You don’t have things to write about (inspiration)
- You have arrived and become too lazy to blog (it happens)
- Sometimes you just need to relax (your mind can be tired)
- Lots of other reasons
So how do you get out of the rut?
Get inspired to write about something you’re passionate about. Something that makes you angry or really happy.
Write about a different topic (think outside the box; actually think there is no box). For example Paul you write about PR issues. Maybe you should look for a fresh subject to occasionally write about like management or IT (you could do an article on how advancing technology is changing the face of PR and marketing)
Have a writing challenge. I have a group of friends on FB called Sanaa group who we occasionally have a writing challenge of a certain number of words. The content that comes out of that group is amazing. You get Psyched up by what other people have written and it does give a pressure element because then you are writing on some other person’s/groups timetable.
Do a guest post for somebody else. This also has deadlines and sometimes it’s easier to be lazy when you are your own boss (blog) as opposed to when you’re writing for somebody else. Example this post which is supposed to be a guest post in response to your post. I am working on your timetable so that even if I didn’t feel like writing I have to fire up the brain cells and respond.
Another thing that works for me as well is having a group of writer friends who share content (not necessarily their own). This enables me to read other people’s stuff and get inspired or annoyed enough to do a post. There is a post somebody tagged me in last week written by somebody else that made me so pumped up to do a reply.
Maybe also you need to look at the reasons why you started blogging. Was it because you wanted an audience? Was it an outlet for your creative expression? Was it something you wanted to do to get industry attention and now that you do you have outgrown the blog? Did you start blogging because you are passionate about writing about the issues in the PR industry? You need to go back to the drawing board and look at the reasons you started blogging in the first place. Are they still relevant? If yes then you must find a way to overcome the temporary boredom of blogging. If no then maybe its time to give up the blog or start doing only guest posts.
There was a time when I was so passionate about posting that I would do posts on my phone either on Facebook notes or do it as a draft on email or my blog. Those days are mostly gone. But when I do have inspiration I still try to do an outline as a message. Maybe that’s something you could try to do when you have moments of brilliant inspiration. Then you can take the outline later and add meat to it.
There is still light at the end of the tunnel. There is so much going on in the industry right now that you can get inspiration from so many things that are going on. There are issues like why PR practitioners seem to be playing musical chairs moving from one company to another. There is the landmine that is the TJRC right now. You could look at how PR practitioners can help their clients who are named to manage their reputation and image after the issue. You could also take a comprehensive look at PR campaigns doing the last elections and how they made or broke a candidate. After the occupy parliament and pig sage you can look at PR and role of symbolism.
So there we have it. Some things for you to think about. I hope I have helped you to make abit of sense out of this situation. I am also speaking to myself so I know I will take my own advice (hopefully).
Hope this helps you get over your writer’s block. Enjoy the writing.
