In this new series called Nothing to Blog About, we’re looking at the various ways your blogging creativity can be temporarily dried up and plugged up, and how to break the dam. Today, my recommendation is to go back to your roots.
Go Back to the Beginning
I know all there is to know about blogging, right? I’ve been doing this longer than most people, in fact, before some tweeters and bloggers were even born (that’s a scary thought!). I’ve been through all the various blog struggles and hoops there are to blog through. I’ve survived all the names changes from website to online journal to weblog to blogging to microblogging and the belief that social media is a new concept. I’ve had my content stolen, been accused of stealing other people’s content, abused by trolls and comment spammers, survived changes in web technology and many upgrades, and lived to blog on another day. So I’ve been there, done it all, haven’t I?
Have I? What I’ve done is forgotten what is was like to start blogging. To be the new kid on the bloggy block.
I’ve forgotten the risky feeling of exposing my thoughts publicly, beyond the journal under my mattress. I’ve lost track of the emotions as I struggle to find the words, make my point, tell a story, and find the moral conclusions that helps others change their thinking. Today, the words come easily, it’s second nature to think “blogging” in my head. Maybe it’s time to relive those and find a fresh perspective rather than an old, dried out stance.
Have you gotten arrogant, too? Maybe it’s time for you to go back to your beginnings, wherever and whatever they are, and remember what it was like for you with your blog topic.
If you write about technology, do you remember how hard it was just to save a file when your only storage method was a 1.5 megabyte disk and you had a two megabyte file or program? If you blog about writing, do you remember when you kept the thesaurus near you so you wouldn’t repeat the same adjective in a paragraph?
Articles in the Nothing to Blog About Series
Author: Lorelle VanFossen
The author of Lorelle on WordPress and the fast-selling book, Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging, as well as several other blogs, Lorelle VanFossen has been blogging for over 15 years, covering blogging, WordPress, travel, nature and travel photography, web design, web theory and development extensively as web technologies developed.
This is some helpful advice. I think going back to your roots and remembering what is was like then and how things have changed can help inspire you.