Posts Tagged ‘Writing Advice’

Many of my blog management posts are written around the struggles that I have had and have overcome in the blogging world – but this post isn’t about me.

It is all about you…and your blog struggles you shared with me today on twitter!

Earlier today, I asked my followers what their biggest blogging struggles were. Many shared the same frustrations, and these were the 4 most common that I found (credit given to the first who tweeted it):

jeffespo: @kirstenwright Sticking to the content schedule
DesireeW: @kirstenwright My blog challenge is “creating the content ideas”. I feel like I’m repeating my topics a lot.
TellingKids: @kirstenwright biggest struggle for me is getting other people excited about what I’m blogging. Looking for growth.
studionashvegas: @kirstenwright time to write in it.

Now, onto the solutions!

@jeffespo: The easiest  way to stick to a content schedule is to create it in a place that it is always looking at you, but that you can also move things around easily. I use an outlook calendar to manage this blog (and my clients blogs) so that when I come up with ideas I simply add it as an appointment. If I want to make changes, add notes, or even work on the post, I can do so in there. Also, if I decide to move things around, it is as simple as dragging and dropping. This allows me to know what is coming and still feel comfortable with changing the future.

@desureew: Repeating topics can be frustrating – the good news is that even the best bloggers do it! We repeat topics because we understand them well, and we have a lot to say about them, which is perfectly fine. The way to keep it from being redundant is to share the message in a different way, using different ideas or different lines of thought. We all learn differently which means that having more than one way to say the same thing can actually make it easier to understand for a wider audience. If you still feel like you are struggling with new topics, try taking a week (or two) where you write nothing about your usual topics – go in a completely different direction or area of focus.

@tellingkids: This is one that we all face, and can be very disheartening. We all want readers, comments and participation. The big questions is how do you get it? Unfortunately, I am no problogger or Chris Brogan, so I don’t quite have the secret to thousands of readers. What I do know is that delivering good content, sharing it with your followers and providing consistency will work. It takes time to build an audience, but even the top bloggers had zero comments once! Remember why you started your blog, why you enjoy doing it and write with heart. The audience will come. One other trick I have? Call out your readers! Ask them good questions and give them a reason to want to start commenting. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.

@studionashvegas: Time, the one thing we all wish we had more of (well, that and money). Time is always going to be a struggle unless you can start thinking of your blog the way you think of anything you do everyday. You never run out of time to use the restroom, and even if it’s late, you always eat, right? Blogging needs to be in those categories if you want it to work. Just put it into your schedule like you would a workout, a phone call or a party and then do not let yourself skip it. If you schedule it and then force yourself to do it, you will. It is tough at first, but over time it will get easier (just like going to the gym) and then it will become second nature (like eating) and you will want to do it more often!

Do you have other blog struggles that I didn’t cover? Share it in the comments and I will answer!

Today’s post was written by Rochelle Levy, a writing coach for novelists. She and I connected through twitter because of our common love for reading (and romance novels!). She is a novel writing coach, and I have appreciated a lot of her advice and asked her to put together some thoughts on writer’s block. While this is not a topic I usually cover, she had so many great points that are easily related to blog writing as well so I decided to share her thoughts. Oh, and if you are interested in talking with her about a novel you are working on, or need a writing coach, you can learn more about her at RochelleLevy.net. Onto Rochelle’s thoughts…

All too often I get emails from aspiring authors saying that they have “writers block”. Some people will say writers block is a wives tail and doesn’t exist. I’m here to tell you that it does exist and virtually all writers will experience this during the course of their careers and all of them will overcome it. Of course this is easy to say while the ugly head of writer’s block has not yet breathed fire on your manuscript or caught you in its clutches. It’s difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel and that’s why I’m here to give you 10 tips to help you overcome writer’s block.

1. Recognize that you have writers block. Don’t think that your life has become too crowded for the joy of writing and perhaps you have just lost your passion. If you have no ideas that spring to mind when you sit down and a computer or with you pen and paper and open up your writer’s vein, you have writers block. Recognize it when it happens so you can make strides to move past it. DO NOT, for any reason, give up and think you’ll never write again. That is simply impossible. You can and will write again. Know it, live it, breathe it, WRITE IT.
2. Overcome your fear of failure. Most people think that if one or two or ten people do not like their work then they are forever doomed to be a lack luster or subpar writer. To this I say “Pfffft!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS?” This, my friend, is not true. There will always be a person or group of people who may feel as though your writing could use a bit of that or a dash of this but guess what? Even those who complain are still reading your work right? RIGHT!! Develop tough skin for the critics out there and march forward. Even the greats were negatively criticized and now their works live on forever. So will yours.
3. Write about anything. On the days where you don’t feel inspired write for 10 minutes about anything your beautiful heart desires. Write about the birds, that cute guy or girl you saw in the aisle of the grocery store, the one person at work who always smells a little funky, your lunch, the sunset, etc… The point is to write about anything. After a while your creative juices should get flowing and you’ll be able to work on your novel, poem, blog or whatever your writing hand directs you to produce. If the creativity doesn’t start flowing well that’s okay because this is only tip three.
4. Put random ideas on paper no matter how insane they may be. Have an insane idea about an alien race after watching Pandora? Write it down. Have a steamy sex scene in mind? Write it down. Want to bring that show Alf back to TV? Write it down. Want to write about socks that magically come to life? DO IT!! There are no limitations on creativity. Step outside the box. No idea is too far fetched. Do not worry about what people will think. The point is to write. Who knows, those random ideas may become a best seller? Look at Alice in Wonderland, whoever wrote that was clearly insane but it’s a story we all love.
5. Let it sit for a day and come back to it. This is self explanatory and I hate this but sometimes you really may just need a few days to clear your head and come back to the table refreshed.
6. Have a schedule, and stick to it. This is a theory I have. If your body shows up to write at the same time each day. Eventually your mind and your muse will follow suite. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words (ONLY 500 words) every morning which is about a page per day. With this method, Greene published over 30 very successful books. Try it. What have you got to lose?
7. Start writing a different scene of your novel. Many new writers attempt to write their story in chapters and in order by writing chapter one then chapter two and so on. STOP RIGHT THERE. This will inevitably lead to writers block. Mix it up. Write what comes to your mind. Carry a note pad with you or type it into your phone. If you feel like writing a fight scene or the ending or just random notes or a love scene then do it. I am highly against a book being written in order. It limits your creative process and can be detrimental to your health… Err uh… writing I mean.
8. Set deadlines and keep them. Many writers and people in general have trouble sticking to a deadline on their own. Try getting a writing partner or enlist the help of a writing coach. Anyone else who is expecting results on a specified date and time that you feel accountable to. This helps writers produce material. Writing groups or classes are another ay to help jump-start your routine.
9. Stop trying to edit while you write. It does not have to be perfect the first time. What you’re writing is a draft not the final version to be published for all to see. Do not be so critical on yourself. You’ll notice that once you stop going back to fix mistakes, the story will flow easily your mind to your paper.
10. Have fun! Don’t look at your writing as a job that has to be done or else the apocalypse will become you. Let it be your passion. Let it be fun. Let it be your outlet; a way to overcome stress and other burdens of life. Don’t let it become a burden because then you will lose sight of what you were writing for to begin with. This is a very important tip so SMILE AND HAVE FUN.

What other tips can you add to Rochelle’s thoughts?

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

For me, 1999 was a difficult year. For the first time in my life, I struggled with an English class. This had never happened before. English classes (book analysis, essays, poems, etc) had always come very easy to me. So, my freshman year of High School I decided to take Advanced English and push myself a bit. Push myself, I did. I was finally reading books that were at and above my level. I was expected to analyze them past the surface level, and it was fantastic. I loved the pressures that were put on me, the fact that if I wanted to do well I would have to go above and beyond what was expected. While this was one of the most difficult classes I ever took (okay, calculus was up there too), after my first year of it, I was even further in love with writing and reading than I already was. To this day, I know that the Advanced English classes I took were the beginning of my career in blogging. Once you get the writing bug…it’s impossible to get rid of.

In the media world, 1999 was a scary thought. Who could forget the hype they created over the end of the millennium? The world was going to end. Poof, money gone, banks destroyed, computers crashing, life as we know it would be no more. People stocked up on water, food and pulled their money into safer places. So what really happened? Well, a lot of people got drunk, the world didn’t end and January 1, 2000 was just another day.

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

1990 – the year I fell in love with writing and CBS realized their biggest mistake.

In first grade, I made my first book and found my passion for writing. I remember each week, we were given the task of creating a book. The room parents (my mom was usually one of them) would come in and help the kids to create a story, however we could, and then bind it together so it looked like a real book. The first one was just pictures, with the few words I could write. As the school year went on, the books got longer, the words got better and my writing was more like real writing.  I wrote as often as I could, coming up with stories in my off time to take with me to school. In addition to getting to create our own books, we also got to spend a couple hours per week in the library, picking out a book to take home and read with our parents. I would take the stories, and then write a new ending to them. Or add on to the ending that was there. I wrote stories for the characters that got ignored, and created my own characters to add to the story. I feel head over heels in love with writing, and haven’t stopped.

In the world of TV and media, Law & Order premiered on NBC. This marked the moment that NBC took over the ratings hold and CBS realized the greatest mistake they’d ever made. 2 years prior, CBS met with the creators of the show and turned down their pitch idea. CBS thought that the show was dull and would never attract a large scale audience. Luckily for NBC, the creators of the show weren’t fazed and approached NBC with the show idea. NBC took the risk, and the risk paid off. More than 9 awards, 3 spin off’s, 5 video games and millions of viewers later it is now the longest-running prime-time drama currently on American television. NBC – 1. CBS – 0.

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

In 1987, I decided it was my time to start getting noticed and shocking everyone who met me. I hadn’t quite learned how to read on my own, but I certainly was able to convince people who visited our home.

How did I do it? At bed time, my dad would read to me. It was always the same books, either Why The Bear Has A Short Tail or The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse . Since he read them almost every night, pretty soon I had started memorizing the words. Which meant if it had been a long night, and dad wanted to skip a page? I would catch him…and start reciting it back to him. (I told you I was precocious!) Anyway, pretty soon, I could “read” the books and recite the words at the exact moment and on the right pages.

Anyway, one of my favorite things to do when we had guests over was to sit on the floor of my room, with one of the books open and “read” it. I thought it was like a comedy routine, and I loved watching the faces of the people as they watched a 1 year old flawlessly read through a book. It was the first (but definitely not the last) time that I realized how much I enjoyed captivating an audience.

In the tech world, one of my favorite tools I currently use was first discussed (*hint: It’s icon is a blue box and it starts with photo and ends with shop*) by the Knoll Brothers. Photoshop is now one of the most popular photo editing software and is a staple in my everyday arsenal. I couldn’t imagine my business without it…so thank you Knoll’s, you two are amazing!

Blog management is the process of managing all parts of your blog: niche, content, post schedule, keywords, seo, design, promotion, comments. In order to manage them all properly, it is important to give them quality time and avoid short cuts. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a few tricks up my sleeve to help get you started!

1. Niche: Pick one thing that you are passionate about and add it to the mix. Maybe the blog is all about business, but once a week you feature a favorite recipe?
2. Content: Keep writing. Everywhere you go, make sure you have something to jot down notes when ideas come into your head. No idea is too silly.
3. Post schedule: Choose how many days to write, not which days. As long as you always get the number of posts you want, it doesn’t matter which day it is. Aim for 4 per week.
4. Keywords: Use a brainstorming bubble. Main keyword in the center, and 5 longer keywords based on each keyword around it. Repeat this for your main 6-10 keywords and you will have 30-50 longer keywords developed.
5. SEO: Hire someone. (sorry, I know this isn’t what you were hoping for, but honestly, it is the best investment in your business you can make!)
6. Design: Whether you do it yourself, or hire someone (like me ), your blog needs to show who you are. Even if all you do is add a custom header and some fun buttons, make it your own and you’ll enjoy it much more
7. Promotion: Make it easy for your readers to share your story with a tweetmeme button and sharethis options at the bottom (see mine?)
8. Comments: Ask for them. No I don’t mean telling your readers to “give me comments or else”. I mean, write posts that create discussion. Ask a question of your readers, find a way to get them to participate in the conversation. Make it about them!

What other quick tips do you have for blog management?

I have found that the most difficult part of writing my blog posts is the headlines. I can write content all day long, but when it comes to trying it all together under on neat little title, I tend to fall a little short. So, over the next month, my goal is to really work on improving my headlines (of course, I’d love your thoughts on them too!). In order to improve my headlines, I have been studying other writers headlines. Here are 5 websites that I have found with great headlines:

1. Perez Hilton. I explained this one a while ago, and I stick to my claim that he has incredible headlines. We can all take a cue from his style.

2. Copyblogger. While I am not an avid reader of the site, there are some killer suggestions in the content on header writing (and obviously, they work, judging by his traffic). Plus, they are usually about business so they fit into my writing more effectively.

3. HotAir. Whether you are conservative or liberal, you can’t ignore good headlines. Hot Air creates some awesome headlines for their own posts, but also feature other great articles (with killer headlines). I love the hints of sarcasm and word choices…

4. Awkward Family Photos (or a similar humor site). While these sites have nothing to do with business, their titles are almost always clever and eye catching. For example, a couple days ago, the headline was “Eye Contact (back by popular demand“, funny right? Also makes you want to click, which is the point!

5. Angry Julie Monday. This is the only one on the list that isn’t a “professional blogger” which is exactly why I added her. She doesn’t have hours to spend coming up with these titles. She works, raises a family, and still her titles, like this week’s “Squirrels in my pants, what?” are always clever and creative. Plus they are usually on point (read it, you’ll get it) which makes them even more impressive.

Whose headlines do you love/recommend?

Today, I gave my followers a chance to create their own two-word tuesday. Here are their two-word responses to the tweet “In two words – what are you feeling right now?”

chrispenner super hungery

HennArtOnline Fiery Passion!

TravelCostaMesa Too cold!

caflowergirls it’s raining!

PaulTTran Cock Tail?

tsc0809 slightly demented

parksdesign time delayed

AngryJulie Monster Energy

RicDizon Manage Priorities

OakleyOC Pleasantly surprised

GregoryPerez Distantly focused

HyattIrvine Cautiously Optimistic

Thanks to all my followers for chiming in today!

*And don’t forget to register for the Business Strategy Workshop!!*

Ever have those days where you just can’t seem to focus?

You’re working on writing an article and then *poof*, you’ve lost focus and are browsing recent tweets.

Then the tweets lose your attention and you’re logging into Facebook?

Of course, once you’ve looked through everyone’s news feeds, you head over to your email to see what’s new.

Email gets boring, so you get up for a fresh cup of coffee or a snack and chat with someone about their weekend (or text someone if you work alone).

And pretty soon, it’s 3 hours later and you haven’t finished your article.

Yup, we’ve all had those days. In fact, today has been one of them. With some serious struggles, I was able to get some work done on a new clients wedding site (The Diffenderfer Wedding), and I finalized the new copy for another clients site, but I still been feeling out of focus. Nothing has been coming easily, and I had to physically force myself to log out of facebook, close tweetdeck and even turned off my music to try to reclaim my brain.

How do you deal with those days? What do you do in order to refocus your mind and make sure that your work gets completed?

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