Where This Freelancer Has Trouble
I guess I am like most writers. My brain never stops thinking about my next article, next blog post, next idea for a fictional story…
But I’m most comfortable finding ideas for and writing my blog posts. For me, freedom enables fun and creativity.
And a creative writer who’s having fun is usually a productive writer. But I do get stuck finding slants when I am pitching the other magazines/websites/blogs.
Most of the time, no two publications are ever identical. So having to come up with multiple (workable) ideas for each publication can be extremely frustrating.
And between all the publications, their topics and guidelines, I sometimes find myself unable to generate ideas productively.
You know you are in trouble when you can’t find any ideas that excite and/or entertain you. How can I convince an editor when I am not all that enthused myself? After all, it feels amazing when other people want to publish your stuff. The bad thing is, you are competing with many other freelancers.
Most Inspirational/Creativity Books Aren’t Helpful
I recently threw away a book on creativity, because its tips felt so abstract. And most books that are supposed to help you unleash your creativity only add to your block. Or they only offer stuff that you have heard before. Or they don’t appeal to your tastes/personality/mindset.
Why Tristan’s 101 Ways to Battle Blogger’s Block Rocks:
– You can use all his suggestions for all sorts of writing.
– They are fun to read and apply.
– Some of the tips are familiar, but you probably didn’t see them presented in a neat, concise package. It is only 28 pages.
– It’s free.
– It comes with 101 tips, so there are bound to be some stuff you haven’t tried before.
– Sometimes it offers contrasting tips, so you can get even more experimental to see what works better for you.
Some of My Favorite Tips: (The details are in the book)
- Where were you X time ago?
- Look at your photo albums.
- Pick a (well-known). story/song/… and roll with it
- Title a post after a song.
When I was reading his e-book for the first time, and saw this last tip, I pushed the next button on my mp3 player (which was on Shuffle mode), and I got Kansas’ Carry On My Wayward Son – a classic rock number (that is also a trademark song on the mystery/thriller/horror show Supernatural).
Think what I can do with it:
Carry On My Wayward Blogger/Freelancer/Writer….
Don’t we often feel wayward with how much we are supposed to do to reach our goals?
Who knows what other titles can bring to the table, or how many more ideas can be spun off this song? If nothing else, you can just relax, close your eyes and enjoy the song.
After all taking a break, is incidentally, one of the ways Tristan is suggesting. And this is only one of the 101 ways. ,
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Tristan blogs on Blogging Bookshelf, a blog about “blogging,info products and internet business.” You can learn more about him here, and access his free e-books (whose topics range from getting noticed in your niche to getting ideas for books) here. Yes, I downloaded them all. You can’t always find that much fun stuff in the same place.