Blog Brain – Some thought for a more creative blog.
By in Blogging, News on 14th January 2008Its time to develop your blog brain, that hidden recess in the mind from whence all manner of ideas and thoughts pour forth to end up on the written page of your blogs. Where does it all come from, where does the average blogger get his inspiration from. I have tried to list all of the things that I do in a typical day of blogging to help ease that overworked aspect of my mind. I am also really interested in what other bloggers do, the idiosyncratic things which help to push the mind into blog mode, so please leave your ideas and thoughts as a comment and I’ll follow up on them.
Image by funkyah
For me, a hard days blogging, begins very early. The wife leaves for work, the youngest child is having a morning nap and the elder child is happily plugged into the TV, or is already at pre school and I have a quiet few hours to spend on my blogs. So it is not unusual to be feverishly writing by 8am. The first thing I do though is put on some serious coffee (although it is decaff these days) the instant stuff just doesn’t seem to cut it, like Jules, I love the gourmet shit.
I read the frontispieces of about ten websites for inspiration, and ideas, although I am very conscious about plagiarism, and I tend to take an idea and put it in a different framework from the one in which it originally appears. Then I write, followed by more coffee, and a cigarette or two (as I don’t smoke in the house, because of the kids, this means a five minute break in the fresh air, something I can’t recommend enough.)
After I have done three or four articles, I work on what I like to call my ‘projects’. I have about five on the go at any one time, you can read my project stating today on strategic content development for this web site here, and one for www.investingfeeds.com. The difference between articles on the day and projects is the time in development. An article will be produced in one, or maybe two sittings, but a project will take a lot longer. This gives me two very different styles of working, and I like different things about both ways.
I finish my online work by about ten am, spend time with the kids, get the housework done, make lunch and start to prepare dinner (all the humdrum things.) and resume work at about one pm. The afternoons are spent writing copy for a variety of paid gigs (some of the blogging stuff is paid as well, but I seem to approach all, paid or unpaid with a pro bono attitude) this is again, very different work and the variety keeps me fresh. I tend to try to get enough material in four days to cover my obligations for the week, so the weekend begins Thursday night for me. All in all not a bad lifestyle. If it felt like work I don’t think I would be as effective as I am. That is the secret for me.
As I said previously, I would love to hear about your writing days, and what you do to keep fresh. Drop me a comment and I’ll follow them up. Keep on Blogging.
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