I’m 9 days into my month-long journey of publishing new content every day, and I’m fresh out of ideas.
This is the first day I’ve really struggled with publishing. I’ve spent my weekend working on a side project, which is new type of email newsletter.
Not another newsletter
I know, but this one is different, ok?
I want to write about what I’m working on, but it’s not done yet. My side project is occupying the entirety of my mental space. It’s the only thing I’m thinking of. How to tweak it, what to change, when it’ll be ready for launch.
Hopefully I can talk about it soon, but for now I’ll talk about writers block.
What is writer’s block?
This is unchartered territory for me. Previously, when I didn’t have a topic to write about I just didn’t write. But now that I have a self-imposed schedule of publishing every day, I’m stuck.
Writers block to me is not having anything to write about when you have to write.
I’m frustrated because I’ve never had this happen before. I’m learning something new, but it sucks.
I want to write, I need to write, but nothing comes to mind. But I have to write anyway.
How to combat writer’s block
The first thing I did was write in my journal. I hadn’t written an entry today, so I fired it up. I wrote about a few things:
- My day
- How I thought the weekend went by really fast
- My current conundrum of writer’s block
- Then I decided to write about writer’s block
And here we are. My journal entry was not particularly inspiring. I’ll admit my thoughts are elsewhere right now.
But journaling helped. It at least got my fingers moving and words down on the page. A small amount of creative juices are now flowing, so it’s time to get down to business.
Brainstorm more ideas
I keep a file called Headline Factory, where I write headlines of future blog posts. Usually this is well stocked, and I can open it and see which topic strikes my fancy.
My problem now is the factory is empty. I’ve written about all the ideas in there, and I haven’t spend time replenishing it.
So tonight I’m going to brainstorm more ideas to write about. They don’t have to be good ideas. In fact, most of them certainly won’t be good.
But I need something to fall back on when this inevitably happens again. When I’m lacking inspiration but still need to publish.
If you don’t keep a headline factory, or at least a list of things to write about somewhere, I recommend starting now.
Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times. My latest side hustle idea came to me in bed, after I had just napped for 2 hours, at 10:30pm in a hotel room in San Antonio. It just manifested in my brain, and I knew I had to turn it into reality.
I’ve had the same inspiration for writing. Great ideas can strike at any place and at any time. Write them down in the moment because they’ll disappear before you know it.
Have you struggled with writer’s block?
Let me know. How have you found ways to fight through the block and publish something you’re happy with? Are my strategies valid?
I certainly didn’t do any research here. I just wrote about what I was going through, my attempts to solve it, and what I’ll do going forward.