I’m reading blog posts which say ‘Posting has become a chore’ or ‘It’s hard to post regularly’ or ‘Feeling the pressure to post’—-stop right there!

Take a break, the earth, the sky and the stars will still be there, the world will still turn.

Conversely there are serious blog posts coercing, er, cajoling the writer into a formula.  Or worse, a winning formula to be the best blogger in the blogosphere.

There’s even a blog ideas generator, how unoriginal can you get!

YOUR WORDS, YOUR WORLD, CREATE YOUR WAY!

Does a technique overcome bloggers block?  Better blogging supposedly comes with strategies, structure, schedules, regularity, planning…bah, humbug I say!  There’s probably enough pressure in your world without adding more via your blog.  If anything, blogging should be

a freedom,

a release from the daily grind,

your little patch of calmness,

a zone of personal creativity,

a focus on what you want,

how you want to say it,

and most of all, don’t worry,

let your originality take over.

The old hippie saying ‘go with the flow’ is appropriate when doing morning pages and you may like writing in the morning or writing in the evening.  Don’t push yourself to write to someone else’s rule, someone else’s timetable.  Free-writing is better than no writing.  You can actually write anywhere, anytime, and I don’t mean social media.

Self-control up to a point.
Yeah, I know people who have to have a hammer hanging over their heads on a piece of string.  If they stand up, the hammer hits them on the head, they sit back down and do another 500 words of pain.  One famous writer actually tied his body to the chair to write.
Then there’s that annual trial by acronym.
Which does not spell  g-o-o-d  w-o-r-k  to me.

Do you really want a target audience?  Do you personally know anyone who is making a decent living from blogging?  They’re the ones in the pressure cooker.  If you are not commercially selling, I say ‘Do your own thing!’ and that’s exciting.

I speak from experience.  You will find your own rhythm if you truly want to write.  And nobody, least of all me, will help you or hinder you.  You’re on your own, kid.

YOUR WORDS, YOUR WORLD, CREATE YOUR WAY!

‘Work hard to create great content’ – if it’s too hard it won’t work.

‘Blog often while controlling quality’ – we all know quality varies.

‘Find your competition and observe them’ – nothing worse than a lurker.

‘Write to please your readers’ – first ask yourself ‘Am I pleased with it?’

‘Improve your blog writing formula’ – your creativity is not a prescription.

‘What is your target market searching for?’ – don’t pander to the people.

‘What type of content do readers prefer?’ – write your content and let them Follow.

‘Start internal link building’ – in other words Liking but not liking.

‘You need to know the right audience for you’ – other bloggers will work that out.

‘Make your blog post titles catchy’ – why get hung up on headings.

‘Don’t have time to write then reblog or hire a ghost-writer’ – ha ha ha ha ha.

‘Images are important to highlight your post’ – keep them relevant, naturally.

‘Good eye-appeal in formats and layouts’ – beauty is in the eye of the blogger.

‘Learn basic SEO’ – because it’s basic but not life threatening.

‘Reply to Comments daily’ – meaning a proper reply or else deactivate Comments.

‘Bill Gates once said Content Is King’ – well, hey, that’s a given.

‘Keep wordcount down’ – there are people who can still read lots of words.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

YOUR WORDS, YOUR WORLD, CREATE YOUR WAY!