How to Ensure You Never Run Out Of Things To Say On Your Blog | Life Love and Hiccups: How to Ensure You Never Run Out Of Things To Say On Your Blog
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Tuesday 26 August 2014

How to Ensure You Never Run Out Of Things To Say On Your Blog

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Something I am a total sucker for are random 'how to' articles that entice me to click on them with headlines like;

"How to Organise Your Life In 5 Easy Steps"

"How to Have a Whole New Wardrobe Without Spending A Cent"

or "How to Spice Up Your Sex Life in 3 Easy Moves" (I did actually click on that one and let's just say my eyes were seriously assaulted by what I saw.)

Often I click over ready for my moment of enlightenment, but instead I'm left with an anti climatical sense of disappointment.

Man I hope that's not how you feel after reading my post today ... although there is quite the possibility.

One of the questions I often get asked by friends and readers is "Do you ever run out of things to talk about on the blog?"

Usually I just respond by laughing and making some completely weird face where I cross my eyes and attempt to lick my nose with my tongue...I have no idea why I do that. Probably because I figure it is better that I pull some weird head rather than admit the truth - which is that since I suffer from chronic verbal poo it is very unlikely that I would ever run out of things to dribble talk about.

That doesn't necessarily mean everything that everything I have to say actually gets published here on the blog.

No sirree.

One little peek at the back end of my blog and you will spy a bucket load of posts all typed up and ready to go... but they will probably never ever see the light of day.

Most of them are ranty panty kinds of posts where I am basically letting off some steam and telling someone to go and suck a fart but without actually having to say it to their face. Because according to therapists I am passive aggressive...

NO SHIT SHERLOCK? I HAVE TO PAY YOU TO TELL ME THAT?

I prefer to think of myself as non confrontational....

Whatever.

Usually those kind of posts come about after someone or something has ticked me off and I have sat down with my laptop and stabbed out some kind of emotional tirade instead of using my words like a legitimate grown up would and telling them how I feel.

Often they are written at a time of the month where I am irrational, hormonal and totally dangerous around sharp objects and so I have a rule that I cannot hit publish on these types of posts for at least 24 hours after I have written them.

Nine times out of ten when I go back to them the next day I'm all "Holy Shitballs you CAN'T Say that" and so I leave them to sit and gather cobwebs.

I kind of like the idea of one day printing them out and publishing a coffee table book full of ranty ramblings.... I will call it 'How To Tell Someone To Go and Suck a Fart Without Actually Telling Them'.

Or something like that.

I have digressed.

So how do I ensure that I never run out of things to say on my blog?

I journal.

Yep that's pretty much my not so secret weapon.

I journal daily, often throughout the day. I might record a note or an idea on the run and then I add it into a weekly document that I have saved in Dropbox. I can add to it at any time and I can access it from my phone, my laptop, desktop or iPad, whenever I need to.

During the day when I am working from home the document is always open and I add to it as the thoughts come into my head or ideas pop up. It could be a conversation I had with someone or something that happened whilst I was out.

I take photos of any projects I am working on as I go and record the details in my journal - that way if I decide later that it might be something worth sharing, I have all I need ready at hand.

I also take photos everywhere I go as they act as a prompt to remind me of things later than night when I am writing in my journal, and those photos of course can also be used in any resulting blog posts.

Once a week I sit down and plan out my blog posts and I read back through the last week of journaling and there it all is. The good stuff, the bad stuff and the embarrassing stuff ripe for the picking.

I choose my topics for each post and basically I just cut and paste from my journal and flesh it out once it is in a draft format. If I am feeling super organised I might do a whole week's worth in one sitting. Otherwise I just write my posts at nighttime when it is quiet and I can actually think.

Occasionally something crops up that I am busting to write about right there and then... and so I do just that and simply push the other post I had planned aside to another day.

I'm going to go so far as to say that a journal has the potential to be one of a blogger's most powerful tools... and besides all else, I think it's fun to read back through some of the random things you've been thinking about or doing on any given day - and in my case, realise just how much of a nut job I sometimes am!

So that my friends is pretty much how I never run out of things to say on my blog.

What about you - Do you write in a journal?
Do you ever run out of things to say?
For our bloggy friends, how do you plan your blog content?