OVERCOMING THE BLOGGER’S BLOCK

Arrghh! Where am I? How am I? What am I? Who am I? Have you ever waken up one morning and experienced severe mental block? You just cannot remember anything or what you did the previous day. You even lost the creative sparks to blog even though you have been blogging for many years. You felt really down and depressed. It felt like you have gone back through time when you were still a baby; sitting there and watching the whole world turning around and yet you have no ways to describe it. Has anybody felt this way for a long time that they are not responding as they normally would?

Paradoxically, many bloggers have this kind of chronic depression. Some will just quit from blogging without considering that this is just a temporary symptom. Others will find it to be the best stimulation to blog even more quality articles. To them, blogging is the way to release their stresses, emotional pains, relationship problems, etc. Thus finding some relieves through the blogosphere.

So, what are the steps to be taken to overcome the blogger’s block?

First, let’s look into our health. Are we getting enough of nutrition for our body? Some recommend Ginkgo Bibola, the herbal extract from the leaves of a gymnospermous dioecious tree. It is believed to be an all round “brain enhancer”, especially good for those “forgetful professors.” Another recommended “brain food” supplement is Vitamin B12, which helps maintain healthy nerve cells and red blood cells. Vitamin C is also vital for health as it is also an antioxidant which can prevent lots of illness. Be sure to check with your medical consultant before consuming these vitamins.

Our diets are also something we should look into. Milk is believed to be a good nutrient for strengthening the bones but it is also a frequent cause of lethargy. When you get lethargic, you tend to be sleepy and less blogging ideas will come out from your brain. So skip drinking or adding milk to your drinks and study the effects for a couple of weeks. You will be amazed with the amount of blogs you can post.

The best remedy will still be the quality and quantity of sleep one is getting. Due to the working environment pressures and our lifestyles, a lot of people are suffering from progressive sleep deficiency. Remember this, sleep more and you will have more creativity in your mind to write a CLASS A article.

Next will be the blogger’s writing anxiety. When a blogger gets too excited and anxious over an incident or situation, he tends to be less systematic in structuring what he intends to write. The end result will be chaotic. His flow of writing or ways of expressing himself would be so poorly worded to draw any attention from his readers. A moderate level of adrenaline flowing inside us to get ourselves anxiously ready for action is productive. If we let our anxiety overwhelm us, problems such as “blank mind” may arise. This happens to many of us when we were in the midst of blogging, taking an examination, doing public speaking or even competing in sports events. Below are some steps which might help you to blog better.

Be Relax – Even if you are sitting down in front of the computer, stretch as many muscles as you can from head to toes. Close your eyes, breathe in deeply, fill your chest with as much air as you could, hold it for 5 seconds, and slowly let it out. Repeat these steps a few times until you are not feeling so tense to blog.

Be Aware – Aware in terms of your purpose in blogging on your chosen subject. Will your readers accept what you intend to write? Will they go against your judgements? Would you get arrested for blogging about the subject? Would you readers leave a comment on such subject? Nobody would want to read your monotonous lifestyle or on how you play the guitar. Readers want updates on technology, money making, lifestyles, happenings or even gossips. You won’t want your readers to be disappointed, right?

Be Focus – Zoom in what you want to write. Set a topic and do not wander off-track. Have your mind consciously and continuously on productive comments. Pen it down. It could even be in points form.

Brainstorm – Think whatever that first come into your mind. Gather as much information as you can by browsing through the internet. Interview some people to get their different views and opinions. Jot it down no matter how absurd it may sound. It could be a fresh analogy for future blogs.

Nutshell – Compile all your information in short sentences. Identify which information should be your header, contents and footer. Highlight them with 3 different coloured highlighters, Use a pen to number which point should come in first in each coloured sections.

Draft – Organize all your information in a systematic way by typing in Microsoft Word. Do whatever reshuffling and editing necessary. Run a spelling / grammatical error checking on the finished content

Finalization – Check everything carefully to ensure that it is as what you wanted it to be and you can start posting it into your blog account.

Finally, here’s the last important point - Reading. Go through some of the experience bloggers’ site and read through some of their contents. You might get a point of two of what you can write for your future posts. Please remember not to copy their topic contents as yours. It is not professional to “steal” what they have written unless you get their consents to do so differently, in your own words. Here are some of the bloggers who have made blogging so interesting: 5xmom, AhPek, As Zewt As It Gets, and many more.