5 writing resolutions for better blogging

Jan 2, 2014

Its that time of year again when we make a whole bunch of resolutions that will be obeyed for a few days and forgotten about by mid January. How about a resolution to not ignore your resolutions or maybe just try to persevere with one of them which would mean less coffee for me!

Here’s a few blogging resolutions to kick start the new year and help you write even better blog posts. In fact your writing is going to be awesome in 2014!

Write something every day

Yup, every single day, even a Sunday! It doesn’t really matter how much you write but make sure you put some words down on a page or screen. Work on lots of ideas at the same time so that you can add and change small bits of text every now and then. If you’re like me then you’ll find that the days when you really don’t want to write anything can become the most productive. I’ve ended up writing for ages on a day when I didn’t feel like doing anything at all.

If you can’t bring yourself to write anything new then edit something you did the day before, the key is to make writing a habit and a part of your daily routine so it hardly ever seems like a chore.

Always carry something with you for ideas and notes

I already do this (most of the time) and its helped me time and time again remember thoughts and ideas.

How many times have you been stuck in a queue at the Post Office or been waiting for a train and have come up with a fantastic idea for a new blog post. You’ve planned it out in your head, written the first sentence and had thoughts about adding video and images and then by the time you’ve reached your desk the idea is gone….poof!

It happened to me this morning. I woke up and had a great idea for a post here on Blog Butler, it was a cracker, it was the idea that would see a million hits(!). Did I write it down? No. I let the dog out, visited the bathroom and boiled the kettle then sauntered over to my desk and the idea was gone, vanished from my grey cells. Still can’t remember it now and its 5pm!

In the 21st century there’s no excuse not to be carrying around some type of note taking device. It could be your mobile phone, tablet or a plain old notepad. Just make sure you write down your ideas, many will be rubbish but some may be golden!

Write something you are NOT comfortable with

Put the cotton wool away, get off the comfy sofa and hide those tiger-feet slippers. Get out of your comfort zone and write something dangerous.

Every now and then its good to stretch yourself and your writing by putting together a blog post in a style that you either don’t like or are not familiar with. You may hate ‘How To’s’ or you find it really difficult to be controversial so do these things and test yourself out. The finished article may not be much good but you’ve pushed yourself and in six months or even a years time you may come back to it, rewrite it and come up with a cracker!

Sleep on a post whenever you can

I’ve just started doing this myself and its a great way to revisit a post quickly but with a fresh mind. Once you’ve written so much you can read it again and again and not see the mistakes, you go blind to what your writing and its easy to loose the focus of the article. Coming to it fresh the following day always helps me and I usually end up rewriting entire sections and finishing with a better quality post.

Surprise your readers and write a story!

Only do it once a year but write a story. It doesn’t have to be long, it could even be a really short piece of flash fiction but surprise your readers by writing a story. Pick a genre that you love and write a murder mystery, fantasy epic or a sci-fi adventure. I promise your readers will be surprised and love what you’ve done and very importantly it will help you to connect even closer with your audience.

I hope you found these resolutions useful. I know you won’t stick to them but if you can make the most important one to you a habit your writing can only get better. For me the most important are keeping a note taking device handy all the time and writing each day.

Which ones are you going to try? Have you got any resolutions yourself? Let me know.