Comments on: Stuck Writing a Post? – Change Your Writing Medium

By: beadinggem

beadinggem — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 20:31:07 +0000

I don’t rely on pen or paper or some other writing medium. For me the inspiration to write comes from the photos I attach with every single post. The first thing I do is add the picture, and the idea comes and the words just follow.

By: Muneeb

Muneeb — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:55:19 +0000

Again one of the useful post !

I really enjoyed reading each and every post of yours.

Thanks for the nice tips as i was stuck few times when it comes to writing.

Thanks
Muneeb

By: Bud

Bud — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:24:34 +0000

I see Jan Marie uses speech recognition software; has anyone used a tape recorder to tape ideas or major points of a post? I would think it would be handy since we are spending so much time in our cars these days.

By: Sumesh

Sumesh — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 01:00:30 +0000

Well, Darren, you seem to be quite a fan of pen and paper. And it is effective too.

Often, I write out outlines for posts or even entire posts when I am at school (they don’t allow laptops there,and I don’t have time to use the desktops). When I come home, all i have to do is type it out and bang!

I guess we’ve been used to writing creatively for years that changing it suddenly to a keyboard just doesn’t work as planned.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:46:35 +0000

When I need ideas (blogging ideas or cartoonideas ) I tend to leave the computer for a while and go and do some household chores. Actually, to be honest, this doesn’t happen that often. Our home is full of household chores that no-one has quite got around to yet.

Going to a cafe and watching passers-by also seems to help for some reason.

By: Danielle Signor

Danielle Signor — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:50:05 +0000

I try to always keep as many kinds of creative supplies around as I can — half-used-up sets of watercolor pencils, scrapbooking paper, journals, yellow legal pads, crayons, whiteboards, Sharpie markers, magazines to cut up, gel pens and index cards. Many of my best posts have started out on paper, in my Moleskine or in a chat window, and writing in a different “medium” (or even venue!) helps me tremendously.

By: Chris Carlaw

Chris Carlaw — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:07:11 +0000

Darren,

I have to say that ive never had that problem. Whatever is in my head will always reach paper or my blog.

My problem is – and i know i have to slowly rectify it- is that most of it is junk, and sometimes this can end up on my blog. (Ok, its not junk, it may just not be as compelling as some other posts)

Its sorting through the GREAT content that i can produce from my head is the art of being successful in my opinion.

By: Chen

Chen — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:31:37 +0000

The philosophy in this post applied not only to blogging but to writing in general as well.

I am an MA TEFL student at Lancaster University. Prior to my studies on those English teaching methodologies, I had seen students who use their cellphone, Mp3 player or voice recorder to store some random thoughts (in text or audio forms) and then put them together for a final write-up.

Technically, it is called “brainstorming” at the Pre-Writing stage. It is better if the author has a central idea and all those random thoughts are considered branches growing on that idea.

Nevertheless it is the variety of ways that people use to gather ideas that bewitches researchers and educators. Notions such as the individual differences of learners, learning style, psycholinguistics are studied thereafter.

By: Shane

Shane — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:19:22 +0000

I find that not only changing medium but changing atmosphere works. Go someplace else or listen to different music or work at a different time of day. I mix it up between my desktop, laptop and note pad (I like the yellow legal pads). There are times that the imperfect nature of the pen on paper helps things flow…in digital I get to into getting it perfect right off the bat.

By: thatch

thatch — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:13:28 +0000

My favourite way of capturing ideas is scribefire and my PDA. The PDA is fab for jotting down ideas, I use the email function and then when I dock the unit it sends them to a gmail address with the the name+blogname@gmail. This way I can keep the ideas sorted in their approriate spots.

I then use scribefire to grab the info from Gmail and post it to the blog as a draft.

This allows me to work on a few ideas at a time from anywhere you can get an internet connection.

By: DB Ferguson

DB Ferguson — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:20:04 +0000

One of the benefits of having a blogging “staff” is that I often PM one of them and say, “how about X idea? What can we do with that?” Right now, since we write about a TV show that is on hiatus to to the WGA writer strike, we have been doing a LOT of this to keep fun and creative content.

By: Jan Marie

Jan Marie — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:15:29 +0000

I often dictate my posts into my speech recognition software – Dragon Naturally Speaking. I talk much faster than I type, so it types it for me at the speed of my voice. I also make notes through the week in a journal about the challenegs my clients talk to me about so that I always have something to blog about and dont’ ahev to think up a new idea every time.

By: Ruchir

Ruchir — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:31:02 +0000

Wow, I never thought of that. Next time I’m having a case of writer’s block I’ll try writing it on paper…

By: Shaun

Shaun — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:34:27 +0000

The notebook idea has been a huge help for me. I carry one almost everywhere I go. When I have time, I like to jot down ideas on not only posts, but features I want to add to my site. It may be a week or more before I actually have a chance to work on the list, and this way, none of those items will be forgotten in that time.

By: SpicePuppy

SpicePuppy — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:10:20 +0000

I’ve found that composing things out loud helps a lot. Writer’s block is just so much more common than talker’s block.

By: Jeremiah - SimpleTiger

Jeremiah - SimpleTiger — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:23:07 +0000

Darren,

I think this is actually a good point. I have personally used your mind mapping idea and so far it has helped tremendously. I really like to hear about the specifics of what you currently do for blogging, like using Ecto. Thank you for the info!

By: ImageGag

ImageGag — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:58:58 +0000

I stopped writing altogether and now I’m having much more fun.

By: Small Business Marketing

Small Business Marketing — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:34:22 +0000

Talking to a mirror sometimes helps.

Actually the email idea really works. I use it very effectively when I wanted to send a nasty letter to someone: I write it late in the afternoon as an email an send it to myself and get up and read it the next morning when my mood has changed.

Most of the time I tone it back the next day. However , sometimes I crank it up even more and then send it off.

What happens is that when it hits your inbox and you open it, it feels like it is from someone else and most of us are very good at critiquing other people’s work.

By: Darshana

Darshana — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:24:07 +0000

Obviously the best way to get a post done is writing it down in paper with pen tan typing.
I totally agree upon walking up and down does help in clearing your thoughts, I do this so frequently I probably walk few Kilometers in my room.
What do you guys think of talking out loud, giving the post as an speech helps (I am pretty lazy to type) so how about using Voice recognition software.Has anybody tried this?

Are there any good Voice recognition software we can use?

By: Thássius V.

Thássius V. — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:14:18 +0000

I usually try to write on a notebook. Sometimes I use the Google Docs, so that I start the post and after some time go back to there and try to finish it.

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