Blogging Is Art: 3 Content Prompts To Reawaken Your Creativity
Here he goes again, I hear you say. Another blog by a blogger about blogging. Well, yes it is. We are a digital content company after all, and so if we can’t give a few tips to all those prospective bloggers out there, then who can?
I’ve chosen this topic today because I know from my personal experience of doing this job everyday that at times it can feel like you’re just regurgitating the same old stuff again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
How many different things can there really be to say about blogging, Facebook, big data, the cloud, wearable tech, app development, gadgets, iPhones? Well, quite a lot actually – all of these subjects are continuously growing and evolving, and so you would think that there would be a wealth of inspiration out there as soon as you punch a new query into Google. And, while that’s certainly true – there is indeed a never ending slew of topics and subject matter all sitting up smartly and waiting their turn to be reported on – when it comes to structuring a blog post, I know that it can sometimes be the case that you feel like you’re just going through the same motions over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again and again and again.
Jaded Creativity
In terms of layout and formatting, there are a few rules to blogging that you simply can’t avoid. And, if you want to become a pro blogger, then there are even more. You have to choose positive titles, make sure you’ve got lots of subheadings because people only skim read online, you’ve got to make sure you include plenty of links, reply to all comments, write for your audience and not for Google, content is king and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
It gets a little tiresome to be honest, and enough to leave even the most enthusiastic expert’s creativity feeling more than a little limp.
And so this blog is not about structuring the perfect blog post, or about telling you why you need to be writing more list posts, instructional posts, newsjacking posts or any other type of posts.
This is a blog that is hopefully going to slap you around the face a bit, make you forget all those rules and conventions for a moment and start to remember why you wanted to write in the first place. Because you’re creative. Because you’re not a sheep. You don’t want to be told what, when and how to write. You’re a blogger, and a blogger is a writer, and a writer is an artist.
So, forget all you’ve learned about blogging. It’s time for you to make your own rules. It’s time for you to get creative again. It’s time to make art. And so here’s a list of some inspirational content prompts for you all to reawaken your creativity and inject a bit more of that playful, enthusiastic and even bohemian artistry back into your blog posts.
1. Get Opinionated
The best art is borne from raw emotion. It doesn’t matter what those ‘rules’ say about blog posts should always be ‘positive’ and that internet readers only click on awe-inspiring headlines. There are lots of ways that writing can inspire awe. And, if you ask me, the sort of stuff that I like reading online are the articles that actually stand for something. They take a stance and they stick to it, despite the fact that the opinion expressed might be controversial. Here’s one that says “Content Isn’t King” written by Ross Simmonds in June last year. Yeah, bloggers – how d’you like them apples?
What’s so great about this post is that I’m not even convinced that Simmonds even really believes what he’s writing (just my opinion). He’s certainly disillusioned about the whole ‘content is king’ adage, and, to be fair, it has become somewhat of a platitude – I mean, if it was 100% true then obviously the content that I produce would have skyrocketed me to rule the internet kingdom long ago. No, he’s just pissed off. He’s pissed off that despite the fact that he continuously writes great digital content, it’s only ever as popular as his distribution channels allow. And so he’s formed a controversial opinion that stands in direct opposition to what 99 out of every 100 professional bloggers have been mounting their careers on for the past decade.
Either way, his opinion led him to write another great, creative post. And so I encourage you to do the same thing. Is there a rule or saying in your industry that you feel is a bit tired or outdated? There’s bound to be – so, stop being a sheep to it. Challenge it in your next blog. Ruffle some feathers. Ask yourself – what’s pissing me off about this game that I’m in? Indeed, get opinionated, and then be prepared to do battle in the comments section. Great stuff.
2. Get Obscure
Jaded creativity is a direct symptom of always playing it safe. If you’re just churning out the same old stuff as everyone else in your field, then, even though your research will be very easy, you’re going to quickly find yourself bored with your work, and perhaps even start to feel like all you are is either just another drone or otherwise a plain old copycat.
Don’t let this happen to you or your art. No one will thank you for it. Even if you do feel it important to get in on what’s trending at any given time – and to be fair, this is a very important aspect to successful digital marketing – please, for goodness sake, come at it from an obscure angle. Not only will it make you more creative, but it will save your sanity.
Importantly, though, to be ‘obscure’ doesn’t (necessarily) equate to being ‘whacky’. Before I started writing this post I did a little research into “content prompts”, and, perhaps predictably, found many posts that suggest the same or very similar things: “Answer your followers’ questions”, “Things I wish I’d known when I started…”, “What [insert trending topic] means for your industry”, “Share some statistics”, “Let keywords be your guide” and on and on and on and on….
BORING!!
No, I thought to myself. Those sort of prompts are not what I need for inspiration when I start to feel my creativity slipping. Indeed – those are just the hard and fast rules rebranded as supposed stimulation. They squash creativity, not give rise to it. And so I thought I’d write a much shorter list where I get opinionated, get obscure, and…
3. Get Experimental
Who’s to say that you can’t be the one to change the way people blog forever? Why not? Blogs are only what they are because bloggers like me still write them this way. But, as I stated in my introduction – blogging is writing and writing is art. So be artistic.
If you’re writing fiction then one of the first things that you have to consider and experiment with is point of view (POV). So I put it to you – why shouldn’t POV be more fluid in blogging? I, as always, have written this post in the first person. How predictable, and I am actually cursing myself right now for not writing it in the third person for the first time ever. Why not? I’m an artist and blogging is my art. And why not the second person? Sod it – why don’t I try and invent fourth, fifth and sixth person perspectives?
Another way to experiment would be perhaps to style your blog posts as if they were actual fictional stories – much like Truman Capote did when he wrote the first ever non-fiction novel In Cold Blood. What turned into one of the most famous and important works of the 20th Century actually started life as a pretty standard newspaper report. Now non-fiction novels or faction books are everywhere, and they’re brilliant.
Now, perhaps it would be taking it a little far to write a novel-length blog post (though your opinion may differ) – I don’t know if WordPress would handle it for a start. But, why don’t you try when you next sit down to start writing a blog, instead of making it all factual and dry, turn it into a real narrative. Pretend you’re writing an actual short story, with a protagonist, an antagonist, a beginning, middle and end and all that jazz. Go for it – you might just break the blogging mould forever more. I might even try it myself (with the ETO’s permission, of course!!).
Do you ever feel like a jaded blogger? What do you do to reawaken your creativity? Let us know in the comments below.
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