Blog Idea Clear Out

We’re getting to the pointy end of the year where I’ve been looking ahead to see what blog content I need to finish up 2024.

A check of my yearly calendar showed I need 7 blog posts (besides my monthly roundup blogs) and I think that’ll be no problem as I have an entire file of ideas.

When I checked said file, however, hardly anything sparked the inspiration I needed to write the ideas so carefully squirreled away.

One reason is that my blog posts are usually born from a writing tip or editing issue I’m experiencing as I work on a WIP. Since I haven’t been writing a fictional book all year, that source of inspiration isn’t there.

The other issue is that the non-fiction project I have been working on based on my blog posts has made me realize I’ve already covered a lot of the topics in my Blog Ideas File and I’m also not in the same place I was when I wrote some of those initial ideas down.

I’ve written about growing as a writer when I was growing as a writer, but I’ve never addressed what happens when you outgrow your blogging ideas.

This isn’t to say I’ve blogged about everything, far from it, just that I’m no longer a writer who will blog about agent submissions and rejections because I’m not that writer.

Despite this realization, I have numerous notes and blog ideas dating back to 2017 about writing such posts, which led me to the only blog content I was excited about penning this week, and that was having a clear out of my Blog Ideas File!

Blog Idea Clear Out

If you’re like me, you will have a file, notepad, or bookmarked research topics you always intended to write about, but just haven’t gotten to yet. If, like me, it’s also multiple years old, it’s time to look at what you have and give it a cull.

The CutsGet Rid Of Notes That Are The Same

You’ll have them. Those notes that cover topics you’ve already written about or are very similar in ideas and info. You’ll think that it’s okay to write about procrastination yet again and that it’s not a form of procrastination, but it’s not okay and it is more procrastination.

If your notes are going to bring something fresh to a previously covered topic, by all means, keep them and write that blog post to give old readers a fresh take and new readers an introduction to the topic. If it will just be the same topic rehashed with virtually the same info, it’s safe to delete your notes and make room for something you haven’t covered before.

Eliminate What’s Not Relevant

When I started this blog, I was a new writer who hadn’t published anything and was finally taking her writing seriously. All of my early blog posts are about that journey.

From learning to write and edit, having manuscripts assessed, writing submission packages, sending manuscripts off to contests, writing query letters, and surviving rejections—I could write about that stuff because I was doing it.

I haven’t been in the query trenches for years, and as an indie publisher, I don’t plan to revisit those trenches anytime soon. I’m not in that world anymore, and writing about it isn’t something I think I could do with enough knowledge and justice to help other writers going through it.

I still had notes about it, though. Ideas for agents and rejections that could be turned into blog posts, so I’ve put those things to rest. Those old posts are still part of my blog. I won’t delete them. They are helpful for new writers and are a timeline of the writer I was when I first started, but I won’t be writing new posts on those topics.

I’ve moved past that part of my writing journey, and if you have notes and ideas that are the same, let go of those, too.

Combine What You Can

You know those three separate files on editing topics are really all the same, right? Go on. Really look at them and you’ll see that they are.

While there are multiple ways to cover a topic, there’s also you simply repeating the same info with different headlines.

Look at your notes and ideas regarding certain/similar topics and see what can be combined into one post and focus on that.

Get Rid Of The Topics You Don’t Understand

If you’ve noted down a blog topic for something you read that seemed interesting at the time, or a keyword typed into your blog search made you think you should write a post but you really don’t understand it, press delete.

If you can’t research the topic well enough to help yourself and others learn something new, the topic is wasting space in your file.

Be Ruthless

Those notes and ideas sparked enough interest that you made them, but if you’re looking back on them now and there’s no spark to write them, be ruthless with your cuts.

Chances are you would never turn them into something readable/useful. Remove them now and leave space for the ideas that make you want to write them.

Only Keep What’s Viable

Really, really viable. I had notes that were one sentence or just a title. I’d noted them down, but looking at them months or years later, they meant nothing or were now something I’d covered elsewhere. They were no longer viable blog ideas and could go.

If you can look at your idea and it still makes you curious or excited to write about it, even if it’s just a sentence, keep it. If it does nothing for you, say goodbye.

Don’t Force It

If you wrote an idea and feel you have to write it simply because it’s an idea in your ideas folder, it will help no one.

Write about what you enjoy and like; it will come across in your blog posts. If you’re excited about the topic, your readers will be too. Don’t write something just because it’s an item to tick off in your notes file.

The Aftermath

Once you’ve made all of your cuts, don’t freak out. Just because you went from an entire file of ideas to only a handful it doesn’t mean you’ll run out of blogging content. You now have the chance to come up with fresh ideas.

Create A One Day File

While this process is to get rid of blog ideas you’ll never write, if you simply can’t bring yourself to delete an idea, or you know you will be good/knowledgeable enough to do it justice in the future, create a One Day file.

In this One Day file, put the notes you can’t bring yourself to delete. You may look at this file one day and get to write the things written on it. If you’re doing another cull at a later date and haven’t touched the file, you’ll know what to do with it.

Repurpose Your Ideas

When looking at my files, I had notes about making a character relatable. It’s a topic that is relevant and always a good writer trick to learn, but it’s also something I’ve covered in other blog posts. Writing it again would feel like déjà vu, but taking those notes and applying them to make a villain relatable isn’t something I have covered before.

In fact, deciding to go a different route with the initial notes sparked new ideas and got me excited about writing such a post as opposed to covering general character relatability once again.

By switching it up, I’ll be covering a niche topic, a new topic for my blog, and one that I feel will be helpful for other writers.

Before dismissing a topic you feel you’ve already covered, see how you can apply those tips or notes to a related topic and give yourself some new content.

Study What You’ve Covered

As mentioned, the non-fiction book I’ve been working on this year is based on my blog posts. That’s 7 years’ worth of content that I looked back through and it allowed me to see what I’d covered, which topics I’d covered too much, and, made me think about what I haven’t covered yet.

Based on this, I started a keyword/topic note in my Blog Ideas File to keep track of topics I want to cover in the future. This also helped narrow down my blog ideas and ensure future posts are fresher than the old ideas I’d been clinging to.

If you’re forcing yourself to write a blog based on an old idea you have no passion for, it makes it hard to pen new content, to sit down each week to blog, and keep a blog going year after year.

While there will always be times when blogging feels like a chore, there are also times when it’s fun. That comes from working on ideas you’re passionate about writing, so keep that in mind as you update and overhaul your old blog ideas and reap the benefits of your clear out.

— K.M. Allan

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