How to Brainstorm Ideas for Blog Posts
I apologize to any non-bloggers out there reading this, if this post seems a little too “inside baseball.” I haven’t talked much about blogging here on BLOODLETTERS, because I generally think blogging about blogging is too self-referential. (Of course, now I’m blogging about blogging about blogging, but let’s not get into that.) A fair number of the people who comment here have blogs of their own, so I thought this post might be useful to them. If this isn’t your cup of tea, I’m sorry, come back tomorrow and we’ll talk about, I don’t know, haunted aquariums or something.
First off, let me admit this — I wrote this post because when I sat down to brainstorm a bunch of post ideas for BLOODLETTERS, a post about “how to brainstorm blog post ideas” was one of the first ideas that popped into my blank little head. (Either my subconscious was being overly literal, or it was being sarcastic.) But here’s the interesting thing — I decided to brainstorm ideas because I wanted to post something, but couldn’t think of anything. As soon as it was “just brainstorming,” though — in other words, as soon as I freed myself from the apparently overwhelming task of having to “actually” write a post, I could suddenly think of all kinds of things to write about. Funny how that works.
I created a new directory in my Dropbox folder, so that its contents would sync automatically between my laptop and my home PC. (If you’re not using Dropbox, you really should. I think it’s one of the best tools a writer can have. But that’s a post for another day. Oh, look, there’s another idea.) I called the folder “Blog Posts,” and I just started creating new text files in it — one new text file for each idea, using the topic of the blog post as the name of the file.
If I did have any ideas or notes or relevant URLs to contribute to one of these posts, I just opened the file, quickly jotted them down, and then closed the file again. Each one of these files then becomes an IOU to myself, a promissory note. And since all I’m doing for the most part is just creating blank files, it feels effortless. Try it and see what you think.
Okay, that’s great, Montoure, you’re thinking, but how do you come up with the actual ideas?
First of all, don’t try too hard. If you sit there, desperately trying to come up with a wonderful idea, the best idea, a post that will make you readers weep openly, you’re just going to find yourself staring at a blank screen. Give yourself permission to come up with any idea, no matter how ridiculous or trivial, act like you’re just playing, and soon enough you’ll find the good ideas are coming all by themselves.
Think about the things you always rant about to your friends. Imagine sitting down with your friends over coffee and talking to them about the kinds of things you talk about on your blog — in my case, horror movies, writing, the future of the printed book versus the e-book, and the rising dominance of self-publishing. (Either I happen to know a lot of people who are genuinely interested in these things, or I have some very indulgent friends.) There are probably certain topics that keep coming up in these conversations, certain points you keep making. Just turn them into blog posts.
Think about posts you’ve enjoyed on other blogs recently. If you’re a blogger, then I assume you probably read a number of blogs on topics similar to your own. I’m not suggesting you should just steal ideas from them wholesale, but do think about posts you’ve read that struck a spark in your brain. See what your own answers are to questions they raise.
Think about things you’ve already posted. Surely not every single one of your posts is your definitive final word on that particular subject. If you posted about some current news item or trend, that might be worth revisiting: have there been new developments you can talk about? If you posted your opinion about something, how about turning that idea around — for example, suppose you posted about your all-time favorite plot twists in movies. Well, why not post about your least favorite plot twists?
Pretend you’re reading the best blog ever. This last idea may seem kind of stupid, but it actually helped me generate some decent ideas. Suppose you found a great new blog whose author writes about the same topics you write about. Each post has you thinking, man, this is great advice, this is something I wish someone would’ve told me a long time ago, and so on. You don’t have to imagine it in any detail — just the headlines. Then write those down. And then, who knows — once you actually start writing those posts, maybe someday someone out there will be looking at your blog thinking, man, this is the best blog ever.
