Creativity 101: 5 Ways To Get Your Writing Groove On

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A few days back, I came across a blog by Michelle aka BlogGrrl.A  And found her blog to be quite refreshing.A  Michelle has a very unique writing style of her own - very goofy, sometimes outrageous, but always entertaining. I started communicating with her via email and asked her if she would like to share her writing ideas with my blog readers.A  Michelle agreed - and here is her fantastic guest post:

Creativity 101: 5 Ways To Get Your Writing Groove On

Sitting around at home writing in your underwear is a pretty low-stress gig, but sometimes it can be too much of a good thing. Writing is a solitary pursuit, which can ironically leave you without the ideas that got you started writing in the first place. If you end up with severe brain drain, try one of these creative writing techniques to get your writing groove on.

1. Grab a trashy magazine and check out the headlines.There are great ideas both on the cover and inside. I like to use this “creativity exercise” as an excuse to grab a Maxim and check out whats going on in men’s heads. It scares me. I digress. At any rate, headlines such as How They Did It: Five Women Lose 100 Pounds in Five Months can be morphed into How They Did It: Five Bloggers Get 1000 RSS Subscribers in Record Time . If you’re the serious sort, instead of grabbing a trashy magazine, use The Economist.

2. Play cards with yourself.

Get three different colored markers and 15 index cards. Divide the index cards into three piles of five. On the first pile of index cards, write subjects from your niche. If you have a money blog, it might look like this:

• Saving
• Investing
• Making $ Online
• Frugality
• Career Advice

Then, using a different colored marker, write down five formats on the next five cards. For example:

• List
• Photo Essay
• Long Informative
• Link List
• Review

Finally, with the last marker and set of index cards, list some random things that come to your mind. You may want to add some more index cards at this point.

• breeds of cats
• personality types
• musical instruments
• fish
• tools

Now mix up the cards. You may end up with something like a list of ways to be frugal with illustrations of a Persian and alley cat next to one another. If you don’t like what you get, mix it up again. Eventually you’ll come up with something. Just don’t do what I did and include “underwear” in your last set of cards!

3. Lie awake at night and stare at the ceiling.

Eventually you will drift into a beta state where you think of all sorts of odd ideas, some of which might even be good. Keep a notebook and pencil next to you, because, believe me, you are not going to remember this stuff when you wake up. In the morning, review what you have written. The ratio of nonsense to brilliance typically runs about 99:1, but that’s okay, because that one percent pays off. Good ways to induce insomnia include having a teenager, drinking coffee too late, contemplating the nature of consciousness and owning a cat who enjoys “making biscuits” on your head with its extremely sharp claws at two in the morning.

4. Copy other bloggers.

Look at the structure of articles you enjoy and duplicate it using your own content. This is how I got the idea for 11 Mistakes Your Blog Makes in Bed. Likewise, if you see some content out there that you can do better, go for it. You can put your own spin on anything. Ultimately, it is your voice and perspective that make your blog unique more than anything else.

5.Read books.

Make a habit of keeping some Post-it notes next to you whenever you are reading a book. Whenever you get to a passage that relates in some way to your blog, however vaguely, stick a Post-it on the page. You’ll find that a single well-written book can spawn a dozen posts. Don’t disregard fiction–you never know when you’ll run across a quote, story or character that will spark a completely unique post.

If you liked this post, stop on by Bloggrrl and say hi. You might even want to try for the 50 smackeroos in this month’s strip poker contest. Check it out! See ya there.

• You can also read my guest post on Michelle’s blog: How To Not Write Stupid

If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $3 a beer or $7.5 for a pitcher)

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Posted by bloggrrl under Writing on 10 Aug 2007

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