I had some trouble deciding on a topic for today's posts. Although I did come up with several subjects, I rejected each of them for different reasons. Finally, I realized I was suffering from a blog block, so I decided to write about that.
For me, blog block and story block are caused by two separate issues. Blog block often happens when I don't have a subject for a post. Once I come up with one, I can generally outline the main points in my head before I write. The block/slow writing I'm going through for Summon the Seasons is different in that I know where I'm going with the story, but I don't always have the specifics of how I want to get there. It may be hard picking the right words for a specific line, or my idea for the immediate scene may change to something other that what I had originally intended. Little time and lack of sleep don't help either. I need more energy or brainpower to write fiction than I do for nonfiction.
If you blog, do you ever suffer from blog block? How do you think it compares to story block? Feel free to share your thoughts below.
5 comments:
Story block is more not knowing where to go and blog blog is not knowing where to begin.
I outline to death, so I rarely have story block. Once in a great while I'll scrape for a blog topic, but there's usually something interesting happening in the the entertainment world.
That's part of the reason I like to do science posts, Alex; there's always something to talk about too.
I have a notebook specifically with blog post ideas, but every once in a while I still get stuck. It might be a great idea, but I might not be in the mood to write about it, or worse, I have no pictures to accompany it.
With both story block and blog block the best solution for me is to read something else. I almost always get unstuck by reading something out of my normal range. It gives me a new perspective and inspiration.
Story block is a lot more important. If you get blog blocked you can just share a funny cat video or something.
At one point in time I had issues with blog block, but then I isolated the themes I most enjoyed blogging and worked out a schedule: Mondays for deep thoughts, Wednesdays for book stuff, and Fridays for funnies. That all kind of melted into the same thing when life got insane, which is why I typically blog once a week with either funnies and a book giveaway, or an inspirational thought and a giveaway.
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