How to find ideas for your writing blog

As a writer, one of the most valuable thing you can blog about is, unsurprisingly, the writing craft. Don’t think for one moment that it’s pointless if it’s been done before; each writer has different skills, and sharing them helps everyone improve. You can talk about:

• your writing journey and lessons learned
• how you fit time for writing into your busy life
• your writing process
• development of characters, settings and themes
• writing tools you find useful
• tips and tricks for drafting and editing

For more ideas, feel free to check out my “on writing” posts here.

More specifically, you may like to share with your readers select information about your current WIPs. This does NOT have to be spoilery in nature, and how much you share is entirely up to you. I always finding it quite thrilling to write about my work, and it’s fascinating to learn how others are going. Topics could include:

• history / origins of the story concept
• developing and sharing mock covers (so much fun!)
• sharing short snippets or excerpts
• participation in challenges like NaNoWriMo
• progress reports
• explaining complex world-building aspects

For more ideas, feel free to check out posts about my WIPs here and here.

Case in point: this post! This is the first time I’ve actually blogged about blogging—I even had to make a new category!—but already I have a number of other ideas I could write about on this very subject. These include:

• your blogging journey and lessons learned
• tips and tricks for novice bloggers
• tools you’ve found useful for designing and developing your blog
• celebratory posts on your “blogiversary”
• share with your readers the bloggers you follow!

While I am not yet qualified to talk at length about this topic, I definitely intend to post about my publishing journey when that eventually happens. For us writers, it is a subject I know for a fact generates a lot of interest. Some interesting ideas include:

• pros and cons of the different kinds of publishing
• any research you conducted when making key decisions
• all about your publishing journey
• key considerations for self-publishing, particularly in your country of residence
• lessons learned, what to do, what not to do etc.

To be honest, this sounded a little wishy-washy to me when I first started out, but I’ve since done a full 180. Blogging about your goals, and reflections on what you achieved, is very effective at helping you hold yourself accountable, celebrate what you’ve accomplished, and identify where you need to improve. Consider blogging about:

• your annual goals at the start of each new year
• any exciting developments in your professional and/or personal life
• weekly or monthly updates about what you’ve been up to and how you’re tracking
• reflection at the end of each year on whether you achieved your goals

For more ideas, feel free to check out my “goals & reflections” posts here and my “updates” posts here.

I am a very private person, and very deliberate about what I do and don’t share online. But I also know that to engage your readers you need to ensure they feel some kind of connection to you. There are so many interesting things about yourself you can blog about, depending how much you’re comfortable sharing. For example:

• fun facts or odd quirks about yourself
• habits and routines and how you developed them
• holidays and trips you’ve made (posted after the fact if you’re concerned about security)
• your likes and dislikes

For more ideas, feel free to check out my “about me” posts here.

Posting on a writing blog about the books you’re reading is 100% valid. This is a hill I’m prepared to die on. Writing and reading are inextricably linked, so don’t hold yourself back from blogging about all things bookish. Some ideas on this subject include:

• favourite books, and “top ten” of each year
• books that changed or influenced you in a profound way
• book reviews
• discussions of important themes in the books you read
• lists of recommended reads

For more ideas, feel free to check out my “on reading” posts here.

Your blog, your rules. As I mentioned earlier, you can post about whatever you like, but if you want to stick with the writing theme, there are still ways to diversify. There are so many tangential subjects you can talk about that are relevant to writing and your writing journey. Here are a few examples:

• exploring different genres and formats
• recurring post series about aspects such as world-building
• recipes and cooking, and how you use them to maximise your “brain power”
• sharing or reviewing products that assist or influence your craft
• current affairs that impact your projects or your process

As a more specific example, I run a series of posts I call “Fantasy Fridays”, which you can check out here.

If you’ve been around the blogisphere for a little while, you may have come across what we refer to as “tags”. I don’t mean the tags you can add to your own posts, but a type of post where you have to answer a set of questions around a certain theme or topic, and then tag other bloggers in. These are great way to connect with others, so don’t turn them down if they come up! Even if you aren’t officially tagged in one of these posts, but you come across one that looks interesting, I say go ahead anyway!

For more ideas, feel free to check out my “tags & top posts” category here.

Finally, your best source of ideas is probably all the other hundreds of thousands of bloggers out there. I am NOT CONDONING PLAGIARISM, however, so do not, under any circumstances, post someone else’s work and try to pass it off as your own. Here are two legitimate ways to use other bloggers to help formulate your own:

• reblog someone else’s work
• invite others to write a guest post on your blog
• compile a list of your favourite posts on a certain subject
• use others’ posts while researching a certain topic, then cite them on your blog
• look at what others are writing about purely for inspiration

At the end of the day, we’re all on this blogging journey together. Do the right thing!