Comments on: What to write about? How to generate blogging ideas

By: admin

admin — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:07:33 +0000

SDC: I feel the same way most of the time. If I see lots of folks have blogged about a topic either I a) spend my blogging time reading what they wrote or b) feel like the topic is already over done and I should look for something fresher.
Intellagirl

By: SDC

SDC — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:30:02 +0000

If other people find RSS feeds helpful, more power to them, but personally, they have killed my writing dead. In the early 90s it was called the Usenet effect.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:45:35 +0000

Lately I’ve been reading some of the books written for “new faculty.” Not that I’m there yet, but writing continues to be one of my biggest challenges, whether for blogs or for other deadlines. Almost all of them suggest daily writing practice and blocking out space every day to write. In theory this sounds like a great way to systematize it, but I’ve always be averse to systems of any sort (notes parallels between going the gym to work on muscles and writing muscles).

Have your prolific subjects advocated for that kind of approach?

By: Kevin Makice

Kevin Makice — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:16:53 +0000

I find it much easier to write about things when I’m plugged into RSS feeds of interest. I started using Google Reader a year ago, but lost the routine last winter. Snackr (an AIR app for RSS I highly recommend) allowed me to catch up, though, and I’m again riding the wave.

I’ve created a lot of flotsam by doing this, but I tend to create drafts to store interesting links, particularly when I find ones that I can relate to each other in a single post. Then, when I’m looking for something to write, I try browsing through the drafts first.

It helps greatly to co-author a blog. I can feel productive when Amy writes something.

I toyed with starting a couple regular memes, but I never needed them and so never posted them. Blogging is very much about rhythm. When it was not part of my routine (thanks to blogging elsewhere during Bloomington Startup Weekend), it was extremely difficult to get back in the rhythm. I forced myself to do another theme change, though, and regained some interest and momentum.