Writing for your school blog can sometimes feel daunting and exhausting … but it’s alright. Everyone, including school marketers, has moments when we have to rattle our brains really hard just to produce decent content – the classic writer’s block.
Fortunately, there are many ways to overcome this predicament. While most of them are conventional, there are some solutions that may look weird and unusual. It doesn’t matter which solution you use to defeat writer’s block and get your school blog ready for publishing. As long as they work, they’re all completely fine!
Here are some of the unusual tricks to improve your school blog writing:
Write often
Try to write your way out of writer’s block, even if your output is gibberish. The trick is for you to keep writing and not overthink about it. Award-winning author Maya Angelou explained it in the book Writers Dreaming:
“I suppose I do get ‘blocked’ sometimes but I don’t like to call it that. That seems to give it more power than I want it to have. What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat, you know. And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.’”
Like with any other skill, practise makes perfect. If you keep on pushing yourself to write each day, writing will become second nature for you.
Write snippets everyday
Even if you don’t have a task at hand, writing a small chunk of words everyday can be a healthy habit to help you write quickly and effectively. For example, Stephen Guise wrote his book Mini–Habits by following his habit of writing 50 words a day. He mentioned that this is a stupidly low target that he can complete even if he was busy or tired.
Write in short bursts
We sometimes enjoy the momentum of writing when we feel like we’re in the zone. However, it might be better if you take a break now and then to keep your momentum up. The Pomodoro Technique suggests that you focus on the task in 25 minutes then take a break for five minutes. By following this routine, your energy is sustained and you have time to collect your focus once more.
Follow a ritual
However quirky it may look, having a pre-writing ritual, such as drinking chamomile tea or playing a card game, can get you pumped and motivated to write your blog entry. Several studies have shown that rituals can reduce anxiety and improve confidence in preparation for activities at hand. A short ritual before writing can get you in the right mood and can set your mind into the task at hand.
Connect your writing plan today and tomorrow
You don’t have to deplete all your writing energy within a day. You can try to reinvigorate and maintain your momentum by stopping before you get mentally exhausted. Ernest Hemingway explained how he used this technique to overcome writer’s block:
“The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.”
By strategically planning your writing schedule and knowing when to stop for the day, you can maintain your flow for the next day, with a possibility of coming up with better ideas.
Revisit your unfinished drafts
Sometimes, due to self-doubt or writing fatigue, we collect a batch of unfinished drafts. Instead of completely discarding them, it would be wise to sort them and keep them in a folder for future reference. If you have the time, you can revisit your old drafts to see if you can complete any of them and add them to your existing list of content.
We encourage you to try out these solutions so that you may be able to minimise writer’s block and complete your school blogs efficiently.
