Professional Blogging For Dummies®

Chapter 17. Ten Tips for Jump-Starting Your Creativity

In This Chapter

• Capturing ideas for future use

• Reading newspapers, your own blog, and other blogs for inspiration

• Surfing the Internet

• Taking a break with a hobby, a game, Facebook, or a walk

• Moving to new scenery

Even if you're passionate about your topic and usually have more ideas than you have time to write, a day will come when you can't get going; you're stalled, and the words just won't come. You need a jump-start.

Try one (or more) of the ten tips in this chapter to relax your mind so that you're ready to write. The first six may also help you come up with an idea for your post. These are just a sampling of the many things you can do to jump-start your creativity.

Capture Ideas in a Notebook

All you need is a small 3-x-5-inch notebook that you can carry wherever you go. Don't forget the pen. When you have an idea or observe something that interests you, jot it down. When you're at a loss for what to write, you can skim through your notebook for inspiration.

I also do this digitally with the social bookmarking site Delicious (http://delicious.com). When I read something online that I think I might like to write about, I tag it with a special category. To save a bookmark at Delicious, follow these steps:

1. Sign up for an account athttp://delicious.com.

2. Navigate to your bookmarks and then click the Save a New Bookmark link in the upper-right corner of the page, as shown in Figure 17-1.

   Figure 17-1. Save a bookmark at Delicious.

3. Type (or ...