Blog Challenge Day 7: Writer's Block

Finishing the last entry in a journal I wrote to my husband for six years of our relationship - My gift to him on our wedding day

Well it took a week, but its happened. I hit a bit of a wall in my challenge. Fortunately as I have been working on blog posts this week, the ideas for the subject of the posts and the content have come to me pretty easily. However, as I sit down to write right now, I don't really know what I want to say. The problem with blogging without a specific focus or topic is that if no profound thoughts have gone through your head, or nothing meaningful has happened, you may not feel like you have much to say. At least, nothing that would really hold the interest of a reader.

I recently read an article on how to combat writers block but a lot of it wasn't necessarily applicable to me. It was an article to assist those writing blogs but it catered more to those who's blogs have a specific subject or following. Also that they have other social networks to fall back on for responses or questions coming from their readers. As I never expect this to have any sort of real following, that wasn't too helpful to me.

Also, this particular time, this feels less like a block and more like a "swirling." I have many disconnected thoughts and ideas going through my head and can't seem to find any way to lasso them together into something concise and focused. Obviously this is bound to happen but it is still frustrating. I plan to "journal" more throughout my days in order to put my ideas on paper. I hope that this will 1)help to get them to stop swirling around my mind 2)remember them when I sit down to write and 3)give me a place to begin to connect my thoughts before beginning a post. I know this is a popular writing exercise as well as one to relieve anxiety about forgetting things.

I hate feeling mediocre as a writer but obviously with the small amount of study and practice I've had, I can't really expect to much of myself. I just hope that this challenge and my efforts to work on my writing in general will help me improve.

What are some strategies you use when you feel that you have writers block (or swirl)? Is there a trade secret I don't know about? Fill me in!

Thanks for reading.

BC7-8/5