How to get started on a blog post habit.

Getting started and making blogging a habit.

I had a conversation with someone this week who wanted to start a blog, or more specifically a consistent blogging routine or habit.  It never occurred to me that blogging could be hard.

I’ve written hundreds if not thousands of what could be considered ‘blog posts’.  The emergence of ‘blogs’ as an actual thing that people do is a godsend for people like me.  Otherwise we would be writing in a journal that would sit in the corner bookshelf gathering dust.  Or maybe our work would be condemned to pages in a sad loose leaf notebook containing the weak exposition of a thousand failed novel ideas!

Writing is easy for me.

But this person I was chatting with could not bring themselves to take pen to paper of pinkie to pixel.

Why?  What’s the barrier?  I think one big barrier is that we put the written blog post on a pedestal.  We expect too much.  We think people will judge our work. The expectation of being judged and not measuring up scares us into inaction.

Guess what?  You don’t get to judge what is good and worthy.  The world gets to do that.  If youwant to write there is only one responsibility – to write.  Nabokov said this as he was complaining about Hemingway’s work ethic.  “Writers write”.  That’s it.  Simple.

You aren’t in charge of judging the quality of your work.  You are only responsible for getting it out.  That’s it.  Get it out into the world and you will be surprised what resonates and what doesn’t.

My most clicked, most viewed, most whatever post was a piece I wrote called “The difference between running and Jogging”.  Was it a tour de force of the written word?  No, it was something I dashed off in a peevish mood one afternoon.  Why did it resonate?  Probably because there is conflict built into the title. It’s got a good hook.

There are hundreds of other thoughtful posts that I’m quite proud of and spent hours fretting over that no one cared about.  That is just the way it is.  I don’t get to judge.  I get to create.

The lesson for you, and my friend is that don’t let worry over being judged, or not having anything worthy to say stop you from producing content.  You job is to produce.  Since you can’t control the judgement, you’re free to create without expectation.

Once you’re through this knothole of expectation you can start blogging.  Start with a cadence.  You can do once a week or once a day – it doesn’t matter – but it should be consistent.  There should be some sort of deadline or frequency of production that you commit to.  Having a set cadence like “I will publish a blog post every Friday” will force you to make it a habit.

One thing that is great fun is to commit to publishing a blog post every day for a month.  Tell everyone.  Commit to it.  Go public.  This is a great way to jump start your blogging habit.  It’s harder than it sounds!  It makes for some great blog posts when the immediacy of the requirement forces you to post without over thinking!

“That’s great Chris.”  You say as you roll your eyes at me like a 14 year old.  “But how do I write a blog post?”

Ahhh… You want some practical tips, aye?

First, the world has gotten very bite size and chunky as people’s attention spans shrink like my wife’s shirts when I use the hot water setting on the wash.  You don’t need to write War and Peace in a blog.  Yes, I know that famous bloggers write these detailed 10,000 word posts, but you don’t have to.  Frankly, I don’t have time to read a 10,000 word post.  Shoot for 1,500 words.

1,500 words is a page and a half in the default Word settings.  I can knock out a 1,500 word post in about an hour, or less, depending on how well formed the idea is when I start writing.

If you are attempting to publish a blog post every day drop it to 500 words.  Think about how easy 500 words is.  That’s only a ½ page of content.  That’s 4 paragraphs.  That’s only 10-12 good sentences! Anyone can come up with 10-12 sentences.

My point is make the production and publishing of the content a consistent habit and cadence.  Elevate the act of publishing above the need for volume and quality.  Get your brain wrapped around that reshuffling of priorities and you’ll be fine.

“But Chris, how do I find ideas?”  Surprisingly enough writing is just another muscle.  Once you start forcing out the content you will see ideas everywhere.  The habit will create the content.

If you need to seed ideas, when you are getting started, here is a method I use.

I like to write in the morning.  But it’s not mandatory.  I can write almost anywhere and almost any time because my writing muscle is well used.

When I write in the morning I first sit at my desk.  I put my headphones in and listen to 5 minutes of guided breathing meditation.  This makes my mind open to creativity.

(I’ll typically leave the headphones in and depending on the seriousness of what I have to write I’ll either spin up some meditation music, some classical music or one of my playlists of ska, punk rock, Grateful Dead or whatever I happen to be in the mood for. )

Then I’ll read.  I’ll either google the phrase or topic I’m considering or I’ll just page through one of the books I’m currently reading.  In a couple of minutes of reading I’ll have plenty of thoughts to coral onto the page.  Reading is the key to writing.  For you it might be the newspaper.  Or an industry journal.  (I would be careful with internet-based reading because before you know it it will be 3 hours later and you’ll be watching YouTube videos of cats.)

Usually the words flow, but if I’m stuck or feeling a bit undisciplined I’ll set the timer on my phone for 20 minutes.  Then I just commit to write without expectation for 20 minutes and NOT get distracted by any other procrastination.  When that timer goes off I’m typically deep into my post and on a roll!

Read to find a topic.  Then structure your post around that topic.

One of the best things to write a post about is yourself.  This is called telling a story.  When you tell a story it has a 3-part flow.  Exposition, challenge and resolution.

First there is exposition.  Exposition is where you set up the story.  “I was walking down the street yesterday, looking in store windows, and saw the most amazing display!”

Then there is the meat of the story where there is some sort of challenge or conflict.

“It started pouring down rain and tried to get into the store.  The door was locked!  The clerk was in there but was ignoring me.”

Then there is resolution.

“Finally they let me in after I was pounding on the door!  I was going to yell at them for ignoring me but in the ensuing conversation I realized the store was brand new and wasn’t even opening for another week!  There were packing crates everywhere!”

See how that works?  I just totally made that up.  I could take that simple story and embellish it so that you actually feel like you’re in the story.  When you flesh out your story, whether it’s about you or someone else, really paint the picture.  What are the sounds?  What are the smells?  What else is going on?  How are the characters acting?

“The alleyway was dark and smelled like a dead raccoon.”  That puts you in the story.  “Her face scrunched up like she had just bitten into a dead frog.”  Yeah, I’ve seen a face like that.

Since blogs are bite-size by nature it’s good to start with a hook.  A hook is a statement or question that kicks off the post and draws people in.  “I was wondering if I was going to lose the toe.”  Your headline can be a hook.  Ask a question.  “Is Netflix the devil’s handiwork?”

You don’t have to use the strict story form but loosely you still need to follow a 3 part flow.  You set it up by explaining what you’re going to talk about, why we care, what the expectations of the post are.  Then, in the middle section, you expand on the thought or theme.  Finally you need to exit the blog post with a summary or conclusion of some sort.

One of the best ways to exit a blog post is to come to a conclusion then ask a question.

This post is rapidly approaching 1500 words and I think that’s an excellent size for a post.

Don’t you?