It’s reasonable to be burned out on your blog by the time we get to April. And yet, these two things are probably still true:
- You are still interested in your topic. (If this is not true, talk to me about changing your topic.)
- You still have blog posts to write.
So what gives? Why is it so difficult? And when you’re stuck, how do you get yourself unstuck?
One thing that’s challenging in this situation is that you’ve already been writing about the topic for months, so you’ve almost certainly used up all the easy subtopics. If finding new things to talk about is the obstacle, then here are some suggestions:
- How have your attitudes or opinions related to your topic changed, and why?
- What do people misunderstand about your topic?
- What do people who are experts on your topic disagree about?
- What conflicting claims people make within your topic, are you not sure which claim you agree with?
- What is one key definition that newcomers to your topic would find helpful to understand?
- What bothers you about your topic?
- What contradictions or paradoxes do you find within your topic?
- What is one thing about the history of your topic that outsiders would never know about but is really interesting?
Failing all that, the best go-to strategy is to find another source saying something very interesting about your topic, and either agree or disagree with it. Remember: the goal is always to remain engaged in the public conversation about your topic with other people who also care about it. If you find interesting voices about this topic you (hopefully) still love, it may remind you why you chose it as your blog topic at the beginning of the year.
Sources I always go back to on this stuff:
- Bruce Ballenger, The Curious Researcher
- Wayne Booth, et al., The Craft of Research (4th ed.)
- Jeff Ousbourne, Critical Reading and Writing
Now Read This 