Category Archives for Articles

What I Learned About Writing Blog Posts from Great Fiction

Everything I know about writing great blog posts I learned from devouring probably a literal ton of novels—and dissecting how they keep me turning pages.

I know, it seems really far-fetched. But hey, I just thought of something they both have in common: Great novels and great blog posts both hold on to your attention from the beginning to the end, and they never let up. So what are the best practices we can apply from novel to blog post?

I looked at three different elements of both novels and blog posts, and looked for three different novels that I think illustrate these really well. And I’ll show you the ways some great bloggers I read have applied these same techniques to their own posts.

Every Writer Should Do Blackout Poetry… Here’s Why

It was a steaming hot June day on Main Street in a tiny north Georgia town, and my friend and I were in a used bookstore, browsing, and touching, and smelling to our heart’s content. She picked up an old book and said, “I’m going to buy this to make blackout poetry.”

I’d seen blackout poetry on Pinterest before, and I had only a vague idea of what it was. I nodded and kept browsing.

When we finished shopping, we went back to my friend’s college dorm to sit on her floor and draw. It didn’t occur to me until she picked up a paintbrush what she actually intended to do. I watched in fascination and horror as she confidently covered nearly an entire page in black paint, somehow leaving a beautiful poem layered with meaning from the page of a children’s storybook.

Blackout poetry is an unorthodox art form: You open a book and scan a page, looking for any words or phrases that catch your eye regardless of whether they’re connected. Then you use a marker or paintbrush to fill in everything except those words. The result might look something like a letter from WWII, with text redacted by a censor.

Once I got over the feeling that I’d be condemned forever for taking a paintbrush to a book, blackout poetry became my new favorite thing. Here’s why it’s a great activity for professional writers who may have lost their love for language in the 9-5 workday.

What I Learned From Great Writers About Maintaining Momentum

Do you feel like you have endless ideas for things to write about but can’t seem to finish the project once you start it? Do you have folders and folders of old, unfinished writing?

We’ve all been there: thinking of a great, original idea for an article or blog post, getting it halfway finished, and then, just sort of … running out of steam.

What’s missing is writing momentum, that wonderful force that makes you excited to sit down at your desk every day because you know what you want to say and you feel like you’re all too ready to put it into words. Momentum makes you feel like you’re in charge of your writing and gives you the boost you need to get projects done.

But even the greats struggle with maintaining momentum. Luckily, they’ve come up with all sorts of ways to keep it, and we can follow their examples. This is what I’ve learned from other writers about keeping momentum in my own writing.

Anxiety and Stress Relief Through Writing

I never planned to become a freelance writer—I had been employed as an administrator for only two years in a community-based office in the center of my town, only a stone’s throw away from my home.

I had to write a few snippets and letters for work, and looking back now, I had found writing soothing and it put me at ease.

Writing made me panic-free, almost as if I was possessed by it in some sort of positive way. I just never realized it at that time.