Day seven of the yeah write community following ProBlogger’s 31 days to build a better blog: come up with 10 post ideas
It’s day seven of the yeah write community’s 31dbbb. So far? We have:
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- installed a stats tracker on our blog
- written or rewritten our blog’s elevator pitch
- created a list post
- promoted a blog post
- postponed a 31dbbb activity because life got in the way, and that’s okay
- emailed a blog reader
- made our blog mobile-friendly
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Now it’s time to come up with 10 post ideas. Whoa! That’s a whole lot of blog post ideas to create in one sitting!
Yes—and no, depending on how you do it. If you sit down with pen and paper and try to snatch ideas from thin air, it will be frustrating. But if you use a technique that allows the brain to open up and freely explore, then coming up with 10 post ideas would be a piece of cake.
By using mind mapping, a graphic technique concocted by Tony Buzan, your mind will have the freedom to explore heretofore undiscovered areas of your brain. Mind mapping, says Buzan, “harnesses the full range of cortical skills – word, image, number, logic, rhythm, color and spatial awareness – in a single, uniquely powerful manner.”
Say goodbye to the outline, say hello to branching
It’s time to say goodbye to what our grade school teachers taught us. The sequential linear outline is out, mainly because it’s left-brained thinking. So when we write our 10 blog post ideas, we won’t create a list or an outline.
What’s in? It’s using both sides of our brain by coming up with ideas from the center—a main source, or focal point—and radiating outwards with as many rays as our minds can conceive. This is whole-brain thinking.
When you start to move away from linear thinking and move towards whole brain thinking, you’ll stop using your brain from your comfort zone.
Employ the techniques of freewriting
When we freewrite, we let go of all constraints and forget that there are such things as rules of grammar and even punctuation. So, too, in whole brain thinking—we allow our brains to generate ideas and suspend judgment.
The most important rule in whole brain thinking is: Relax.
The second most important rule is: Have Fun.
Yes, coming up with 10 blog posts ideas, as you will see, can be easy! Henriette Anne Klauser in her book Writing on Both Sides of the Brain: Breakthough Techniques for People Who Write says that this kind of thinking “operates by profusion, inviting new ideas in abundance.”
And it can be fun! As Klauser explains, “A pleasant sense of discovery and delight often accompanies this method.”
After completing today’s exercise, you’ll find that you’ll want to use whole brain thinking in other areas of your life as well. Tony Buzan says that mind-mapping “can be applied to every aspect of life where improved learning and clearer thinking will enhance human performance.”
Now try it for real: come up with 10 post ideas for your blog
On your blogs, do a little freewriting. Tap into the resources mentioned in this post if you’re open to new ideas. Reference this section in the ProBlogger workbook we’re following for this series. Grab a banana and a nice, quiet spot and let’s see what you’ve come up with. Ten new post ideas that you may or may not turn into new posts. Freewrite, brainstorm, unlock both sides of the brain. Add your results to the 31dbbb grid below.
[Updated to add] here’s a screenshot of uluwale’s mind mapping from her day seven 31dbbb post published on the grid below. Perfect visual:
As always, discussion in comments. (Ed. note: yeah write guest editor Rosanna is 12 hours ahead of our US eastern time used at yeah write. She will try to answer as many questions as possible, just keep in mind the time difference. ~Erica M)
This is a guest post from Rosanna R.
I totally ran with this Mind Mapping thing. I actually really really REALLY loved it. I came up with mine in may 5 minutes and I think I’m going to do this every single week. It also helped that I downloaded a super duper app so it was like playing a game.
Sorry for this late reply, Jacob. Glad that mind mapping works for you! Here’s to more mind maps to help you with your blog!
WHY am I struggling with this? Could it be that my life right now consists of little more than trying to keep my small people from driving me crazy while I try to plan the upcoming school year? Hmm, maybe THAT should be one of my 10 ideas.
TaMara, great idea! Another one could be: How to mind map while your kids are running all over the place….;-)
I’ve hated outlines from the get-go. In whatever it was, 6th or 7th grade, with outlines and index cards and all that nonsense. I remember a conversation with a teacher in which I asked her “how can I outline something that doesn’t exist yet?” She was not amused by my question and did not see the existential crisis I was facing at the ripe age of 12. I used to write my research papers (IN THE DAYS BEFORE GOOGLE) and then make up all the outline apparatus afterwards. Feh.
There’s a great little book called *The Writer’s Block* (it’s the size of a small cube or…block, get it?) filled with wonderful writing kick-starts: describe your first encounter with water, for instance, or associations with a color… Anyway – I’m a big believer in generating lots of stuff on the page, and then carving away to find what you want to say.
Deboah, I hope you’ll give mind mapping a chance. Perhaps your brain is associating it with outlining and index cards. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll enjoy the freedom mind mapping brings.
Not gonna make a blog post out of this, so for anyone who’s interested here are my 10 ideas. Thoughts/suggestions/comments welcome!
Breaking Moulds post ideas by theme(s):
-games/faith – Noble Hero complex and issues of experimentation with alternative moralities
-games/adulthood – Stigma against gaming adults, the value of play
-faith/science – Exiting the solar system, what we look like from way out there
-gender – the Pink Shirt Incident – when breaking gender moulds means offending a gift-giver
-gender/politics – do workplace gender quotas really act as a floor, or just another ceiling?
-politics/culture – differences between Canadians and Americans
-culture/philosophy – authenticity and “being yourself” as a culturally relative value
-culture/games – Cosplay in Japan as an alternative form of “authenticity,” being yourself when you’re authentically being someone else
-culture/politics – what discrimination feels like / becoming a minority as an expat
-Comic Idea (gender) – “Grounds crew girl,” start a web comic series based on the many absurd incidents I’ve experienced working in traditionally male-dominated workplaces.
Great list, Janelle!
Thanks for the suggestions. I find I usually use a calendar for ideas. I look ahead to what activities or holidays we will be doing, and then approach each as potential fodder for the blog. I make a list for the month ahead of possible events that will produce stories.
I think it will be good for me to try these other two approaches. They might inspire something I would otherwise overlook.
I hope the new approach will inspire you, and that it would make a good adjunct to your time-tested method of using the calendar to help generate ideas.
Wow, I don’t know if I could ever use my whole brain, I am so left-brain weighted. I heart outlines. But for post ideas, I am in the bad habit of waiting for the moment of “inspiration struck, let’s write!” Things I need to write about:
1) My tattoos
2) Getting the giant Saint Bernard as our third dog
OK, that’s only two. I need to work on this more – I’ll see if I can shake my right-brain out of its funk.
Cindy, here’s wishing you’ll be able to give your right brain a chance to have equal billing with your left brain… and that the 8 other items will simply flow.
Ideas for posts and then deliberate time to write for blog. Sounds very practical and simple to implement — but I am horrible at both. Having a list to draw from is an excellent idea and if something more timely comes up, just insert it in the line up. Great idea. Thanks Rosanna.
My pleasure, Jamie, good luck with this new way of generating ideas for posts and articles!
Hooray! Someone in my time zone, or close enough! This is a great challenge, I’m looking forward to it, will get to it in the morning! Thanks!
Yipee! You live in Asia? Anyway, hope you had fun with the challenge!
Great post! Practical advice for writing in general, really.
Thanks Flood! And I apologize to everyone for the delay in answering… even if I live at GMT+8, and do everything twelve hours ahead of most of you, life here is pretty much the same way where you live – it tends to get in the way of writing.
Happy blogging, everyone!