When Ideas Dry Up
At some point or another each blogger will be confronted with a nightmare — “writer’s block”.
A range of suggestions have been posted across the blogosphere on what to do when ideas dry up and you just can’t get it on.
So what to do?
Sit back and relax.
Really.
Grab a magazine, sit with your child while s/he watches his daily does of cartoon and pore through a rag mg or a lifestyle spread. Whatever topic takes your fancy.
Ooooh.
No, I’m not going to suggest reinventing magazine articles to get your post on. Though that might not be such a bad idea (thought - do we have to cite source for this?). When reading magazines, how much thought and attention do you put on print ads?
Bingo!
Print ads can be a great source of things to write about. So you see a dozen hair-dye ads in a 50-page magazine. Don’t just pick out that Clairol Ad and write a 400 word post on it. Isstead, create a post covering those 12 hair-dyes you saw and think - what’s the difference between these products? why twelve varying ads in just one mag? (I exaggerate about the amount but you get my drift yeah?)
If you want to be scientific and/or historical, you can check up on the evolution of hair-dyes and write about what they put in those tiny vials these days (some claim to be drip-free, all natural dye, etc etc). Or you can just vent on how superficial and vain we can be.
Then there are those sexy jeans ads. We have come a long way from “mommy jeans” and “hot pants” which seems to be available only in size -0.
Nowadays, there’s a pair of jeans for every shape and size imaginable. You can even find a pair of “skinny jeans” to fit a size 42 (personally, I don’t think one should go there).
So next time you run out of ideas to write about, grab a magazine or a newspaper and start browsing through ads.
Happy writing!
The monthly “O” for Oprah magazine is really good for a variety of ads. So is “Southern Living” if you live in any of the southern states, or “Sunset” magazine if you live in the western states.