Blogging for beginners

There is a great organisation called the FEU (Federation of Entertainment Unions) and as a member of the Writer’s Guild I am eligible to apply for free courses.  I have just completed a course called ‘Blogging for Creative Freelancers’.  It was led by William Gallagher and it was genuinely helpful.    The point was made that here we were a roomful of writers all struggling to write.   Others who would not call themselves writers appear to have no problem at all.  Maybe that is par for the course!  I left fired up and energised.

Then I sat to blog and went blank.  I remembered – don’t get overwhelmed.

So a few tips from people much better at this than I:

  1. Do it.  No point in having a blog and not writing in it.  You’re a writer for goodness sake, write! 
  2. Find a theme for your blog and write around that.  One person on the course wanted to write about the state of the care home industry.  He was incensed by it.  We all encouraged him to go for it.  Write about something you know.  Someone else suddenly realised they loved biking, did it every day in London.  Another said they liked rom coms did anyone else?  I along with one other person put their hand up. I love them. I like a friendly, feelgood film with a happy ending.  Can’t help it.  Even trying to write a rom com book as I write this blog.  There are people who blog about rom coms.  I shall be searching them out.
  3. Don’t simply write to promote what you are doing – the world is bigger than that and the great danger is we bore everyone to death. 
  4. Blogging is a great way to connect with other like-minded people 
  5. Here’s an exercise for you:   make a list of at least five things you know about.  Pick one of those five things and name five things you could write about in that area.  You will be amazed at what is inside you.  

Happy blogging!