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There can be many motivators for writing blog posts. Blogging can be a great way to express creativity, to share ideas, or to build a profile and connect with like-minded people.

Blogging has been an important aspect of my writing life. My motivations, interests, and output have altered over time. When I began, I had a consistent rhythm of two posts a week. If I was participating in a short-term challenge, such as Bloganuary, there were daily posts for the month. And there have been periods of time, sometimes months or more, when I’ve not been able to blog at all. Currently, a weekly post works for me, alternating between fiction or writing posts, and photo-based entries.

I have written posts on why I started to blog, and how significant it has been for supporting a creative and curious mindset. There is a greater sense of awareness when I’m blogging regularly: subconsciously I’m on the lookout for inspiration, and as with a regular writing habit, ideas appear with greater frequency.

One of the abiding joys of blogging is engaging with readers, and responding to feedback. This is always so rewarding, and there are some inspirational suggestions that come through as well. Getting to know other bloggers through their content is great, too. There are some bloggers that I’ve been reading for nearly a decade now, and sharing a love of words, images, and stories is a wonderful source of connection.

Another important aspect of creating and maintaining a blog for me is that it is a fabulous resource. I tinker with the layout of my website sporadically, but I ensure there is a search function so I can see what I’ve written about on a topic, or see if I’ve shared a story before. As the years pass, the content accumulates, and I sometimes surprise myself with what I’ve researched or written about at an earlier date.

I also have my blog posts printed in hard copy. This has become an annual tradition, and I have them printed through PixxieBook. There is something about holding a book with a year’s worth of thoughts and images that is special for me. Being able to flick through the pages, to get lost in short stories and visit with characters, and to be able to enjoy high-resolution photos, is something I really value. It may all be available online, but having a physical copy makes it tangible.

Blog posts can be a way of not only finding your voice, but developing it and finding different ways of expressing ideas and creative thoughts. Do you blog? What do you enjoy about it? How does it support your writing life?

Photo: blog book stack

Writing resources:

A Year’s Worth of Blog Post Ideas for Writers gathers together 52 ideas that cover a range of inspiration, craft tips and writing insights. There are some great starting points here, gathered by writer Jeannie Ruesch. I’m also intrigued by the Work In Progress Notebook – you can never have too many writing notebooks.

There is a great post by Jacquie Budd which includes another listicle of blog post ideas, one for each week of the year. It also includes some questions to consider before starting a blog, or perhaps if you are rethinking why you are blogging. You can find the post here.

WordPress has a daily writing prompt too, which you can find on the dashboard. A fellow blogger who comes up with genuine, thoughtful and entertaining responses to these prompts is Deb Hawken—Amorah. A recent example is her post Laugh and Be Busy, which was in response to the prompt ‘What could you do more of?’