How to never run out of inspiration for your posts

in hive-114105 •  5 years ago 

I got motivated to give this advice because since I started curating posts that have low rewards (check out the curation trail for posts under 1 USD here), I’ve found many Steemians commenting about their lack of inspiration or how they don’t have much to say that day.

For the last month, I’ve been able to do at least one post daily without breaking a leg (I missed a day but it was because I had destined that day to internet fasting). Whether they are good posts remains to be judge by each reader, but at least to me, they were interesting writeups and videos that I can look back to and learn from.

So what’s my constant source of inspiration? How do I find something relevant to post every day? The recipe is quite simple, I ask myself before writing two questions:

What did I do today?

How do I feel about that?

And bam! Just try it, it’ll have you writing tons! And you don’t have to literally write the answer, but it’ll get you started on an interesting idea. Of course, I understand that not everybody wants to expose their personal life here or get very intimate with their writing. But I got a solution for you! Just say what you gotta say through a fictional character. It’s fun and it’s free.

If you do this short exercise of asking yourself those two questions you’ll see there is never a shortage of things to write about. Whether it was a conversation you had during that day, something that gave you joy or sadness, some recent spiritual breakthrough or realization you had, you’ll have plenty and plenty to write about. You can even use as inspiration those dark thoughts that you want no one to know about.

The best thing is that the source of the content is your own experience! And knowledge gained through experience is wisdom. So what you’re doing is sharing your recently gained wisdom with the community. Just how awesome is that?


Some other tips I can give you to keep that pen flowing:

Be honest

We all want to be liked it’s true and sometimes we find ourselves saying things that others want to hear so we are approved. But I assure you that if you’re honest you’ll still find a group that likes you and supports you, despite others being repelled by your words. In any case you’ve won because you summoned those that support your honesty and sent away those who would have preferred you with a mask.

This will benefit you as a writer and as a person. As a writer, the more honest and open you become, the less you have to hide and the more you can say without worrying about being caught pretending to be something you’re not.

At the same time, you might realize only after writing that something you said feels “off” and that it doesn’t align with the best version of yourself. In that case, you’ve given yourself a clue on what you can work so that your future posts do align better with that ideal you would like to reach!

Don’t do it for the rewards

Yes, we are all in Steem because of the rewards. We want to make money. I want to make money and I want everyone here to make a ton of money, become financially independent and allow themselves to live out their wildest dreams. I wish so with all my heart and I get frustrated when too much time passes before a big reward comes my way so don’t interpret that I believe myself to be a Zen master who’s got it all solved.

What I mean to say is that the curators with bigger wallets are very unpredictable with when and what they’re going to support. I’ve sometimes written pieces that I’m very proud of and gotten small rewards and later been rewarded a lot for posts that I practically wrote to keep up with the daily posting, having little hope for how much rewards they would make.

Also, you have to think that curators have limited voting power and that has to be distributed among hundreds of daily posts so they probably run out many times without being able to cover everyone.

The point is to avoid writing what you think could give you big rewards. Write what you’re truly passionate about, what really makes you tick. Enjoy the writing, learn from it and don’t be afraid to mess things up. The next day no one will hold a grudge against you (unless you take it out personally against someone, lol), and you’ll have a new chance. Also, there are other rewards you can get, like a new follower or a valuable comment that might change your perspective on life (it happened to me).

Write first, edit later

I remember there was once a time where I would carefully select the words I would use in my writing before getting anything actually written.


Feeling like this was the result, lol.

I broke that habit by practicing writing the first thing that came off the top of my head even if it was absolutely lacking in sense. But after that, it was pretty easy to combine both of them and now I just write it out as it comes, knowing I can read it afterward and edit whatever needs to be corrected.

Don’t measure too much what you want to say, unless you’re trying to create a delicate piece of art where nothing is taken lightly. If you are attempting to do that then take your time and forget about getting the post done in the day. You might be able to finish it but it’s not certain and hurrying to finish it will take away the very purpose of what you were doing.

If you want to keep the creative juices flowing and the posts rolling out you can’t be so demanding. Take it easy, anything you say with honesty and from the heart has great meaning and whether it receives rewards or not does not determine the real value it offers to yourself and the community.

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Good ideas to get inspiration. I've been following these steps too whenever I want to write something outside drawing and it works great.
Moreso, write something that is related to your interest.

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Nice! Keep the creativity flowing ;)

Yeye, you say the truth! :)
I am now in the lazy mode... just interacting with comments :D
surfing steem randomly... and makes me feel the fun ;)
Just about now I have to post my actifit report from yesterday... and I don't have photos :)
this thing keeps me moving... and now I'll give it a try :P

Glad to know you enjoy it! It's nice to relax and just surf every now and then ;)

Personally, for me, sometimes what I need is the inspiration to actually write; I already have the idea. That problems requires a committment which is sometimes difficult when you suffer a severe case of the IDGAF's.

I do like your list, particularly the idea of having to say what you want through the words of a fictional character. Not a bad idea at all!

Well, that's a different story altogether, lol.

The fictional character is great, I like to use it when I need to go into my shadows.

Thanks for stopping by!

  ·  5 years ago (edited)

So many good ideas not only for creativity and keeping hot the pen but also how to take our participation in a reward model which not always works as we think it should. I can't be more agree on the point that the main value of a post is that we ourselves give to the work in terms of our knowledge, experience or simply fun!! Rewards are always a mystery for me!!
I would add the many contests that you always can find running through all the blockchain. Some of them with all kind of provocations for creativity and hands on work!!
I'll be checking your curation work, @Fenngen, I always find admirable those initiative to give breath to authors with great work!!
Best vibes for every project and much Joy in creation!! :)

Yeah I should of mentioned contests and community questions, they're a good source of inspiration as well.

Thanks friend! Best vibes to you as well!!

Más abrazos y buen viento, @Fenngen, por acá nos seguimos encontrando! 🤗

Ahhh.. Great advice. Good stuff here to help get some over the hump of wondering what to write about. Some also say you should keep your blog focused in. Don't write about just anything.. stick to a theme. I don't give a hoot about that. I rather like the people who surprise me with the unexpected post.

Happy writing!

Yeah, I don't think that applies to the Steemverse, sometimes I write things that I've never written about before and get the best rewards. I think authenticity and having fun are key here and I love it!

I agree with you that it's nice to find unexpected posts, this is a wonderfully diverse enviroment :)

Happy writing to you as well!

This is excellent! You have given some wonderful advice to those who struggle for topics. Bravo! As with you, I never run out of things about which to blog... in fact, I have so many ideas I have trouble deciding which one to do next! LOL!

A couple of years ago when folks were complaining on Discord about not thinking of a topic for their next blog, I devised this list and think it has helped several people:

CONSIDER WRITING ABOUT:
● your hobbies. Tell us what you do, & why.
● your job, or the favorite job you once had, or what job you want.
● a guided-tour of your town, or the countryside near where you live. Show us some photos and tell us where you would take visitors.
● a challenge you overcame and how you persevered.
● favorite restaurant, food, book/author, movie, TV-show? And why?
● favorite childhood memories.
● favorite holiday. Why is it your favorite?
● favorite kind of music. What musicians do you like?
● something crazy that once happened which turned-out okay.
● do you live in the area where you were born?
–If yes, why did you stay?
–If no, what prompted you to move away?
● Show us your house or apartment. How long have you lived there?
● what vehicle would you purchase, if money were no obstacle? And why that one?
● what sports you like. Are you a participant or a spectator? Why do you like it?
● who or what brought you to the Steem blockchain.

Thanks for inspiring people with your great advice in this post! 🙌🏻

I like your list, I will consider writing about those things as well, might learn a lot about myself in the process :) Thank you!

Very good tips. It makes little sense to be too anxious about the rewards. As you say, curators are unpredictable.I usually stop posting for reasons beyond my will or power, If it were for me, I'd be posting every day, even several times a day.

Sure, I'd be doing more but there's a life outside the blockchain too, lol!

Great tips to keep creativity flowing @fenngen.

Thanks @redheadpei !

One thing I love about posting on steem is that it has made the mundane in my life seem marvelous.

Good advice in this especially regarding trying to create a delicate piece of art where nothing is taken lightly. which is mostly what I'm doing now. I'm heavily into writing poetry, and each piece takes hours and hours. It's well worth the work when I end up with something that I really value. Poetry usually makes very little though, as any poet can tell you.

It's true... poetry, no matter how finely crafted, gets little in the way of rewards. Presentation can help though. Have you checked out Savannah Brown? She aids her poetry with audiovisual support and does rather well on YouTube:

I know that's putting way more work into it, but perhaps doing something simpler is doable and offers good results ;)

Thank you. I am trying to figure how how to post readings of my work to enhance my writings, so this is very helpful. What's another 20 hours to earn $4 instead of $2? lol. That's not at all why I do it, but it sure doesn't hurt to get monetary validation.

I know, especially after you've put a lot of hours of work... hopefully we'll live to see the day Steem price rises lol

Everything you say is true, especially being honest with what we do and write. Yesterday I happened to do nothing, but I hope today I can start again

Every day is a good day to start over. May inspiration come your way!

Great advice. It sounds like you do your writing later in the day whereas I like to get started in the morning. I had started writing everyday again but for most of the week before last I was spending most of my days on twitter for the Tron war. I did get a few posts out this past week, and I should get back to posting most every day again now but still hitting twitter a good bit.

It does get addictive. Yesterday I started researching Sun's life and almost didn't write a post because of that. Then I pulled myself out of that and got to it, lol. But I get how it consumes a lot of time!

Nice philosophy on how to drum up content!

Thanks brother!

Definitely, they are excellent recommendations, when you feel that the muses have moved away. We all have something to tell and there will always be someone who is interested in our history. There are many topics to post: Baking, Baking, Mechanics, Jewelry Cleaning, Repairing, or Making Anything at Home or on the Street. I always have my phone ready to shoot everything I observe and I find it interesting: Flowers, insects, whatever; Then I say the reason why I took the photo or simply let my imagination flow by wanting to know what a bee thinks, for example.

I would publish an immense guide of things that can be published, but that will also depend on what you really are passionate about doing and on those topics that you are interested in developing.

If in spite of all the tips you read in the publication, you are still uninspired, there is an enormous opportunity to read publications, curating the articles you read; Surely you will see that there is much to learn and share with others. Healing is also a way of developing yourself as an author and as a steemian who is becoming more consolidated every day.

I would publish an immense guide of things that can be published, but that will also depend on what you really are passionate about doing and on those topics that you are interested in developing.

Would be great if you did!

Healing is also a way of developing yourself as an author and as a steemian who is becoming more consolidated every day.

That my friend is nothing but the truth. Thanks for your thoughtful comment!

Friend, great strategies. Thanks for giving us some light.

Glad you found it useful! Thanks for the comment!

"Internet fasting!" Good one! @fenngen😀
Seems I have been doing more than my share of Internet fasting lately, especially the past week, albeit due to unplanned situations occurring.

Thank you for the suggestions, ideas and encouragement about posting on Steemit!✍

Yeah, I'm starting to feel like I need some of that again. It can be very refreshing.

Glad you appreciated it, thank you for the kind words :)

I think it's a great idea about your trail. I've never joined one because I don't have a big voting power and if I give small percentages I don't think it helps much. I'm trying to save as much SP as I can so I can give more rewards, so if I can in the future join a trail. For now I can only give 10 votes to 💯.

Well if you ever want to give a hand to undervalued posts you can check all posts I've curated here and either give them a vote, a comment of encouragement or a resteem. It all goes a long way in motivating people to enjoy their experience here ;)

Of course my friend! I am gonna check them. Thanks!👍

What a wonderful piece of advice @fenngen! Lately I've suffered with a bit of writers block...your wisdom comes at the perfect time! Off to write a post today :) Blessings to you!

Blessed to have been able to inspire you and given you a tool to break the block :D Thank you very much and enjoy your writing!

We are SO proud to have you as a member of our
FANTABULOUS Power House Creatives family!
upvoted and resteemed!

❤ MWAH!!! ❤

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Hello @fenngen,

In these last few weeks, I have felt a certain block when writing. I try to write every day, except Saturdays, the day I spend resting according to my beliefs.

Therefore, your advice is supportive and will help me keep up with the pace of producing the original content that is demanded on the Steem Blockchain.

Writing is pleasant enough for me, but I will be honest with myself, my family also needs a constant flow of rewards to face the current situation in my country, even if they are few in a down market.

The journey here is wonderful despite the current threats against the platform, I hope it will be resolved soon. I highly value your advice and know that it will be very helpful.

Writing is pleasant enough for me, but I will be honest with myself, my family also needs a constant flow of rewards to face the current situation in my country, even if they are few in a down market.

I absolutely understand as I am also depending on rewards to sustain my financial needs.

Glad to know you can benefit from this advice! Hopefully, we will see the blockchain come better and stronger from these events ;)

Definitely hidden pearls of wisdom in this motivational piece on writing. Wishing you an awesome day being creative and having fun.

!tip

Thank you! An awesome day to you as well, stay blessed!

Great idea for motivation @fenngen, @mariannewest has a daily prompt too, that I use! 🙏

!trdo

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Thanks my friend, glad you liked it!

Good Morning @fenngen. These are some good tips.
I am a "Grammar Nazi"... almost OCD about stuff. It has been my experience that no matter how I scroll and look over a post, once I click Post or submit, I will almost always spot something I DID NOT SEE, and I'll have to go back and edit.
I hate that. 😜

Oh that happens to me all the time!!! Sometimes they are awful mistakes too, lol. Let's have a !BEER to all our writing errors!

Thanks @fenngen. I don't know what to DO with the !BEER everyone gives me; I don't know where it goes or what it is good for.
I'm a recovering alcoholic 😲 so.... ha ha ha Thanks anyway (I wonder what it is going to do with my "BEER" thing, since I don't have any connection to whatever or wherever the !BEER comes from)

Woops, no more beer for you then!! You can check at steem-engine.com your beer tokens and others you might have received. There you can sell them and buy others or stake them to receive passive rewards.

After all the different people have given me !BEER, This is what I have.
f9x3t0.png
It will not allow me to exchange them for anything I recognize, but it says it is worth $0.056 steem, which is hardly worth the effort I have put forth to look all this up.

Believe me, these tokens are no threat to my recovery :) cheers!

Gotta click on the icon that has the arrows to the right and left (on on top of the other). That takes you to the exchange ;)

Sorry, you don't have enough staked BEER in your account. You need 6 BEER in your virtual fridge to give some of your BEER to others. To view or trade BEER go to steem-engine.com

Sorry, you don't have enough staked BEER in your account. You need 6 BEER in your virtual fridge to give some of your BEER to others. To view or trade BEER go to steem-engine.com


Hey @jerrytsuseer, here is a little bit of BEER from @fenngen for you. Enjoy it!

Learn how to earn FREE BEER each day by staking.

I enjoyed your post. Your recommendations are excellent and I will put them into practice.
I think it will be very useful for many on the platform and that's why I do resteem.
Thanks for sharing your experience, @fenngen

Disfruté tu publicación. Tus recomendaciones son excelentes y las pondré en práctica.
Creo que será de gran utilidad para muchos en la plataforma y por eso hago resteem.
Gracias por compartir tu experiencia, @fenngen

Gracias @mllg, me alegra saber que encontraste útil la publicación :D Un abrazo!

Es una publicación valiosa. Sería ideal la produjeses también en español.

Ok, lo haré!

Excellent post on this topic @fenngen! The detail you provide about the various aspects of writing posts should be very helpful to many. Hopefully, you'll have a large number of "eyes" on your great work.

Not finding what to write about a problem myself, I struggle more with the seemingly insatiable time demands, so this stood out to me.

"... I had destined that day to internet fasting ..."

A day of "fasting" ... Yes, I like it! Life in the "real world" doesn't stop, for choosing to engage "in here" does it? For me, I have resigned myself to being a "part-time" Steemian and what that represents in terms of how others subsequently "reward" those efforts ...

I hope you and yours are doing okay there in Chile, in the midst of this global response to a pandemic. Have a great day!

Yes, Steem can be a time-devourer. I don't mind because it's quite fun but sometimes I think I need to spend more time outside!

I live in the countryside so I really don't get affected much by any of society's "crisis".

How about you? I noticed you did a post, I will read it during the day. Thanks for commenting!

Yes @fenngen, my Chilean friend, I find it somewhat fun as well, but have some time ago settled the matter, as needing to be "part-time," in an attempt to keep a healthy balance ...

And, even at that, I still wrestle with whether or not I am overdoing it. Like now, in the midst of both what is going on in the "real world," as well as the current mess the Steem blockchain finds itself in ...

I truly do enjoy life outside. Enjoying the simple pleasures of all that is around us. If you don't mind my asking, what part (generally speaking, you don't need to be specific ...) of Chile do you live in, i.e. what is the countryside like?

I was in Chile myself once for two weeks in the late 1980s. Flew into Santiago and then spent nearly a week at the famous El Teniente copper mine well south of there. Also spent the weekend (sick as a dog ...) at a beautiful little seaside village somewhere closer to Santiago ...

If I am ever given the privilege of returning to Chile, I hope to be able to go down much farther south, where it appears it has similar mountainous terrain to what I enjoy here in America.

My latest post is on COVID-19 arriving at our doorstep. Written in my common "minority report" fashion ... 😉

Thank you for the insight. I'll keep those two questions in mind when I am not inspired to write. 😍

Look forward to reading more from you!

Thanks! 😉

Some great advice here my friend.
I talk in pictures and it has always worked for me.
But of course everyone has their own road and that's why this is valuable advice.
Blessings!

And your pictures talk very well, always nice to run into your posts! Thanks friend, stay blessed.

Thank you and I really appreciated the help that you are placing out there my friend.
Blessings always reciprocated!

!trdo

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@fenngen will receive 0.01977413 TRDO & @leveuf will get 0.01318275 TRDO curation in 3 Days from Post Created Date!

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I'm also writing first and then editing later because if you do it the other way, you will only get frustrated.

Thanks for the read and have a lovely day!

Yup, gotta let the words flow! Thanks for stopping by :)

Hey! Thanks for the tips and inspiration to keep the creative flow happening!

  ·  5 years ago (edited)

You're welcome, thank for stopping by!

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Hi @fenngen. There are numerous times when I just don't feel like writing. Not because of no inspiration, but because I'm weary and can't think straight. Those times, I feel, are not the best ones to start a writing project. This is only my opinion and how I interpret my feelings toward inspiration to write.

Other times, I start my morning knowning exactly what I want to cover that day for a topic or two. One can find inspiration daily in their everyday lives. Figuring out how I want to present a topic is something I sometimes struggle with. Now I try to pace myself. If I have two or three topics I want to cover, I just save them for the next few days. Or, I'll see a news story that I relate to, and just jot down the details for a post. That way, I gather several topics during the week to write about.

The part about being honest and write your opinion, not what you think others want to hear. I also believe in that. I actually encountered someone who didn't agree with something I wrote. I reminded that person that if I engage with him, I'll make sure I respect that his position, and would hope he would do the same. He agree with me. That's the way I handle those situations so that I can continue to write what I feel and not worry what others think. I was given that advice when I first join Steem. I've tried to keep that promise to myself.

Thanks for sharing your thought on writing inspiration. Have a good week upcoming.

Yeah I feel that way a lot. Still, when I don't feel like writing I try to find out why that is happening and in the process of analyzing that a text will sprout on its own.

Its good to have different opinions and that not everyone agrees with you, it adds diversity to the blockchain and makes it feal more real.

Thanks for your thoughts as well!

I practice the same. These are great pieces of wisdom and advice here, @fenngen. It's easy to think that we are not worthy, to write and edit at the same time and fret that what we have to say isn't going to be of interest to others. But the fact is, we really don't know what will interest other people.

Also, the ability to write high quality stuff daily is something that develops over time. You may not feel great about the first or second one you write, but over time you will probably find that you improve, and that what you have to offer readers has more richness of thought and more value than those first daily posts.

You may not feel great about the first or second one you write, but over time you will probably find that you improve, and that what you have to offer readers has more richness of thought and more value than those first daily posts.

That's very true, as well as developing your own voice as a writer.

Thanks for commenting and supporting!

Hey, @fenngen. What a great publicity in a simple language, nice direct and very nice, well presented, I loved it from every point of view. I identified 100% with everything you expose because I always think that you have to write from the heart, what makes you happy, so that flows more easily all kinds of writing. Fabulous tips, you write beautiful, I liked it a lot and I congratulate you on your work. A big hug and my support.

Thank you @marybellrg for the very kind words, a big hug to you as well and supporting right back!

Well, I must say, I have a bit of a boring job, working at the railway, with not much happening to write about. On weekends, your advice do work for me.

What I have done is to find a subject I can write about daily, in my case, I do a Daily Scripture, thus I can find a verse out of the Bible daily - I have now written 1039 x Daily Scriptures. I think it must be longest running series on Steemit???? Unfortunately it is not a mainstream topic, but it keeps me going. (I however don't tag it with #powerhousecreatives

Thanks for sharing.

Went to check out your Daily Scriptures. Perhaps if you added an anecdote or short story of some time where you have proven this to be true, or those words have made sense to you, you could add value to the post. Also add something distinctive to the title, for example:

Daily Scriptures - Those who follow Jesus must take up their cross

Well, just some ideas that could attract more people to your series!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thank you for your reply and ideas to enhance my Daily Scripture post.