The BritMums Blog

How to smash through writers’ block

As old as the written word itself, writers’ block – that fog of paralysing disquiet – has always troubled the great and the good. From Hemingway to Tolstoy to Woolf, they all came down with it at some point. That prolific producer of enormous books himself, Stephen King, once said that the "scariest moment is always just before you start [writing]. After that, things can only get better."And he’s right. But it’s not always easy.

We asked you for your tips for chopping the block and getting your words out and, as ever, you were full of ideas...

Susanna of A Modern Mother says: “Take a TOTAL break, and come back with fresh eyes/ new energy. Put pen to paper and just keep writing, without lifting your pen, paying no attention to what you write. Eventually something good comes out of it.” 

Crystal Jigsaw recommends punishment to kick you up the bum: “Do the ironing, clean the bathroom, hoover all through the house - believe me, after an hour of house work, your writer's block will definitely be cured!” 

BritMums good reads

We love to know what good reads are flying about in our blogging community so we went straight to the source on the BritMums Network! We asked you to give us some good reads to take us into the summer holidays and you gave us some outstanding ones. Have a look, grab a cuppa, sit down in a comfy chair and prepare to be entertained.

If you'd like to add one of your "good reads" to our list on the network, please visit the BritMums site to "link" up your favourite read (yours or another's).

• Typecast's "Caution: Men At Work (a.k.a. Fitting A New Radiator Almost Made My Head Explode)"
• The Mum Blog's "The karaoke song meme"
• "My whole world", by Crystal Jigsaw
• Simply Hayley: Sibling love
• The Gorgeous Girls: On raising girls
• "Later" by Country Lite
• "The no TV experiment" by WAHM-BAM
• DorkyMum's "Life with my husband who is 35 years older"
• The Frugal Family's "Worst weekend ever"
• "Getting my crafty on" by Ramblings of a Suburban Mummy
• Mommy has a Headache's "Are you sale-able in the current market?"

We'll have more good reads for you next Wednesday, so make sure you check back. Thank you to all of the bloggers who nominated their posts (or someone else's) for us to read! We love a bit of self-promotion! Keep on blogging!

~Karin

10 tips for writing your memoir

For many people blogging leads naturally to writing a memoir – it’s all about the Me (and we mean that in the best possible way). Sometimes putting your own life into a story is difficult. You have to showcase the drama and find the beginning, the middle, and the end even though your own life, obviously, continues to roll on.

My friend Steve Friedman, a journalist in New York, has always had a talent for writing first-person stories that sound like he’s sitting right next to you, cracking jokes and spinning tales. He’s just published Driving Lessons: A Father, a Son , and the Healing Power of Golf (Rodale) in the US. Kirkus has called it “inspirational” among other things.

In June, he has a second book coming out called Lost on Treasure Island: A Memoir of Longing, Love, and Lousy Choices in New York City (Arcade). One blurb describes him as “hapless, hopeful and utterly hilarious.” (You can read more about his books on www.stevefriedman.net.)

Guest post: How to tame the blogging beast

Does your blog ever threaten to take over your life? Do you feel pressure to blog? Elaine Westwick (pictured) feels your pain.

You publish your latest blog post and feel the warm glow of accomplishment. Can you sit back and relax or are you drawn to the necessity of pushing out the next entry? Are you in control of your blog or is it, beast-like, in control of you?

As mothers, we bemoan the lack of interesting part-time work and are to drawn to blogging as a flexible way to exercise the mind, regain a sense of self and maybe earn some cash. Yet, caught up by success, and having not entirely planned to, we find we have created a ravenous monster that we are driven to feed daily. Instead of freeing us to be available for our families, blogs can end up entrapping us in their claws.

But unlike a slave master boss, our blogs are our own creation and we are free to choose how much time we spend with them. Here are two challenges for anyone wanting to cut the beast down to size:

Feed less often

Standard advice given to those wanting to create a high impact blog is to post with high frequency. In our early enthusiasm we set off at a cracking rate, but sooner or later, life intervenes and maintaining the pace starts to weigh us down. We fear reducing our posting frequency in case our hard-won readers move elsewhere.

In blogging, do looks matter?

Blog design has come on by leaps and bounds lately, but it's left one blogger wondering if we should be focussing quite so much on our blogs' beauty versus their personality. Emily, who blogs at Baby Rambles (@babyrambles), writes:

Blogs are improving their looks. When I started blogging a few yeas ago, most of the blogs I read had an amateurish layout like mine. My blog still has that amateur look, but many out there have smartened up. And with the huge amount of themes and looks available to download into your blogging software now, it can be a full-time job just keeping up with the latest templates and widgets and making your blog look perfect.

Blogging as therapy - why we need it and tips for doing it

Being able to express yourself is one of the biggest benefits of writing a blog. Ghostwritermum - aka Susanne, a mum of two and a teacher - talks here about what spurred her to blog and gives her advice on making the most out of confessional writing. She writes:

I recently read an article that stated that most bloggers started up their blogs as a reaction to a traumatic or distressing event in their lives and that this was particularly true of parent bloggers. The article certainly struck a chord with me as it summed up the very reason I created ghostwritermummy.

15 of the best parent blogging carnivals and memes

Ever been confused about all the carnivals and memes out there? Scribbling Mum (pictured) is on hand with this primer about them.

When I first started blogging over a year ago I wondered what the heck people were talking about, inviting me to join in with their 'carnival'. Did I have to dress up? Would there be cake?

I can remember getting my first 'meme', being thrilled, but spending way too long thinking about how you'd pronounce it if you had to say it out loud. Was it mee-mee or memé? When I asked this of the seasoned blogger who'd tagged me she was like 'Em. Not sure. Weirdo.' and ran away.

And who was this McLinky they spoke of? As a Scot, should I be offended at this apparent stereotyping?

Guest post: How to write reviews on your blog: a beginners guide

Helen writes reviews about everything from bathroom toy holders to coffee makers on her blog www.petitmom.co.uk and she also blogs at petiteladies.blogspot.com. Here, she shares her tips for getting in to the reviewing game.

Do you think you have a unique viewpoint and knowledge to write reviews, whether for products, services or entertainment? Have you seen other blogs and wondered how to start reviewing? Here are some tips and advice to help you begin.

Twitter
This was invaluable to me when I started out. You can find many companies on Twitter who are very friendly and some will even be more than happy to send you some of their products to review. If you want to ask over Twitter you should ask in a polite manner. Don’t just say “Got any stuff for me to review?” That makes you sound like a blagger, not a blogger. An example would be this tweet to Tommee Tippee, where I merely ask them if they were looking for reviews from mummy blogger (our kitchen is full of their products) and I got a response fairly quickly asking if we can speak over email.

Guest post: Desperately Seeking Inspiration, or 12 tips for blogging ideas

Having blogger's block? Feel editorially depleted? Hazel from Hot Cross Mum feels your pain. Luckily, she also has some great tips on finding your blogging muse. Over to Hazel:

As the parent blogging community continues to grow and grow, it amazes me how diverse, thought-provoking, entertaining, insightful and brilliant the writing continues to be. For any parent, finding time to write at all is a challenge, let alone write anything which other people want to read.

But, inevitably, at some stage we all experience that dark day when we completely lose our blogging mojo. We want to create a new post but can’t think of anything remotely interesting to write. So we leave it for another day. And then the blog starts to feel neglected and a bit sad and we start to feel guilty and try again; staring at the laptop for what feels like hours, but still...nothing. Not one shred of inspiration pops up.

If this has happened, or is happening to you, don’t worry. Here are a few ideas which will hopefully help you get your blogging mojo back.

1.    Step away from the laptop. Ever heard the saying ‘you can’t see the wood for the trees’? Clinging to your gadgets will not help, so the best thing you can do is shut everything electronic down for 24 hours (yes, really!) and go and get on with your life: the single best place to find inspiration. As one blogger very wisely said: ‘Live first, blog later’.

2.    Be a good observer. Really listen and watch your children, friends, pets, neighbours (no CCTV, please). Brilliant nuggets of inspiration can be found in the smallest gesture, conversation or a single word your child says.

You rock! Brilliance in Blogging Awards 2010

Update: NOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.

Cast your mind back to January of this year. An earthquake struck in Haiti, a curry lover saw Jesus in his naan and a big freeze causes travel chaos in the UK. It was also the beginning of an amazing year in blogging.

Since then, hundreds have joined the BMB blogging community, bloggers have raised awareness of important charitable causes, taken up video blogging, used their blogs as launch pads for other writing or businesses...in short we’ve seen blogs become more engaging and innovative as well as more fun to read.

What do your blog post titles say about you?

First of all, I want to say that if don't have Deb Ng in your reader, PUT HER IN NOW. She is a leading US blogger and she talks 100% good sense about the world of blogging, why we do it, and how to do it better.

Recently she blogged about Headline v Content: Does the Carpet Match the Drapes? As we all know, a good title is important when writing a post. But there's also the question of getting your title to match with your post. We've all clicked through, enticed by a juicy title tease only to get the cold shower of a blah post, or one that's on a different topic.

Deb asks which comes first: the great title or the incisive post? I know from working in the magazine business in New York, often a grabby coverline is the beginning of many a feature story. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's like saying "I'd like to read about that" then you go and find the story, develop your opinion and invite others to join in (that last one is the benefit with blogs as compared with magazine stories).

I'm working on a post right now that began with one small kernal and a title. It's taking more time to flesh out. But I'm more excited about it than some of my posts (is it a blogging sin to admit that?).

How about you? Do you write the post first, the title first, just slot in a title at the beginning then change it?

- Jennifer Howze (www.jenography.net)