Shello's Diary #9 - Using Prompts To Write in Advance! My Answer to Writers Block and How To Add Depth to Your Blog

Unsure of what to write in your next post? Don't worry, I got you! Hello my awesome Steemians, today I'm going to show everyone how I have my next 24 blogs already planned, and what you can do to get past the brick wall we all sometimes come across when writing. This, is what's going to give me an edge coming up, so I thought why not share this method so that more people can benefit from it! c:


shellos_diary #9.png

Why Use Prompts?

  • Not always in the mood to write
  • Get stuck on a blog and cannot finish or think
  • Not posting often enough to get a consistent following

This happened to me, and I didn't like it, so I found a way to fix it.

A Good Blog Goes Into Detail

So what do you leave in, and what do you take out? That's just it though, if you find it relevant, you don't have to take out anything. When I was coming up for blog ideas last week, something struck me. My content I wanted to write were going to not be worth to summarize, and each big idea was actually a lot of smaller ideas.

steemit color divider.png

Brainstorming One Idea Into Many

I decided that I wanted to write about learning how to do 8-bit coloring, so my title is "Beginning in Pixel Art".

  • Only one idea (and only one post!)
  • Limited post length, I could write one super long post but I want to stay on topic
  • Uncertain of what to write, or where to start. Looks messy, a lot of time can be stuck here not knowing what to do

Why write one blog, when you could actually write 5?

I took my original concept and divided it into 5 different prompts I would use to write my posts, and each one covers one main idea.

  • Easy to follow a single idea (for yourself and the reader)
  • Now I can go into detail on each concept and aspect that I want to
  • I have a better understanding of the size of the topic and how to present it
  • Suddenly have way more blogs instead of one

22054669_10210734743304515_1520943772_n.jpg

These are writing prompts. I took my one idea, and each part that would have been one paragraph, now gets it's own post. Doing this helps me to think deeply about what I am writing and to better explain it to others. Plus, it helps me be able to continously write content for my followers.



steemit color divider.png

The Deeper You Go, The More Originality You Find!

The real brainstorming part starts here. I took each prompt and then wrote a few ideas for each one, these "ideas" are now what's going to be parts of the post. I can change what's on these all the way up to when I write. Don't feel like you have to commit, because you wrote it down- by seeing everything in the posts before writing them, we can adapt ideas accordingly!

If you go deep into a topic, it will become far less likely that a lot of people make the same content as you.

22155417_10210734743264514_1519086170_n.jpg

Going in depth on topics, is what makes a niche. Not only does my topic of "Beginning Pixel Art" now have several topics, but I have stories, and bite-sized information included that is not common knowledge. It's almost as though I'm planning to take readers on an adventure with me :D

steemit color divider.png

The Goal is To Make your Ideas Solid

Physical always beats digital, why do you think we have to write our keys on paper as the most secure cold storage? Don't write it down, you'll remember yeah?

It looks like a lot of extra work, and it is- but if you want to do well, you have to put in the effort. I wrote about overhauling my blog last week, and I wrote all over my giant white board. The odds are in the favor of physical over digital when it comes to reminders. I could have planned everything on my phone or computer, but how often would I actually open the file to look at it, nonetheless work on it?

Physical Planning Benefits

  • Able to actually see the size of things and how they piece together
  • Unavoidable if strategically placed
  • Provides a real sense of doing something

steemit color divider.png

Final Advice

I chose 5 or 6 ideas, and before I knew it- had already planned my blogs out for several weeks, if you want to jump around topics, you can. Here's the card for this post!

22127463_10210736406026082_2037663961_n.jpg

rainbow divider.png

Please feel free to use the dividers I made for this post on your own blogs! Pastel rainbow, and Steemit color :3 You can save them by right-clicking them, and selecting "Save As". Thank you so much for stopping in at my blog today, and I hope that you enjoyed!


BANNER_THE_PROJECT.png

H2
H3
H4
3 columns
2 columns
1 column
14 Comments