My advice for writer’s block is to keep writing and eventually, you’ll work your way out of it. But when it comes to blogging I have a bit of a different philosophy.

I mean, let’s be real: A lot of the words I write when trying to get out of writer’s block are rather lame. And that’s okay because I can always edit them out later – but when we blog, those words go live almost immediately and who wants to read a lame blog post? So here are Seven Tips for When Blogging Blues Hit.

Say what? I know, not the advice you were expecting, right? But it’s true. Sometimes I feel like I need a “reset” by forgoing the act of throwing my thoughts and feelings out for the world to see. A one day break is fine. Sometimes a two-day break is needed. But, if you feel inclined to ditch your blog more then that, or very often at all, then you might want to try one of the other tips.

See what the rest of the blogging world is talking about. Comment, show support, enjoy learning and relaxing. After you’ve spent some time remembering how encouraging/inspiring/amusing/fun other blogs can be, remind yourself that people feel the same way about your blog. Then write away.

This is another great way to interact with other bloggers, plus have a subject already chosen for your blog post. There are a lot of cool tags and link-ups out there, so do a search for whatever topics interest you, and then go from there. {Top Ten Tuesday is one of the Link-Ups I’ve joined from time to time over the years.}

Have a file of ready-made posts that you can pull out at a moment’s notice and push publish on. Y’all. You’ll be endlessly thankful when you are searching for inspiration, time, or motivation to post, and suddenly boom, you remember you’ve got posts ready to save the day. (Extra points if this happens on a day when you’ve already scheduled a post, so while you’re sitting there scrunching your nose at the thought of blogging, ping, a post shows up on your screen. It’s pretty delightful.)

Aka, get off your regular path and do something different. Do you generally post about books? Give us a random update on how you’ve made all your money to buy books by working at a dance studio. Do you generally post about traveling? Give us an amusing story on how you tried to run away as a five-year-old and rode your bike all the way down the street before getting lost. Do you generally post about writing? Share your favorite recipe with the world. Change it up. Be fun. Be adventurous. (Sharing favorite quotes, jokes, or memes can also work.)

Not for good of course, because that wouldn’t be good. But for a while. Get up from your desk – dance around the room, clean out your closet, do the dishes, go for a run. There are seventeen-hundred other things you could be doing instead of blogging, so focus on one of them for a little while. Y’all don’t even know how many times I’ve cleaned my room mid-blogging.

Why do you blog? What is your purpose? Do you want to encourage? Support? Inform? Blogging can be fun for a while, but unless you have a purpose stronger than enjoyment, it can be pretty hard to keep at it year after year. So discover your why. Spend a little bit of time defining your purpose. And if you don’t have a purpose with your blogging? Well, maybe now’s the time to figure one out. Take a break from blogging to do this if you need to, or keep blogging as you figure it out. It doesn’t matter. Just do it.

And there we have it folks! Seven tips for when the blogging blues hit. What do you do when you feel the blogging blues come on?

Oh, and don’t forget to check out my fun giveaway, here!