We’ve all had those times when we really feel like there’s nothing to say. Or when you think someone else has already said it and said it better than you! Not every day is going to be a productive day, but some days are terrible! Does that sound like you? Maybe writer’s block is keeping you from even starting on that project! If that sounds like you, stick around!

Review your old posts

Go through your old posts until something makes you look twice. Maybe something didn’t “click” the first time or the images weren’t correct for the post. Whatever it is, revisit it and look at it in a different way. Maybe the timing was off? This kind of review can really assist with your writer’s block.

Sleep on it

Right before you go to sleep, suggest to yourself that you’ll wake up with a topic. This often works for me, especially if I keep a pen and paper next to the bed. If you don’t have a way to record your idea, though, often it’ll disappear into thin air!

Take a walk

If you take your mind off your subject, often you’ll be inspired. A walk or a change of scenery often does the trick! Maybe you don’t like to walk. Then take a drive or call a friend instead. I’ve written about social media burnout before, and you might like that article: Social Media Burnout. There’s a link to forest bathing in it, too.

Eliminate distractions

Is that donut in the kitchen calling your name? Are the kids crying (if you work at home)? Is there loud music somewhere in your workplace? Getting rid of those distractions can often help with writer’s block. I’ve written about writer’s block before. You might like: How to Cure Writer’s Block: 10 Best Ways.

Put the seat of your pants in the seat of your chair

This is the one that has the most impact on me. Simply setting aside the time and writing. It doesn’t always have to be good writing! That’s why ideas like NaNoWriMo work so well! Try it and see if you can write more this November (it’s not too late!). You don’t have to write a million words in a month, but try to write more than you did last month.

Write for 15 minutes

Could you write for 15 minutes? Of course you could! So write in whatever way you want–with a pen, pencil, or keyboard in a Word doc. Whichever way you decide to write, just do it for 15 minutes. Even if you write the same sentence 15 times, it’ll get your brain in the right mode to write and that has to be good, right?

Make an Editing Checklist

Friend Randy Clark has a nifty list of things to watch for in his editing checklist on his article about How to Defeat Writer’s Block. And you might want to read it just because he writes a lot and you could find inspiration there.

Everyone uses search all the time to the extent that Google has now become a verb. We don’t even bother saying we’re going to search on Google. We just assume that you’re using Google to search. Google is wonderful and I use it every day, but how can you optimize your search results? And are there other search engines you could use for other purposes? Why yes and yes! Stick around while I help you search like a pro!

Duck Duck Go

If you really want to search like a pro, try asking a 12-year-old. Yes, don’t be so full of yourself that you don’t think you can learn from kids because any 12-year-old knows a lot about how to search and keep it a secret. Want to know about that weird medical condition that you might have? Or want to find out the latest cannabis recipe without being followed all over the internet? Try Duck Duck Go!

Pinterest Search

Say you want to knit a sweater, but you don’t know exactly which one? Get on Pinterest. You can enter something like knitting pattern sweater and you’ll get a visual result of knitting patterns. I’ve written about using Pinterest as a search engine before here: Why Pinterest Isn’t Social Media–and Why It is. But you can also use Google the same way. Try the same knitting pattern sweater and you’ll get similar results in your search. You can narrow your search further by specifying images on Google (click on the images tab).

Google Scholar

Need to combat fake news? You can search for academic studies, articles, dissertations, and abstracts with Google Scholar. Of course, there’s a WikiHow on the subject that can explain this better than I can: 3 Ways to Use Google Scholar. Note: the best way to use Google Scholar is to sign into your Google account. Another note: there are ways to optimize your search within Google Scholar just as there are ways to optimize your search within Google itself. Scroll down in that Wiki article and you’ll see.

Reverse Image Search

This is one of the best uses of technology out there. Go to Google, type in reverse image search, click, upload your image, and voila! Recently, I was visiting a friend and she had been looking for an image’s source for months. With Google reverse image search, we found it in a matter of minutes. Here is how Google explains how to use reverse image search.

Use the tabs to search like a pro!

As mentioned above, you can use the tabs in Google search so that your search is visual. But there are other tabs, too! There’s a news tab, a maps tab, and a more tab! You may see a shopping tab and a tools tab if you click on the more tab.

Use a colon to search on a specific site

We’ve all come across those annoying websites where you can’t find anything! But! Did you know that you can use a colon to drill down in your search? Here’s an example. (And I’m not saying the Homeless Garden Project has an annoying website, either.) Search for the Homeless Garden Project’s store on their site as follows:

store: https://homelessgardenproject.org/

Start with a simple search

Chances are, you’re already doing this. Start with the most generic search and then make it more and more specific. For instance, if you want to know about artificial intelligence and its risks, first search artificial intelligence, then narrow your search further.

Friend Terri Nakamura and I have been talking (via tweets, mostly) about home generators and power outages lately. And she said she thought I should write about having a generator, which never occurred to me! But many people could use a home generator right now. If you’re thinking about getting one, here are some reasons you should. While I haven’t written about home generators before, I’ve written about emergencies. You might like How Natural Disasters Can Make Us More Grateful.

Peace of Mind

Knowing that you can keep your appliances going (especially if you have medical appliances such as a CPAP machine), your refrigerated items cold, and your heat on for your babies gives you peace of mind. Now a generator won’t necessarily run everything in your home, but you can get by with one. A whole-house generator will cost you a lot more, but give you even more peace of mind if outages are really bad where you are. For me, a home generator is just the right size.

Climate change is getting worse

When we first moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains, we rarely had power outages. Even though it seemed like we lived in the middle of nowhere, the power stayed on. And even though I could’ve gotten a Tesla Powerwall, I didn’t. Now of course I wish I had! Because they were around $5,000 then and now the price has tripled, if they’re available at all. And our power outages are happening all the time. To give you an idea of how often the power goes out, we sometimes don’t even bother resetting the clock on the microwave after it goes out. If we’re having a bad storm, we’re certain the power won’t stay on, and we’ll just have to reset it again. This time around, the power only went out for a few minutes, but we still didn’t reset the microwave clock.

Independence during storms

As I write these words, we just went through a pretty bad storm. Our area got about 10″ of rain. We were warned to stay off the roads, and watch for fallen trees and downed wires, which we did. With a generator, we could stay home, be able to cook and charge our devices, and stay out of the way of the emergency vehicles. Police and fire departments were out mopping up debris, downed trees, and helping people who got stuck in the storm. Even though we didn’t have to use the generator (this time), it was a godsend knowing it was there .

Losing food, even if you get reimbursed, is a hassle

You really don’t want to lose everything in your frig. Even if your local power company reimburses you, do you really want the hassle? Filling out forms, saving receipts, and waiting for reimbursements? Don’t we already do that with insurance claims? Who wants more bureaucracy? A generator costs relatively little when you measure what your time and the hassle cost you. Mine cost around $500, by the way. And also, if you don’t have food you’ll have to run to the store during a storm or emergency, which is not fun–and that’s if you can find one that’s open and has the supplies you need. During the early days of the pandemic, some of our local stores didn’t have much fresh food, and many lost their frozen food as well, since they didn’t have backup generators!

You can set up a home generator!

There’s no reason you can’t set up a generator. If I can do it, you certainly can, too! It’s really not that difficult. You may need some additional things, such as the following:

• A heavy-duty extension cord to go from the generator to the frig;
• A gas canister (make sure your generator uses the type of fuel you’re buying!);
• Gasoline or some type of fuel (check which type of fuel your generator needs–I know I said it twice, but it’s critical);
• Some fuel stabilizer so the gas doesn’t go bad when you store it. Bob Vila has a good article on gasoline and keeping it fresh.
• A place to store your generator when not in use. You can get a shed if you don’t have an ideal spot to store your generator.Other than the above supplies, a generator is fairly simple to operate.

There are people to help you

Odds are one of your friends in your neighborhood already has a generator and can help you set it up and learn to use it. When there’s a storm, walk around your neighborhood and listen for who has one. There is also YouTube University, where you can learn more than you’ll ever want to know about this or nearly any other subject. Luckily for me, my friend Annie and her wonderful husband offered lots of help. Maybe you have an Annie in your life who could help you! Actually, she volunteered her husband and that worked out perfectly!

Right now, we’re experiencing a number of transitions. You may be facing some of these transitions, too. So here are some ideas for writing about those transition times. After all, you never know who is handling the same transition. Your words might make a difference for someone in a similar situation.

Transition between fall and winter

It’s not quite Halloween, and the weather is warm during the day but cold at night. So why not write about how to prepare for the upcoming winter season during the quiet time when not much is happening? With climate change affecting nearly everyone, we can all learn from each other. For instance, how do we prepare for flooding if an evacuation is needed? How do you stay on a diet during a pandemic and have a good holiday season? Here’s an article you might like: 10 Social Media Transitions and How to Use them.

Fire and rainy season

Here where I am, we’ve had a horrible fire season. Much of California seems to be on fire. So one transition for us will be between the dry (fire) season and the wet (rainy) season. This upcoming week we are promised an “atmospheric river” with possibly over 5″ of rain. Yikes! Again, why not write about how to prepare for the rainy season? Are there things your readers can do now to get ready?

Time before winter holidays

We’re coming up on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve and Day. So you could write about how to prep for those. What will you say during those holidays? Time tends to speed up during November and December and now is a good time to prepare! Get those articles written, or at least started now. Don’t think you have time? Here’s an article that could help: Time Management for the Busy Professional.

Covid and post-Covid

For most of us, this is a huge transition. And the transition is happening at different speeds for different parts of the country, and the world. Here in California, the transition seems fast. People are almost acting as though there never was a pandemic. You could write about what that transition is like in your part of the country or the world. Or how you wish the transition would be, or how the transition could be eased or improved.

Personal transitions

Have you had a major transition? Maybe one of your parents passed away, or you lost a partner or beloved pet. Chances are, someone else has gone through the same transition. Your words could help soothe someone else. Or your words could help someone know what to do and how to emotionally handle such a transition. For instance, what is the mourning process like for someone who’s lost their partner? That’s a process that we rarely talk about. By the way, I highly recommend the movie Departures, about a Japanese man who is a ritual mortician. Don’t be put off by the subject matter–it’s very sweet! And that was recommended to me by a friend, Terri Nakamura!

Do you ever feel like social media is making us all stupider? I’ve been feeling that way a lot lately. People making things up, fake science, and people quoting from junk articles they’ve seen on Facebook. Can it get any stupider? Well, yes. Yes, it can! Let’s not travel down that rabbit hole just yet, though. Let’s talk about reversing the tide a bit. Let’s talk about slow social media. By the way, I enjoyed this article about Slow Social. You might, too.

Stop the ten-second videos

One reason I don’t log into certain video-sharing apps is because it’s easy to spend 15 hours looking at 10-second videos. You know what I’m talking about, right? Besides making me stupider, there’s a certain meanness to many of the videos. As if seeing someone falling down should be funny. Or hurting an animal should be entertainment. Or what about the “pranks” where someone pretends to spend $10,000 on a buttlift, and then the poor guy’s reaction. Really? How about if we just skip it?!

Social media whiplash

Watching non-stop videos of ridiculous subjects can give us all a kind of whiplash. You might not even remember what you just watched if you watch too much. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Before you even open that app, know why you’re there and what you’re going to do. If you want to engage for ten minutes, do that. Set your timer, then get out! It’s kind of like going to the grocery store when you’re hungry. You end up mindlessly buying (or watching) things you don’t want. And you might not even remember why you bought something when you get home. If this rings a bell for you, you might like: Organizing Your Social Media So You Can Have a Better Life.

Fear of missing out (FOMO)

Do people really fear missing something on social media? Do you? How do we get over this idea, as a culture? If you take a break from being online, you’ll see that you’ll hardly miss anything at all. Try it! Did the world end? No, it did not! The only thing that will change, probably, is your level of relaxation. So take the yoga class. Go for a walk. Or eat the ice cream. Avoid Social Media Decision Fatigue Three Quick and Easy Ways.

Can we use the slow-food movement as a model?

With the pandemic, many people began to spend more time at home, cooking more. Slow food was already gaining ground, but it became even more important as we had more time to spend baking banana bread. I like to think that we could all use a little unscheduled, boring time, if you will. Times when nothing happens. Like rest notes in music, for instance. The slow-food movement began as a protest against fast food. Could we start a protest against fast social media? And even though I’m a social media manager, how about if we have a day when we stay off social media? Who’s with me on this?

If you’re a writer, blogger, or content creator then you know how much a good editor is worth. They can seemingly work magic with their red (or virtual red!) pens, sculpting and reshaping your badly-written words into something artistic. If not artistic, then at least something less bad! Here are some of the ways they can assist.

View your work from 20,000 feet

There may be some things you’re doing that you’re not aware of. Maybe you always make the same spelling errors, or use too many commas. Oh, wait! That’s me. My editor is always saying to remove commas. Not Oxford commas, of course, but some of those other ones that sneak in there. By the way, I’ve written about writing before. You might like: Content Creation: How to Make Your Writing More Fun.

Do a structural edit

If you know a really good editor, she can actually restructure your writing. For instance, create one chapter out of two, or change the order of paragraphs. Or say that what you’re really saying doesn’t match your premise. He can check the logic of your words. Wouldn’t you like someone like that to look over your work? I know I would!

Use a style guide

If you’re adhering to a style guide (hello, Chicago Manual of Style!), your editor can see that you’re following those rules. Do you like the Oxford Comma? Or are you one of those renegades who doesn’t bother, doesn’t care, or doesn’t even notice (do you see what I did there?)?

Check your grammar

Are you using active voice in most of your sentences? An editor can double-check and fix your writing if you’re not. In some types of writing, you may not want to use active voice, but that’s a whole other story. Technical writers, for example, use passive voice quite often. I dislike most automated apps for checking grammar, since they tend to simplify my writing style. Although writing for 12-year-olds is what a lot of people do, it doesn’t work for me.

Do some unfun jobs

Are you mixing up your bullet styles? Your editor will probably notice and fix that! Do your captions match your graphics? Again, that’s something an editor can check for you. Sometimes your editor has the completely unfun job of telling you your manuscript is trash and you should start over. Would you like that job? NO!

Ensure your formating is consistent

Does your formating change every other paragraph? An editor will mark that up and either you or she can fix it. That’s also an unfun job, but one every editor has probably had to do at some point in their career.

Be nice to your editor

Some of you may have the mistaken belief that editors are mean people, gleefully sitting around with their red pens poised to find mistakes. They are kind people, and they make your writing better! So bring them cookies if they’re nearby. Or send them something in the mail–cash is good, but even a cup of coffee would probably be appreciated. Editors are the unsung heroes of the world of writing.