Every writer has been there. You want to write a new article, but find yourself sitting and staring at a blank computer screen. You have no clue where to start. In fact, it does not feel like you could ever have a clue where to start. You have a dreaded case of writer's block.
Sometimes my kids come to me and say, "Dad, I'm bored. There's nothing to do." I smile and say, "How can you be bored with nothing to do in such a wide world full of so many interesting things?"
Writer's block is really the same thing, when you think about it. How can you have nothing to write an article about in such a wide world full of so many interesting things? And if you have any idea at all, even just a keyword or general topic that you would like to target, how can you not have any ideas for writing your next article when you are sitting at your computer with the immense research power of the Internet at your fingertips?
Okay, I know what you are thinking. It's not the article writing that is so difficult, it's coming up with the idea and main points for the article that is difficult.
Here are some article writing tips to help you go from a blank screen -- and a blank mind -- to the outline of an article.
The first thing to do is start surfing. Google whatever topic or keyword you would like to write an article about. If you don't even have a keyword or topic in mind and have no idea what you want to write an article about, just start surfing anyway. If you follow the approach below, you will find something to write about.
The very act of using a search engine to search or just to surf can give you many article ideas if you stay alert while you surf from page to page. Have you ever noticed how quickly you decide whether a web site or blog is something you want to explore further? You probably make that decision within seconds. Why is that? It's because for every Web page you hit, you make a conscious or unconscious decision very quickly: should I go or should I stay? In that decision lies your idea for your next article.
Here's why...
The article, web page, or blog you are reading either caught your interest and attention or it didn't. It's really that simple. But the key to coming up with the idea for your next article is in pondering why a given article did or did not catch your interest.
- What did the article provide that you were looking for?
- What didn't it provide that you were looking for?
- What is interesting about the article?
- What is not interesting about it, and why isn't it interesting?
- What questions were you left with?
- What was missing?
- What could have been written more effectively?
- What did you agree with?
- What did you disagree with?
- How would you have written the article?
- What would you have said or done differently?
- What would you have added?
- What would you have left out?
- What examples or stories would you have used to better get any points across?
- How could the article be slanted to a different audience?
The next time you sit down to write an article but find yourself sitting and staring at a blank computer screen, try surfing the Internet with these questions in mind. You should never lack for article writing ideas again!
Got a Question? Ask.
Ask the community a question about this article:
Frequently Asked Questions
Journal with picture of pearls
By: carnation | 16-08-2008
I would like to purchase a journal for some girls. i would like to have a picture of pearls on it.
Hello I am a 34 yearold female from al. I am ...
By: Jess | 14-08-2008
Hello I am a 34 yearold female from al. I am wanting to write a book on why people snap and kill children. I have addressed to write some people from deathrow. I have also started on another book but have not finished. The Caylee case is what so strongley led me to this book. Does anyone have ideas, and by the way I am very low income so if you know of some sources please help me out.
How do you spell mike in chinese
By: mike | 14-08-2008
how do you spell mike in chinese
Reading is my block!
By: 9mm | 30-07-2008
What is the best way to stay into reading books? I love to read but I have a hard time finishing a book after I start. Its like I lose intrest and I've tryed many different types and many different levels but can't seem to find the way!
I'm using thunder bird for my e-mail. I get a ...
By: ljjmml | 27-07-2008
I'm using thunder bird for my e-mail. I get a message to up grade to thunder bird set up 2.0.016 which I followed. Next thing I keep getting the message " error opening file for writing C:\Program files\mozilla thunder\mozmapi32.dll " What do I do ? I have no e-mail and I don't what to do. I can't move pass this point.
Book/Writing Advice
By: cjdaves157 | 24-07-2008
I am writing a book. Below is an excerpt, looking for opinions and advice.
Given A Choice
I have often tried to imagine what my life would have been like if I could have picked my parents and circumstances in advance. If given a choice before birth I am sure I would have chosen a wealthy, high profile, investment banker father with a mother who spent her entire days planning fundraising soirées for the benefit of underprivileged kids.
My childhood would have been filled with lavish vacations, shopping sprees and summers studying abroad. All of my friends would line up for the chance to stay over at my five story one hundred and fifty room mansion located somewhere off the west coast where the sun was always shining and the olympic size pool was always inviting. My nanny, obviously from some foreign country, would take care of all the daily chores that would have helped me to grow into a responsible adult. My teenage bedroom would have been the size of a normal ranch style house with a closet the size of a three car garage. I would have been the envy of every teenage girl and the crush of every teenage and preteen boy.
I imagine I would have sailed through adolescence and breezed through young adulthood without any obstacles to help shape my moral values. I envision me selecting Civil Law as my profession and the standard successful husband and two and a half kids. My children would grow to become successful adults with professions in the medical, legal and political fields.
After spoiling tons of grandchildren and leaving my mark on the world, I would have died somewhere around the age of ninety-five, quietly in my home under the care of a most wonderful and loving Hospice worker. My life?s achievements and my husband?s pension would ensure that my children and their children would be set financially for life. I am sure that I am not alone in my thoughts of what would have made the perfect atmosphere for the perfect childhood. Some may have chosen more exotic locations, more wealth or maybe more high profile, celebutant parents. I envision that just enough for whatever I wanted would have been perfect enough.
Similar to how infertile couples pick out sperm at a sperm bank I use to think it would have been nice to review the details of what I was being born into. Looking back now I know that choice is not always a good thing. Most children born into the scenario I described above end up killing thirty of their peers in a school yard shooting, after which suicide seems to become their only way out. I believe that there is a higher power that does review the blueprints of families and has a keen sense for why you are placed where you are. Still, when I think back to the sperm analogy used above, I see my parents picking ?purple sperm? and I came out ?green?.
Q&A Powered by:
Latest Non-Fiction Articles
Book Marketing: the Day That is Different for Your Career Strategy
By: Rosey Dow | 06/10/2008
Make an informed decision about the direction of your writing career--print or online, or both.
In the Lap of the Gods 22
By: Steve Morgan | 05/10/2008
For those who have read the other 21 chapters
A Week in the Life of the Single Working Mother
By: Karen Dosw | 03/10/2008
A humorous article about a week in the life of one South African, single mom with two adult children and two little ones.
Why You Should Write for Free
By: Deborah Owen | 01/10/2008
Write for free? I can hear you saying, “Are you nuts?” Write for free, so you can get paid. Read more inside.
Why You Should Write for Free
By: Deborah Owen | 01/10/2008
You asked if they had a job opening. They said no. They told me “no”, too, but I got the job anyway. Read more inside.
Becoming a Reporter is Easy
By: Deborah Owen | 01/10/2008
Do you want to be a reporter? It’s a great way to break into print, and the jobs aren’t that hard to get. Read this article to learn more.
Writing it Down
By: Galina Nemirovsky | 29/09/2008
Lately I’ve developed a compulsion to write everything down. Stringing words together and composing sentences in the shower, I want to write it all down – remember it – capture it. I stare at people in the subway and craft their character descriptions in my head...
The Modern Lily Tomlin
By: Galina Nemirovsky | 29/09/2008
I’m waiting in a conference room that smells like the corner of career aspiration and stale office carpet. The overly heavy and overly bitter receptionist has a voice that is piercing through the makeshift conference room with walls that only go up about 7 feet. Like an annoying hiccup, she keeps repeating “Good morning, Hudson. Your name? Hold please.” Over and over again. She is an extra large version of what the rest of the world has automated already.
More from Mike Adams
Web Content, SEO, LSI, and the New Google Patent
By: Mike Adams | 12/04/2007 | SEO
So you've optimized your web content for your niche keyword terms and spent weeks getting links with your keywords in the anchor text. You've blogged and pinged, tagged and pinged, posted to forums, and prayed for that top listing in Google. And then somebody just had to mention the new Google patent and latent semantic indexing, LSI, and how it will affect your SEO. Latent what?
Viral Marketing Campaigns Drive Targeted Traffic
By: Mike Adams | 20/03/2007 | Email
Viral marketing is a great way to use the power and nature of the Internet to reach a large number of people quickly and drive a continually growing flood of targeted web traffic to your website. With a successful viral marketing campaign, your website traffic could go from almost nothing to thousands of hits or even hundreds of thousands of hits per day almost overnight.
Resale Rights: Top 10 Ways To Tell If You Are Gullible Or Addicted
By: Mike Adams | 06/03/2007 | Home Business
Find out whether you have become a resell rights junkie - and a pretty gullible one, too - in this humorous article that just might strike a little close to home...
Writing 
