So, you are a college or university student, and you want to launch your own blog?
This is an awesome idea, as a blog allows you to improve your writing skills, which is especially great for aspiring journalists and those whose future careers will be connected to writing texts. But if your future career has nothing to do with writing, a blog is still a great way to build your professional portfolio.
However, in practice, running a blog is a very hard job to do, especially because of writer’s block. And today we’re going to help you beat it and get the creative juices flowing with these ten writing prompts.
1. Write an Essay about the Purpose of Blogging
Many first-time bloggers hit writer’s block when they’re just trying to write an About page for their blog. And you can see why it can be hard – you need to give a solid argument, why your blog deserves a read, and what value your articles carry for your blog’s niche.
So, start with a few drafts of an About page for your blog. Recommendations say it should be about 300 words to cover all the essential information and be optimized for SEO. When writing this prompt, try to provide a solid argument for your claims.
2. Craft an Open Letter to a Person Who Disapproves of Your Blog Idea
Sometimes a writer’s block can hit you because you are afraid of others judging your work for the blog. If you feel like this is your case, you can write an open letter to all your haters (even potential ones).
When writing your open letter, keep the following things in mind:
- cover the purpose of the blog and why it matters for the industry
- tell, who would benefit from it
- share the impact of your blog in the long run
Try not to make excuses and keep the tone of your open letter calm and argumentative.
3. Tell a Story about a Day in a Student’s Life
Sometimes you will share your personal experience and take on some topics. Such posts based on personal opinion play an important part in the life of your blog – they put your individuality forward. Besides, making posts personal will help you beat writer’s block.
So, to practice personal opinion posts, start by telling about a day in your life as a student. Try to cover all the events in detail and give your personal perception of them. Also, to make the post more engaging, practice writing it in a storytelling format.
4. Share the Time When You Realized You Made a Mistake
One more way to exercise the art of storytelling is to focus your writing on a particular event that provoked strong emotions and brought along valuable life experiences.
For example, you can share the time when you were confident about something but realized you had made a mistake. Such posts help you practice storytelling and teach you how to structure your story to keep the narrative consistent.
5. Reveal the Personality of Your Most Favorite / Least Favorite Teacher
Your blog will mostly contain some character evaluation posts. So, it’s a good idea to practice this technique beforehand. For instance, you can describe the personality of your most and least favorite teachers. But try to be objective – people’s personalities aren’t black or white, so try to highlight both positive and negative characteristics.
6. Give a Review of Services or Products Related to Your Blog’s Niche
Blogs often include listicle articles that give an overview and compare different products or services. Such articles are also more popular among readers: Mark Blackwood, a writer and reviewer at Let’s Grade It, says that listicles with reviews on his website get a hundred more reads on average compared to other articles.
Such blog posts have commercial evaluation intent and are very popular among internet users. There’s a chance they will frequently appear on your blog, so use this prompt as an opportunity to practice this blog post format.
7. Cover the Latest News in Your Blog’s Industry
Another popular article format on blogs is news coverage. Such posts help keep your audience informed about the latest updates and also builds your blog’s authority in the industry.
But keep in mind – news coverage requires a very strict outline and should be written in an objective style. So, if you’re running an academic blog and covering a piece of news on an essay writing service in USA, try to make your writing as straightforward, evidence-based, and non-biased as possible.
How to use this prompt?
Simply pick a news topic related to your blog’s niche, collect the latest information about it and present it as a set of facts. However, keep the structure consistent – your news coverage should have a clear introduction and conclusion.
8. Create a Guide on Performing Better Academically
Similar to listicles, guides are also quite popular among blog readers. If you’re planning to have your own college blog, there is a big chance guides on different topics will appear on it, providing a deeper insight into a subject.
You can start practicing writing guides with prompts on the topics that are well familiar to you. For instance, you can craft a guide on how to perform better academically – give step-by-step advice, provide useful tips, and share tools.
9. Put Together a List of Must-Have Christmas DĂ©cor Items
Seasonal blog posts will most likely appear on your college blog to engage readers during a certain time of the year. While this content seems easy to craft, it’s where you’ll most likely hit writer’s block – the information on seasonal topics is so abundant it can make you feel disoriented very quickly.
The only way out is practice. Pick a prompt, such as giving a list of must-have Christmas décor items, and try to put them together in one engaging article. Note: if you want your seasonal content to stand out, you need to support your claims with research or expert opinion.
10. Write a Letter to Your 10-Year-Old Self
The last writing prompt you can equip yourself with is a letter to your former self. For instance, you can recollect your past mistakes and explain what lessons you’ve learned and how they shaped your personality.
How does this prompt help you become a better writer?
Such prompts allow practicing reflection, which you will do a lot when writing articles for your blog and beyond. You’ll also practice writing a summary of events and drawing a logical conclusion.
Over to You
Running a blog is an exciting hobby, which can also bring you money if you do it right. But having a blog is also a lot of work and, first and foremost, writing practice.
Hopefully, our prompts will help you become a better writer, learn how to make your articles more structured and how to build a narrative. But remember – practice is key, so exercise your writing to make it more engaging and convincing.
