By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting (Pty) Ltd
Ok, so here we are. You know why you need to blog and then what . . . ? What on earth are you going to write about? Let’s just face it, many of us have no clue how to write effectively, let alone what to write about. I know that when I started out, I would often just sit in front of a blank screen and wait – wait for an idea, wait for inspiration – just wait. It took a while for me to ‘get it’, but with practice it happens a lot faster now and it is a lot easier.
I have collected stacks of material over the last few years and still diligently do. I read an article that perhaps will spark something in me or light a fire under my rear end – that’s usually what happens. I have an opinion or it sparks an entirely different idea. I usually sit with the article in front of me, read it through, think about what the impact that that particular article has/might have/ should have on my life and then a thread starts to form in my mind. In the beginning the only way that I could describe what happens in my mind is that it starts off as a little leaf blowing around in the breeze. The breeze becomes a twister and the little leaf becomes a vast quantity of leaves all going round and round in my mind until I have to ‘get it out’ (by writing it down) and so quell the storm. In the beginning this could take days – with a lot of practice, nowadays once I have read through the article it takes me about 15 minutes to write the article – amazing thing that – practice.
Don’t commit yourself to more than you can manage in the beginning. Even if it means that you write only one article a month or one every two weeks, don’t stress it. I started off with my Networking Tips on a Wednesday, months later I increased that to include the HR tip on a Friday. Again, months later I started my Monday Motivation (although it’s usually presented in the form of a challenge) and then the Thursdays (or perhaps it was the Tuesday’s – I forget which now) articles and opportunities presented themselves and it has been just over several years now that I am submitting 5 articles a week. Don’t get me wrong, there are days when it is incredibly hard to write and to get what I am trying to say in some sort of articulate way. Other days my fingers fly across the keyboard, barely able to keep up with my thoughts.
I do try and write the articles in advance, so that if there is some sort of problem or if I have an early morning meeting that I do have an article ready for posting. It’s not always possible though and then I find myself under pressure – not pleasant at all. So try and not get yourself into a situation where you are running against a clock. Apart from my commitment to my own blog of an article a day, I also have other writing commitments – I have a bi-monthly column in the Your Business magazine. These articles obviously take a lot more time as they involve a lot more research and also sometimes have me ‘interviewing’ people – but they are great fun to do.
What I have come to realize though is that I do love to write, it has become a passion and my only regret is that I discovered it very late in my 40’s. Can you imagine the number of articles that I could have written had I started in my 20’s or even 30’s? I love the ‘finding’ out about things that I write. I love that I am making a difference, not only in my life but also in the lives of others. I love how the words on the pages transform themselves into pictures in my mind.
Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za
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