So…I just got my first ever article request! WOOHOO!! Thank you Diana Bjalvenas, Vinyasa/Acroyoga teacher, and creator of updogbodies.se for reaching out. Diana is a very good friend of mine and we go way back in our 200-hour TT in Thailand. Check her out or follow her on IG or Youtube channel, all found in the link above. Diana asked me how to get started in blog writing so she inspired me to write a whole post about it because if one person is wondering about it, it means that more people are too.
Blog writing for me is a dying art that needs to be revived. While I do follow more interactive forms of media, I find that a good post in text lets me assimilate the information much more extensively than videos or podcasts. I’m not the only one who believes this either. Ann Hadley, Author of the best-selling book called Everybody Writes, says that good writing is needed now more than ever. Why? Here’s a quote from her book:
“Words are proxy…a stand-in for the things that we as people and we as companies want to convey to the world”
-Beth Dunn
Bold Talks: How to Be a Writing God
I think she’s right! Despite all the platforms, social media, videos and podcasts, writing is still the most effective way to communicate empathy to our people. Let’s take an Instagram post with a caption. What resonates with you the picture or the words behind it? It’s the text that compels you to comment. That said, How do you get started? What do you write about? How often should you do it? When do I see results? All these questions and more will be answered right here! Stay on this page!
How to get started on Blog Writing
Just write!
The only way to get started is to do just that. Get on your ms office, or pages or directly to the platform blog writing page and start typing.There’s no magical formula for becoming a good writer. It’s a skill, a ‘muscle’ that you have to work out as you would a gym routine. You don’t become J.K. Rowling, you’ll never be her because in blog writing you are finding YOUR voice. Write about the day you decided to become a yoga teacher, write about anything! When you are in article #1, it doesn’t matter what you write about as long as you get cracking. I know it’s scary. I know that every idea that’ll enter your mind will sound terrible to you but take that first step anyway. See what happens.
Use your everyday life as inspiration
Everything could be your content. The way that you correlate an asana to life on your IG caption is the same process as an article for your article. You draw something out from within. A blog doesn’t have to involve the mission statement of your site all the time. It has to celebrate your uniqueness. At this point, what you need is to fill that page. Even if it is only slightly about yoga or not. Maybe it’s a reflection that you had the other day, or how you handle administrative work in your studio. How do you cope with all the plates your spinning as a business and family woman? All good stuff, all you.
Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew
One of the mistakes I made when I started writing was imposing the 1-article-a-week routine. Looking back, it was a suicide mission. So I got depressed. I wallowed in thinking that I’ll never be good enough to produce enough content for my blog. I stopped writing for my site to write for other companies. But then, during my break from Misfit Yoga, I saw that many teachers were making the same mistakes. They had also offered their students 1 article a week as seen in the intro of their blog. Needless to say, their blog postings only went up to 5 articles and ‘poof!’ nada. Good writing takes time. It doesn’t matter if you only produce 1 or 2 articles a month as long as the product is well-thought-out.
Time is Your Friend
Think of your articles as the main dish at a dinner party. You want to make it good. You want it to taste as if your soul was put into it. You want your guests to savor every morsel. Making a meal like that can’t be rushed and shouldn’t be. So don’t hurry.. there’s no reason to. You are building a skill, you are not leaving dead air on your site if you don’t churn out articles like a soda can factory. Besides, you have other
‘courses’ to serve that’ll keep your people satiated. This is where your social media content like photos, captions, or blurbs come in. Use them as filler while you are in the middle of writing.
It Gets Better.
As you build the ‘muscle’ that is your writing you will notice a few things as you grow: For example, The time it takes for you to finish your first draft is shorter. Your self-editing becomes more intuitive. You’ll even start to see your humor coming out of the page—and it works! For me, I noticed my improvement when my writing voice came out in my actual conversations. It was surreal. I expressed myself with precision. Words flowed through me organically whilst not converting into a highfalutin know-it-all. These are the gifts that a writing practice surprises you with, and they are priceless.
Let’s recap! To get started on blogging you must start writing. It’s that simple. Draw inspiration from things around you. Not only will it be easier for you to find your voice as a writer, but your piece will also come from a real place within. Remember that blog writing now and forever is about quality, not quantity. Don’t worry about the time. You can fill in the gaps with other forms of social media while you’re in the middle of writing. Lastly, all of this, the tedious stuff will all pass. One day you’ll realize that you improved, that you’ve changed –for good.
These days, I am nowhere near where I want to be in my skill. I still get nervous hitting that publish button, I still edit a few hundred times before I publish, I still have doubts. The only difference is that I listen less to my inner negativity as I keep on typing.
I hope this article serves you well Misfit Yogis and especially for you Diana Bjalvenas!
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