Do you ever sit down to plan your editorial calendar with no idea where to start? Or when you sit down to write a blog post and no words come to mind? It could be the dreaded writer’s block, but it could also be a sign of something else.

If you ever feel lost with your blog, it could be time to refresh your creative process. You could be blogging about too many topics or stuck with how to create content. Or maybe you need to completely change your perspective for your blog. I have been in all of these positions and I still don’t think I’ve found my blog’s true purpose.

These things take time. But you don’t have to put up with it. So today, I’m going to share a few helpful tips that I’ve picked up along the way.

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Take A Break

If you’ve been reading A Branch of Holly for a while, you’ll know that I love taking breaks. They’re so beneficial. Taking a break brings you so many light bulb moments. They’ll happen when you least expect them. Like when you’re in the shower or just about to go to sleep. I took a break from my blog last year and completely rethought my purpose. At Christmas, I did the same and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done for this online space. So something you can do if your creativity is struggling is to just take a break. We can’t be productive without regular breaks. We shouldn’t feel like we have to do things. If you want a break from posting tomorrow, do it. Your loyal readers will stick with you, and who knows – you might come up with an amazing idea.

Check Your Blogging Goals

When you want to refresh your creative process, it can be good to go right back to the beginning. Think about where you first started. Go back to your first post and read what you had to say all that time ago. I bet it’s different to how your creative process is now. Yet it changed and developed, which means it can again. It also means that your goals are probably different. When I first started blogging, my main goal for this space was:

to have a place to document my life and interact with like-minded people

Now, it’s this:

to inspire, help and build a community through the content I create and how I interact

My goals for blogging are different, because my perspective has changed. And I have a feeling it’s slightly changing again, because I’ve had another realisation. But that’s something you can find out more about in my newsletter.

I believe in writing what you want to write about, not what everyone else is writing about. I’m writing this piece of content now with an absolute buzz, because I’m enjoying it. If you don’t enjoy what you’re writing, why does it mean anyone else will? Your blogging goals will reflect that. By refreshing your goals, you refresh your creative process.

Search For Inspiration

We can all come up with ideas out of thin air, but wouldn’t it be so much easier with some inspiration? It could be anything. We find inspiration in different places, everywhere we look. When we’re scrolling through Pinterest or reading something online, an idea can appear. If it does, grasp it with both hands, and always always write it down.

Try New Creative Things

Now by this, I don’t mean refresh your blog categories or try writing a post in a different way. I mean try something brand new. Or something you haven’t done for a while. But something creative. Recently, I created a flower arrangement for my Mum. It brought out a new wave of creativity in me that I didn’t know existed. It’s something that I’m now going to continue, because it’s different yet still creative. I truly believe in utilising your talents and skills in everything you do.

Believe In What You’re Doing

It’s all about the belief. If we don’t believe in something we’re doing, we won’t complete it to the best of our ability. We’ll end up losing our love for it. If that happens, you know you need to refresh something. Falling out of love with blogging is a huge sign that something needs to change. This could be something small like your schedule, or something big like a re-brand. But belief is your ground - it’s the surface of what you’re creating. Success comes in different forms for us, but believing in yourself to succeed is half the battle. And even if you don’t succeed this time, at least you had the belief. It means your success will definitely come.

I'd love to know, have you ever had to refresh your creative process?