How to Write Stream Of Consciousness Blog Post

While this probably isn’t the type of post you would want to crank out regularly for your blog (unless you’re really avant-garde), a stream of consciousness (SOC) post actually has quite a great deal of flexibility and utility. Virtually any blog can have a SOC post (video- and photo-blogs might take a bit more creativity and thinking outside the box), and the benefits of working in this form are numerous.

How to write Stream Of Consciousness for your blog

SOC style is easy to attempt. There aren’t very many steadfast rules for implementation beyond
(1) writing continuously for a set period of time and
(2) not editing until that time period is over.

Even these rules can be broken; it’s perfectly reasonable to at least focus your thoughts on the themes of your blog (though some may call this editing).

Here’s some helpful tips to get the ball rolling:

• Minimize disruptions
• Set a timer (not required for everyone)
• Don’t worry about errors or structure
• Make multiple attempts until you’re happy

Stream Of Consciousness writing can help you:

• Open up more ideas

SOC posts open up ideas and often create new discoveries. As the one type of blog post you don’t need to plan, they have a tendency to surprise both readers and writers. You may find that a lot of your tangents in a SOC post have the potential to become strong topics in your regular format. You don’t have to explore the ends of every idea in a SOC post; that’s part of the beauty of this form.

• Create lots of content

In addition to generating ideas, SOC posts can leave you with an overabundance of content. This depends on how your writing session faired of course, but if you don’t stop writing until you’ve run out of things to say, you might have enough content to warrant a series of posts rather than just one.

• Write readable posts

Yet another benefit of this style, SOC posts often read very well. Of course their structure easily becomes haphazard; however, this lack of structure and free flow of thought relaxes the writer and lends itself to a natural voice, both easy to read and relatable.

Cons of Stream of Consciousness Writing

Keep in mind that this style has its limitations. For instance, you aren’t guaranteed a great post through one SOC writing session. If you intend to publish something in the next hour, SOC is not your safest bet. Experimenting with this style can waste your (and sometimes the reader’s) time, leaving you with hours of writing but no material worthy of posting.

Also, your SOC writing will miss details that you would have otherwise researched for a normal post. Writing with only your own ideas makes your post vulnerable to fallacies and incorrect assumptions. While it can be interesting to see how your readers fill-in the blanks between your thoughts, you may appear less credible to some.

In light of these cons, SOC writing is still definitely worth at least a try. Even if you don’t produce publishable material, you’ll probably generate some great ideas to include in later posts. There’s also no rule that you can’t go back and heavily edit a SOC post.

Do you used SOC writing for your blog ? How do you come up with blog post ideas ?

This is a guest post by Donna Reish, check out the guidelines if you want to guest post here.

Image Credit: jjpacres