Blog Post: Headline Not Included!

When you're ADHDI used to wait until I had a headline before writing a blog post but realized a headline corrals your thoughts. Sometimes you need to let your thoughts run free. See where they lead you, not follow where your headline tells them to go.

That’s when I have the most fun writing—when I let my mind wander, and get that “jump off the cliff without a parachute” thrill while sitting on my ass. Because jumping off a cliff was never my thing, on those rare occasions, I got off my ass to exercise my legs, instead of staying on my ass to exercise my thoughts.

You exercise your thoughts without breaking a sweat or pulling a muscle. Though eye strain is possible. And some people have been known to slam their heads against the keyboard every now and then. Ouch! A Confusion Contusion.

But I’m not talking about timid writers. I’m talking about adventurous writers who live for the thrill of creating something out of nothing. Turning a blank page into a word paradise. Writers who aren’t afraid to jump off the page into an unknown place that gets the heart and mind racing, and keeps the fingers tapping the keyboard, yearning for more.

It doesn’t matter what you write, as long as you write.

Creating something out of nothing can be scary and intimidating. Yet, most days, life detours off into places “unknown.” Places you didn’t intend to go, which should be a blueprint for writers who want to evolve. Your writing won’t get better if you stay on your comfort cushion with the indelible ass print that says, “Here sits status quo.”

Even if you write about one topic most of the time, you can push the envelope of discourse. Because I bet there are times you get bored or blocked or mad at your keyboard and hurt it instead of stroke it. That’s when you know you’ve stopped writing for pleasure and started torturing yourself.

Ideas are fragile. They need to be massaged, not bruised.

I’ve spent months torturing myself. I’ve been told by the so-called “experts” that I should write on point and keep my content within certain parameters. I tried to cookie-cut my writing, tried to squeeze my content into a box, but I don’t think inside a box. My content needs to speak from me, not someone else who thinks they know me better than I know myself.

Listening to the so-called “experts” broke my writing. For months, I was blocked. I questioned my very writing existence while I tried to focus on four or five topics. The best format for my content I was told. But the experts didn’t know me. Something that may have been best for others wasn’t best for me.

Write from the voice in your heart.

My blog is my playground, a place to think and breathe words, not to smother them. If every time I write I have to worry if a post fits into a theme or a headline, it’ll stifle creativity and the blank page wins.

All the so-called “experts” can tell you what you need for your blog or writing, but if you’re not comfortable with what you’re being told and your writing becomes stifled or even non-existent, you’re not taking advice from the most important person, yourself.

Write for the right to speak the truth in your voice and heart. Otherwise, that blank page will stare at you and say, “Why bother?”

Have you ever gotten bad writing advice?

21 Comments Blog Post: Headline Not Included!

  1. Selma Writes

    Beautiful. Relevant. Resonates. I liked this line especially: My content needs to speak from me, not someone else who thinks they know me better than I know myself.
    Yes. Thanks for sharing this.

    Reply
  2. Chad

    LAUREN

    Posting without headline.. Interesting idea 🙂
    Sometimes, it can be attract more people because it has ‘nothing’
    Thanks for your insight.

    Reply
  3. zeb

    Crazy headline,loved the way this post kept me engaged throughout my reading session. A informative one and a great content. Applause to the author of the post.

    Reply
  4. T I Antor

    Hey Lauren,
    Today i have learned a new thing. Write without heading. Great explanation, heads off to you. Basically, i write on that subject which i know well and can explain it to my readers. If they can’t understand what i am talking about then my efforts will go in vain. Interesting topic, thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  5. Winson Ng

    Yes – I have had bad writing advice. And, that advice came from a self-help guru who I shall not name. When I first started writing, a self-help guru advised me to always come up with headlines first because that is the first thing that readers would pay attention to so I spent hours and days to perfect my headlines before I started writing. But, right now, I know that all I need is a list of keywords to start my writing first. I can’t help but re-emphasize on any blogs that I read that content is king. Headlines will come to you once your writing is done. If not, refine it. It takes lesser time to refine a headline than to come up with a good write up.

    Reply
    1. Lauren

      Hi, I’m glad you were able to overcome the bad writing advice. I couldn’t agree with you more that “content is king.”

      I read your bio and was moved by your story.

      Thank you for stopping by and sharing your experience.

      Reply
  6. ANAND

    Tell me one thing. How many head lines can we use in a post. How many times can we use H1 tag and how many times can we use H2 tag and H3 tag in a single post?

    Reply
  7. Paul

    To make a headline, you must think what are the words that people will try to ask, that is one of my clue to make a blog post title, and yea its hard to think of a topic without having a blog post title.

    Reply
  8. John

    This post is awesome. Content is king and content is describe every things about your thought and techniques which u want to show publicly. But According to me Headline is good way for making our content attractive and in one way for understand users what you describe in this post.

    Thanks for sharing interesting post with us.

    Reply
  9. Travel With Jeff

    great tip. Too often, i often write the title, & then try to add keywords in the text so it will rank in google. i have found that this negatively affects the quality of my writing.

    Reply
  10. usman

    You are so interesting! I don’t believe I’ve truly read through anything like that before. So wonderful to discover another person with a few unique thoughts on this issue. Seriously.. many thanks for starting this up. smsnmessages.com This website is something that is required on the internet, someone with a bit of originality!

    Reply
  11. Remy

    I totally agree with you on “Sometimes you need to let your thoughts run free” but also a well channeled headlines keep you on track! I’m a writer.

    Reply
  12. Neeraj Nayer

    OMG! I have to say, your blog needs to be one of the best written blogs that I have learn in a protracted time. What I wouldn’t give as a way to put up posts which might be as interesting| as yours. I guess I will have to continue studying yours and pray that someday I will write on a subject with as lot of wisdom as you have! Bravo!!

    Reply
  13. suzieQ

    It appears that I am not the only one in this world that “thinks” differently than others. I always put the blame on my ADD. “Why can’t you remember the simplest stuff?” my fiance asks. “Why does it take three times before things stick in your head?”. I just glance and murmur, “I dunno”. It’s tiring. Maybe its Alzheimers. I did have a tricky bout with menopause for a long few years. I read that blueberries help the memory. So, I eat about a pound of blueberries every day. Still forgetful. Still saying, “sorry bout that” for forgetting yet one more task. Can I sign up to have a brain transplant? Or, maybe being 57 doesn’t make me sexy anymore. That cute, sexy, dumb-blonde thing doesn’t work have as well as it used to in my twenties. Anyway, it’s all just LIFE.

    Reply
  14. Thales Lago

    That’s so true,

    I write everything that goes in my mind first (without selecting or organizing).

    Then, I wait some hours to come back and organize, remove no sense things, or rewrite them.

    Reply
  15. sahil

    I actually just stumbled upon your site a few days, but now I’m a major fan and just spent the last few hours binge reading everything on your site,
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    Reply

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