What to do when you run out of blog post ideas

I think we all go through periods where thinking up new content gets trickier than normal. Whether you're not happy with your current content, and don't know what direction to take new posts in, or if you've just got a case of blogger's block, it happens to us all. 
I've gone through so many periods of having so much I want to write about RIGHT NOW, and so many periods of feeling uninspired, lacklustre and pretty much downright done. 
If you're looking for a big ol' list of actual post ideas, then I've got one here, but today's post is all about finding ways to inspire yourself.
1.) Take yourself on Instagram and look through some of your favourite hashtags. At the moment mine are #shinyhappybloggers, #bookstagram and #lbloggers. Look at the blog posts people are mentioning, fill your feed with new inspiration and feel inspired to take new styles of photos. If you want, have a notepad with you whilst you scroll. Jot down books that people are talking about, and you want to buy, or think about the kind of questions people are asking in their captions. 
2.) Take a peek at some indie art. I find using little pieces of artwork so helpful for those posts where you know what you want to write, but don't know what to have for the photo (exactly like this post). Some of my go-tos are Dorkface, Ellis Woolley, Gwennan Rees and The Treasured (a site that hosts a whole lot of work from small artists). Just FYI, the fab piece of art I used for this post is from Dorkface's shop. I find scrolling through these little shops so inspirational from the quotes used on artwork, to the whole idea of being creative. 
3.) Pinterest. This site has inspired so many posts of mine. If you're not on it yet, then here's a post I made all about being a beginner on the site. My feed is filled with recipes I want to try, Harry Potter listicles (a necessity), new book releases that I might will want to buy, bloggers pinning beaut flatlays from their posts, and a whole lot of random yet beautiful pins. It's inspired me to make more list posts, create new styles of blog photos, learn more ways to have a successful job interview, bake new things and honestly so much more. 
4.) Mind map all the things you could write on that interest you. Mine would start with books, pets, mental health, skin care, moving house, weight gain/body positivity and then move into other sections and subsections within everything. It's a way to just take a step back and think about ideas outside of SEO and what other people would like. 
5.) Read other blogs. This is an obvious one, but I feel like all of us (me included) are doing this far less frequently than we ever used to. Scroll through Bloglovin' or Twitter and see which post headings leap out at you. Jot down the kind of things you love to read about, and think about writing on a similar topic.
6.) Don't be a copycat. There's so much of this going around at the moment. It's not okay to take someone's blog post title and write an almost word for word take on their post. It's not okay to use someone else's photos to go with your writing. It completely misses the entire point of having a blog, and is just absolutely not fair on those putting the work in.
7.) Do something creative. This is always a winner for me. I've got into using a bullet journal recently (which I absolutely will be posting about on here soon), and chilling out with that at the end of the day has been so helpful for me in doing something creative outside of my blog. Colouring, working on a jigsaw puzzle and filling in my Wreck This Journal are also things that I'm a big fan of when it comes to this.
8.) Get out and about with your camera. Alone, with a friend, whatever. Go for a walk on a sunny day, or out for a day trip and take your camera along. It's amazing how thinking about how things look through a lens can help you think about making content.
9.) Finally, if you feel like you're forcing content, take some time out. Last year I didn't blog for pretty much the whole of April, and it was exactly what I needed. Whilst I was away from my blog I thought of so much new content that was ten times better than anything I would have worked on by forcing it out of myself.
I'm always on the hunt for new ways to help think of new content, when I'm struggling, so please let me know what you do below!
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