Building Your Author Platform: 52 Evergreen Blog Post Ideas

Have you ever wondered how many brilliant blog-post ideas it takes to create a successful author platform?

Or…

“How will I find the time to write a blog?”

If the thought of building your author platform feels overwhelming, you’re not alone.

Still, you know it’s important for your success.

You need a place where readers can find you, a place where readers can sample your writing and discover your products and services.

But it’s hard to find the time and energy required, especially when you’re prioritizing the important work–your work in progress.

With so little time available, how will you establish a quality Internet presence without neglecting your daily word count, your income responsibilities, your family, your friends, and the rest of your routine obligations?

You need an outline for your day (and your writing life).

You need a viable to do list, one that delivers without overwhelm.

And you need a blog calendar that delivers, one that won’t weigh you down with unproductive hours spent searching for content ideas.

Read on to discover the only blog calendar you’ll ever need, one that’s perfectly tailored for the author/blogger.

Here are 52 blog prompts to keep the words and traffic flowing. They’re organized by theme, and they’re open ended, so you can use them again and again.

Happy writing!

52 Evergreen Blog Writing Prompts for Authors

Your Writing Craft

What works? Write about the craft, about your favorite strategies, the one’s that deliver reliable results. What’s your proven formula for outlining, plotting, setting a scene, or developing a character? What’s your secret weapon for meeting your hourly, daily, or weekly word count? What always works for you? Share your superpower.

What doesn’t work? Write about the common shortcuts and fallacies hindering your progress, costing you time and frustration? What strategy have you given up on for lack of efficacy?

What are you exploring now? Describe the new skill you’re developing. What’s currently consuming your time and attention? What’s the next rung on your development ladder?

Resources for Writers

What new books are you reading? What old books are sitting on your writing desk? What book would you replace immediately if you found yourself without it? What’s your favorite writing blog? Where’s the first place you look for answers on writing topics? What courses or techniques will take aspiring writers to the next level?

Your Writing Challenges

Write about your daily challenges before beginning a new book. What’s your process for choosing your next project? What’s your process for knowing what to ignore?

Describe a challenge that happens in the middle of progress, while you’re actively writing. How can your readers avoid similar problems?

Describe a past bottleneck, a specific challenge you solved. Share your methods for doing so. Describe your early assumptions as well as the conclusions you formed after experiencing a breakthrough.

Describe an inevitable challenge, something impossible to separate from the craft or business of writing. How do you cope with this recurring issue? How can your readers anticipate and meet this challenge head on?

Writing Success Stories

Share a recent success. Where and how have you leveled up your game? To what do you attribute this quantum leap in progress?

Share a prior success, something that changed the trajectory of your career. How can you help your audience achieve the same benchmark?

What success eludes you today? What is this prized state you crave? What do you think it will bring you? How do you cope in its absence? Commiserate with your readers.

Share the success story of a peer or an industry giant. Explain the cause and effect involved. Explain why this story resonates with you. Explain how your readers might model the process.

Trends in Writing & Publishing

What new trend is emerging in writing and publishing? How can you tap into its power? Where does it stand in its lifecycle?

What current writing and/or publishing trend has reached its peak? What do you predict for its future? How long until it crashes?

What current writing and/or publishing trend is misleading, overhyped, lacking in value? Deconstruct its appeal, and offer an accurate appraisal.

What writing or publishing trend would you support? What’s missing in your industry? What’s worth more time and consideration?

Author Marketing

What’s the easiest way to market your writing?

Do you have a book, a blog, or a freelance writing business to promote?

What have you learned?

Where’s the low-hanging fruit, the path of least resistance? What’s hiding in plain sight?

What do writers always get wrong about marketing? How can anyone improve?

What mystifies you about marketing? What’s your greatest marketing challenge?

Where do you turn for author marketing advice? Who do you trust for reliable information? What guru, website, or marketing book would you recommend without reservation?

The Author Mindset

What particular mindset holds writers back? What limiting perspective would you banish? Where does this toxic belief come from? How do you know if you have it?

What writer mindset is indispensable for success? What can no author do without? How do you know when you have it? Explain.

What author mindset keeps you going? How do you show up every day, open your word processor, and continue writing without guarantees?

Besides “show up and write,” what mindset offered you the most growth? What do you wish you could tell every beginning writer on the planet?

Writing Inspiration

Tell your readers what sustains you. What keeps you writing through the best and the worst of times? What one “thing” keeps you grounded, helping you write and finish and begin again?

What inspired you to become a writer? What book, movie, person, or experience set you on the path? What might have happened without this nudge (or sledgehammer)?

What’s your quick fix for inspiration, your fast-food, drive-through medium? Where do you go for instant insight? What activity puts you back in the game?

What sage advice kills inspiration? What leaves you uninspired? What common advice would you beg your readers to ignore?

The Benefits of Writing

What are the benefits of a daily, no-excuses writing habit? How do you know? How would you sell those benefits to your talented son or daughter? How would you encourage them to dive in and give it their all?

What are some of the unexpected benefits of writing, the insights you gain into yourself, your acquaintances, your friends, your family, into humanity as a whole?

What are the obvious benefits of reading (the benefits to your craft, to your perspective, to your ability to absorb, sort, and share what you take in)?

What are the obvious (and hidden) benefits of goal setting, deadlines, and accountability? How do you know? Explain.

Writing Surprises

What surprised you the most as a beginning writer? What surprising book or story changed your course?

What still surprises you about the writing life: the field, the craft, the diversity of experiences among writers?

What recent novel surprised you? Why? Explain its significance.

What surprises you about the practice of writing?

Authors & Social Media Marketing

What social media platform is best for writers? Why?

What social media habit is toxic for writers?

When it comes to social media, what do writers get wrong?

Come up with a social media marketing checklist for writers.

Writing Motivation

What robs you of motivation? What habit, activity, mindset, or occurrence hinders your own personal progress?

What’s your strongest motivator? Where’s your personal motivation switch? What can you always rely on?

What motivational advice is just plain wrong? Why? Explain…

List your top ten motivational quotes. Explain why each is essential, why its worthy of sharing.

Getting to Know You: Your Author Personality

What are your favorite books? Why? Who are your favorite authors? Why?

What are your favorite TV shows? How do they feed your writing habit? Are you a binge watcher? What’s your favorite streaming series?

What is your favorite movie? How and why does this movie inform your writing?

What are your favorite places: a vacation spot, a street or location from your hometown, a specific restaurant, an associated memory…?

Writing Firsts

What’s the name of the first book you couldn’t put down? Describe that first reading moment when you decided to become a writer. What was happening? Why was it significant?

Tell your readers about your first rejection. What did you learn from the experience? How did it affect your subsequent work? How did it turn out to be a blessing?

Tell your readers about your first published work, about the process, about the important steps from A to Z.

Tell your readers about your first criticism and the ways it helped or hindered your work. What advice could you offer your readers about accepting or rejecting criticism?

Now, it’s your turn…

Share your favorite writing prompts in the comments section below.