If you’ve taken a stroll around the blogsphere lately, you’ve probably been a bit overwhelmed by its offerings. Bloggers write about every topic and niche under the sun: tech, business, SEO, daily life, sex, love, news… we bombard the search engines with quality content that is updated daily, even hourly. We draw on our passions, our questions, our experiences, and our knowledge. The majority of us blog because we love to write and we feel we have something — no matter how small a something — to offer the world. We are passionate and creative and full of ideas. Except that sometimes the well runs dry. The much-dreaded writer’s block inevitably seems to pay most bloggers an unwelcome visit.

I’m currently mired in a creative funk (as if you hadn’t noticed!). It’s not writer’s block, though; it’s writer’s concrete wall, and it’s two feet thick. My muse has fled the country. Someone has drunk my creative juices. [I’m not even funny anymore.] But I know I’m not alone. Virtually every blogger I know has suffered from blogger’s block at one point or another. So the question is: how do we massage our creative muse and lure her to come back to us?

The answer: we don’t. Life is full of inspiration, but sometimes we’re just not inspirable. And I’ve grown to realize that’s okay. If the economy can cycle on a regular basis, so can our creativity. Unfortunately, this knowledge doesn’t keep me warm at night and it certainly doesn’t comfort me when I realize it’s been 3 or 4 days since my last post. Most bloggers are like this; we fret over not having anything to write about because we feel an obligation to our readers. Personally, when I don’t post for awhile, I feel as though I’m letting you down, and that thought is unacceptable to me.

However, no matter how tough the going gets, I refuse to blog “just to blog”. That would be a disservice to anyone happened to read my uninspired drivel. If I can’t create interesting and creative content, I won’t write any at all. Because the blogosphere will always be full of writers or are more informed, more interesting, funnier, more creative, and all-around better than I am. I know this, and that makes me appreciate my reader(s) (do I have more than one?! hehe ) very much. You’ve chosen to take time out of your day to read my thoughts.

So now we’ve reached the meat of this post. [I almost said that we’d reached the seitan — a vegan meat substitute (because I’m a veggie!) — of this post, but I thought that might be too obscure to be funny. But then I laughed at the thought of getting to the seitan of a subect [I’ve always been a sucker for alliteration], and decided to brackett it and pretend like I’m witty. So do me a favor and chuckle. Pretend that I said seitan and pretend that you got it. Please.] Anyhow, back to what I was saying: When we feel that we have nothing to write about, what do we do? How do we prod our creativity and coax our imagination back to action… how do we make our brain and fingers work again in perfect harmony?

I can’t answer for a business blogger or topical blogger, because their craft is outside my realm of expertise. But for all of us personal bloggers, I can tell you what I do. I wait. Life is full of material to write about, even when it’s boring. My blog is a window into my soul; it’s the part of me I find when I get introspective and inquisitive and look deep within myself. It represents the best of me, usually, because I don’t write my posts just to write them. I write when I have something that I want to share.

I can be silly, idealistic, romantic, bitchy, excited, defeated, pensive, nostalgic, and quite a host of other things. But no matter what I’m being, I’m always being me. We are the key to our own inspiration. Everyday, life hands us a million topics to write about. My best posts (or, at least, what I consider to be my best posts) are the product of talking to my parents, my coworkers, and my friends about a seemingly inoccuous subject. We discuss a breakup or a good book or a current event, and being me, I ruminate about these things, sometimes long after the conversation has finished. Little things spark big thoughts. Life is so interesting and full of wonder; how can we not stop and marvel at it?

I am not a great blogger. I’m not even sure that I’m a good blogger. My posts are too long (this is self-evident, obviously) and my topics bounce all over the place. I still struggle to cultivate a strong writer’s voice. I don’t have a regular posting schedule. I am often lax in responding to my commenters (this is one thing that actually pains me, though, and I’m working on this). But I do have passion. When I blog, it comes from my heart. Writing is cathartic, and sometimes I laugh as I write. And sometimes I cry. But no matter what, I love writing, and I think that shows.

And so this is my advice to all of you in a writer’s rut: forget about what you should be doing. Blog because you want to, not because it’s an obligation. When you’ve stopped pressuring yourself, you’ll be overrun with ideas bouncing around in your brain. Take cues from life. Write about what you know. A post doesn’t need to read like an essay for university. You don’t have to submit every, single entry to Digg. You certainly don’t need to post at a certain time on a certain day. Because, while consistency is something to be appreciated, passionate writing is something always treasured.