12 Quick and Easy Content Ideas for Creative Sad Sufferers

It’s challenging at the best of times. Keeping up to date with your blog and social media sharing. 

But if, like me, you suffer at this time of year from the low energy and lack of motivation that comes with Seasonal Affective Disorder (aka Seasonal Annual Depression), keeping your communication channels open can be a real struggle.

Tiny Content to Share Daily

Inspired by Austin Kleon’s list of small things to share every day from his book Show Your Work, I’ve created an amplified list of tiny content you can post with minimum effort. This way you'll keep your creative blog and social media channels alive until your energy returns in Spring!

​Pick whatever feels like the easiest and most appealing to you to do at the time. That way you’ll minimize the lethargy and resistance that is part and parcel of SAD.
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1. Research and Reference

When we have SAD, we tend to want to spend a lot of time on the couch so it’s inevitable that we’ll do plenty of net surfing. The good news is you can use this time to do double duty as blog or social media content. Share:

• 3 interesting websites you have bookmarked on a particular creative topic, technique or artist
• 1-3 resources you’ve discovered recently for filling the creative well or learning new skills
• 3 of your favourite - and maybe little-known online libraries or art collections

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2. Sketches and Drawings

One of the symptoms of SAD is reduced creativity - which is pretty hard for those of us whose primary ‘raison d’être is creating.

Even if you’re not in the mood for drawing you can:

• share an interesting sketch from a previous project
• use a collage photo app to show several sketches from different projects which share a common theme
• share a quick doodle that you’ve done in the margins of a page somewhere

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3. Plans and Diagrams

While in theory, we’re supposed to have our year all planned out by Jan 1st, in practice I do a lot of my planning during these low energy months. There’s all sorts of potential sharing material:

• mind-map or flow chart for a project, product or concept - hand-drawn or digital
• screenshot of your Trello board or other planning software
• free copy of a planning spreadsheet you’ve created for budgeting, blogging or organising a project timeline

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4. Interviews

When you’re stuck for a blog topic, interviewing someone else can be a life-saver. People love talking about themselves and it’s a great excuse to connect more meaningfully with someone who inspires you and find out more about them. 

• You don’t have to go the Skype route, just ask if you can send them a list of pre-prepared questions to write or voice-record the answers to.
• Or what about a micro-Twitter interview? Tweet 10 questions over 10 hours or 10 days and ask particular people to answer them with a Tweet reply.
• You could also do a Facebook poll to gather opinions around a certain topic.

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​5. Photographs

Instagram (THE platform for artists lately), Facebook and your blog all benefit from regular photo updates. 

I normally love applying all sorts of filters to my photos, but during SAD times, even a #nofilter will still get likes.

The great thing about photos is that even if you don’t feel like going out in the cold, you can still share photos of:

• previous work
• WIP’s
• your cat or dog in you studio (yes, we love ‘em)
• flatlay of your messy or tidy workspace or your favourite tools
• the view from your workspace/studio window

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6. Video and Demos

We’re not at our most social during bouts of SAD so we’re unlikely to be in the mood for talking to the camera. 

That doesn’t mean you can’t still share video though. What about a:

• simple animation done in Apple’s free slideshow software, Keynote (Yes, really!)
• quick video of your favourite technique or WIP shot on your phone. People love to see how you work!
• 30 second tour of your workspace/studio

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7. Audio

Audio lends itself very nicely to more introspective moods - after all you’re talking directly into someone’s ear! Try:

• a quick voice recording about what you’re working on
• unusual sounds you can hear from your studio
• link to or embed your favourite track for working to
• a snippet from a recording of a talk or interview you’ve given in the past

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8. Pinboards and Collections

I don’t know about you, but finding and organising art reference materials is one of the ways I can create some long-term benefit during SAD months. 

You can squeeze some sharing mileage out of this kind of activity very easily:

• Embed a widget of any of your Pinterest boards on your blog: 
• Set up a shared Pinterest board with other members of a creative group you belong to
• Post a picture of the pin-board above your workspace 
• Collate a collection of photos around a theme. The talented sculptor Robyn Gordon ​has made this her signature sharing style.

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9. Inspiration

Your inspiration might not be stored on boards. Perhaps you bring home plants or stones you find outdoors, get inspired by a particular music score or a cross-fertilising visit to see theatre or other creative work outside your genre.

Whatever your inspiration, it might inspire others to see or hear about it! Share:

• a photograph of jars of found materials in your studio
• the inside of program of the theatre show or concert you attended, or the gallery you visited
• a short movie or book review - or a link to one you wrote on Goodreads, Amazon or IMDb

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10. Journals and Scrapbooks

We tend to feel introspective during SAD time so we’re probably doing plenty of journalling.

Why not share a:

• piece of wisdom from your digital journal 
• snapshot of your bullet journal
• page from your visual journal or scrapbook

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11. Drafts, Notes and Prototypes

Not everything we create will make the grade and a lot of hard creative work never gets seen beyond the four walls of our workspace.

While a particular idea may lead to a dead end, there’s usually a few golden nuggets within it that are worth keeping. Share these on your blog or social media in the form of:

• preparatory sketches for a project you didn’t pursue
• iterations of ideas - drawn, written, digitally-generated
• a well-written paragraph from a chapter you’ve edited out
• a verse from a poem or a lyric from a song you decided not to complete

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12. Stories

A story doesn’t have to be long and it doesn’t even have to be written. And the ways for telling them are infinite:

• a series of photos
• an altered book page or collage
• a short poem
• the description under your instagram or Facebook photo (very popular lately!)
• a tweet or series of tweets

So if you’re struggling to keep up with your social media and blog commitments due to Seasonal Affective Disorder - or for any other reason, and at any time of the year - I hope this list helps you to find some exciting and non-taxing ways to keep populating your streams with interesting content. 

Got some more ideas? Share them in the comments!

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