Do you need more discussion post ideas, but do not know what to write about? At Pages Unbound, we draw inspiration from a variety of sources. Here are some of the ways we think of our discussion pieces, along with examples for each category.
Book Trends
What do you see happening when you read? Do you have bookish pet peeves? Things you wish books or the book market would do differently? Or maybe there are tropes that you love and you want to talk about them?
- Can We Have College-Aged Characters in YA Books?
- Are YA Books Maturing Too Fast?
- Periods in YA: Should We Mention Menstruation?
- Do We Need a New Adult Section?
- Miscategorizing Adult Books as YA
Blogging Trends
What do you see happening around the blogosphere? What are other blogs talking –or not talking–about? Join in the conversation, or start one!
- Is It Cool to Hate on Middle Grade?
- The Conflicting Priorities of the Book Community
- Unpopular Opinion: I Don’t Really Care About Star Ratings
- Should Book Bloggers Make Money from Other Bloggers (According to the Community)?
- Trends I Think We’ll See in Book Blogging in 2020
Blogging Concerns
What are specific concerns or questions book bloggers have specifically about blogging, not just about reading? What are your takes on those topics?
- How to Reclaim Your Social Media and Your Sanity
- What Should We Do with ARCs?
- Can You Run a Book Blog without Book Reviews?
- Do You Use Library Books for Bookstagram?
- Why I Think It’s Fine to Rate Books You DNFed
Blogging Tutorials
You can also create guides to help new bloggers get started or to help seasoned bloggers improve. Bloggers often help each other out by sharing their expertise on things like graphic design, scheduling, social media, and more.
- A Complete Guide to Starting a Book Blog
- How to Find a Great Co-Blogger
- Following the FTC’s Disclosure Guidelines
- How I Increased My Page Views from Pinterest by 1600% in 2019
- How to Rock Bookstagram on a Budget
The Reader Experience
What are things readers worry about or talk about?
- The Book World Is Debating the Value of Audiobooks–Again
- Don’t Stress About How Many Books You’ve Read This Year
- Feeling Like You Read the “Wrong” Books
- Why I Think Reading Slumps Are Valuable
Literary Analysis
Sometimes, when you are reading a book, you have thoughts about it! Share you observations about how a book portrays a character, what messages it sends, or what themes it raises.
- The One YA Triangle I Actually Liked (Grishaverse)
- Boromir the Bold: Reconsidering one of Tolkien’s Most Maligned Characters
- Why Didn’t Cinderella “Just Leave?”
- The Thunderhead as a Reflection on the Nature of God in Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe Trilogy
Personal Observations
Sometimes, you just notice things, perhaps while reading or while browsing at the bookstore, or visiting the library. You can turn your musings into a post!
- What I’d Love to See in Libraries’ Online Programming
- The Re-Readability of YA
- What Kinds of Books Should Libraries Display?
Reading Widely
Reading other people’s opinions and responding to them is an easy way to create content while continuing the conversation! You might respond to other blog posts, but also to newspaper or magazine articles, scholarly journal articles, recent studies, and more.
- Some States Want to Legalize Censorship in Libraries
- Are Libraries Hurting Publishers?
- What Is the Impact of Little Free Libraries?
- Why Amazon Can Never Replace the Public Library
- Pros and Cons of the Push for Shelving by Genre in Libraries
Library Love
At Pages Unbound, we obtain most of our books from the library and, consequently, appreciate all their good work. We like to write about why libraries are awesome–how they help the community and what types of resources they make available. You could write about your love of the library, resources you have found helpful, tips and tricks, and more!
- How Libraries Are Expanding Accessibility
- How to Access YA Books While at College
- Has the Internet Really Made Libraries Obsolete?
Discussion Post Prompts
If you are still stuck for ideas, we periodically post lists of discussion post prompts. Feel free to use or modify any one that seems of interest to you! We also run Classic Remarks, a weekly meme that encourages discussions around classic literature.
- 30 Discussion Post Prompts for Your Book Blog
- 20 Discussion Post Prompts for Your Book Blog in 2020
- 52 Discussion Post Prompts for Your Book Blog
Pages Unbound | Book Reviews & Discussions 
Im going to have to read some of your posts!
LikeLike
This is much more methodical than my method, which is as follows:
“Hmmm, it is Sunday night. I need to write a discussion post. What should I write about?” … looks around the room … “I read two 5-star prediction posts this week, what I coincidence. I’ll write about that I guess.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think responding to what other people are talking about is a solid strategy! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love how meta this post is! I don’t really schedule in discussion posts, but if I see something I want to talk about with others, I’ll just write it down haha
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think that strategy works! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do that too. 😄
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for compiling this list! I will definitely be adding it to my own personal list of ‘blog post ideas’, haha. I rarely write discussion posts because I tend to prioritize reviews. But I do try to diversify what I post over a month, so I appreciate having ideas to draw from. Especially from bloggers who are pro at discussion posts 😉
LikeLike
I really like how you broke these down into categories. I find that having themes for my discussion posts, such as Building Better Book Clubs, helps me come up with my own ideas. Though, most commonly I’ll get ideas through discussion with other bloggers in the comments of our posts! It’s so rewarding when bloggers inspire me and then give me permission to expand on the ideas we’ve been discussing further on my blog. This is such a great community.
LikeLike