26 Jun 09 Constantly Creating New Ideas And Topics

When your profession falls into writing, no matter what sort of writing it is that you do, the demand for coming up with new ideas is always very, very high. Therein lay the problem of keeping up on that demand with new relevant ideas to write about. Which is why you need to make sure you’re well aware of the many tactics writers use to help them come up with new ideas constantly. Just remember, this is a skill that will take a lot of practice to really maintain properly, but keep at it and you’ll find yourself having more new ideas that you’ll ever know what to do with.

One of the most common methods, and one that you should most definitely be employing already, is to keep an idea notepad with you at all times. Not necessarily an actual pen and paper mini notebook, but something to function as such. If you have a smart phone, like an iPhone or Blackberry, you can use their note taking features to quickly jot down anything that pops into your head. This keeps you ahead of the game with a wealth of ideas that you can look to later, when you find yourself in need.

Read. Can’t stress that one enough. The more you put your energy towards learning new things, or reading new ideas, whether through books or magazines or online articles, the more information you’re taking in that you can call upon at a later date. Extraordinarily useful when coming up with a new topic to write about.

Find a friend or colleague to bounce a few ideas off. Let them know about the concept and tell them some things you were considering, or ways you want to approach writing about the idea. The input they have could help you guide yourself into a brilliant new direction you couldn’t have thought of on your own.

If you find yourself struggling to think of anything while sitting at your desk, take a break. Go outside for a few minutes, get some fresh air and clear your head. You’ll find yourself feeling much more refreshed, and after wicking away the fatigue, you’ll be in a much better place to re-energize your thinking.

Finally, as a last resort, twist around another idea you’ve already read about or heard about. If you can’t find an idea all to your own, borrow someone else’s. Don’t just rehash an article or book that you’ve read before of course. But take what you learned there, or the basic concept, and apply it to your own outlook, and your own unique writing voice to manufacture an entirely new piece of work.

Tags: Blackberry, Colleague, Desk, Few Minutes, Fresh Air, Game, Iphone, Jot Down, Magazines, Matter What Sort, Mini Notebook, New Books, New Direction, Notepad, Pen And Paper, Profession, Reading Books, Relevant Ideas, Smart Phone

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14 May 09 Getting Writing Ideas

In the last article, Writing When You Can’t, we discussed about getting out of writer’s block. In this article we will discuss about from where to get an idea or ideas to write upon. This is important as it was the lack of ideas only that pushed you into this dark well.

There is not any particular set location in space and time where you can look for writing ideas, rather you can get writing ideas from almost anywhere and at anytime. Magazines, books, blogs, periodicals, forums, movies, questions asked by others, answers to those questions, old blog posts, old articles, or your immediate physical surrounding can be a good starting point. However, there are many ways to get ideas to write upon, you should only choose the idea that fit into the bigger picture keeping in mind the nature of the medium and the expectation of the target audience from it. If you are just starting out with writing then avoid taking any complex topic, and try to keep the sentences short.

Be a voracious reader. Books can be a good source for sourcing writing ideas. Try reading books from different genre and as many as you can. Blogs can also be effective in sourcing writing ideas. Do not confine yourself to reading blogs from your niche only as reading blogs from your niche alone will limit your ability to see the bigger picture, the context in which your readers see your blog. Reading blogs from different niches will also infuse freshness to your thinking. Writing updated versions of old articles can also be considered. This will open many writing avenues for you.

The bottom line is to be observant. Keep close eye on the surrounding and see what is changing and what effect will it have. Try to look for small changes; these are the things that at times have bigger impact. Always keep a pocket notebook with you to write down the observations you make and the ideas that come to you. This repertoire will keep you away from getting into the writer’s block.

Tags: Array, Avenues, Bottom Line, Expectation, Freshness, Genre, Good Starting Point, Magazines Books, Niche, Niches, Periodicals, Pocket Notebook, Reader Books, Reading Books, Sentences, Set Location, Small Changes, Space And Time, Target Audience, Voracious Reader, Writing Ideas

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07 May 09 Writing When You Can’t

There are times in the life of every writer when he or she doesn’t feel like writing. All the possible subjects seem to have written about, and if after much struggle a subject comes to you, the first line of the article, blog post or essay wouldn’t come. This happens to all of us and happens quite often if you are a daily blogger or a free lance writer. We call it writer’s block. We all suffer at its hand but the good news is that there is a way out of it. We can save ourselves. You do not need to remain stuck in there. This post will tell you how.

Let’s face it. You got stuck here because over the days, months or years, you have become stale. You are out of new ideas and this happened because you have closed the door on incoming new ideas. You stopped reading. The lesser you read the quicker you run out of ideas and it happened to you. Writing took more time than its fair share can permit and thus the time you devoted for reading shrank. Well, by reading I do not strictly mean, reading books. Reading journals, magazines, blogs, newspaper reading and participating in forums and newsgroup etc. also qualifies.

As Stephen R. Covey would put it, it is about maintaining “P/PC Balance,” where P stands for production and PC stands for production capability. Let’s understand it in a bit detail. If you are focused solely on the P part of the equation then you are focusing on getting the proverbial golden egg while neglecting the PC part of the equation. By ignoring the PC for prolonged period of time you are killing the proverbial goose that laid golden eggs for you. It is necessary for us to keep on investing in increasing our PC.

On the other hand, if you are more focused solely on the PC part of the equation then all you are doing is enhancing your ability to work, and not doing the actual work; that is to say, you got all the goose you require but not getting them lay golden eggs for you. P/PC Balance is the key. However, you should not strive to achieve a perfect P/PC balance but moving towards perfection hasn’t hurt anyone.

One strategy to save oneself from this writer’s block could be to maintain an idea-book. You can keep a small notebook with you in which you should jot down all the small and big writing ideas that come to you during the course of the day. The list thus prepared will be your savior in the time of need.

Confession time: I decided to write this post when I myself got stuck. For more than a day I found myself confronted with this damn thing, writer’s block. It immobilized me. I did not know what to do and what to write on, and then I thought why not to write on this only, on how to write when you cannot write. This post opened up many new avenues for me and I am again full of ideas. I am out of my writer’s block, are you?

Tags: Blogger, Enhancing Your Ability, Essay, Face, Fair Share, Free Lance Writer, Golden Egg, Golden Eggs, Magazines, Period Of Time, Production Capability, Prolonged Period, Reading Books, Reading Journals, Stephen R Covey, Struggle

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26 Jun 09 Constantly Creating New Ideas And Topics

14 May 09 Getting Writing Ideas

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