3 Simple Ways to Reignite Our Writer’s Mind When It Sputters
Ideas that work
I cross paths with many types of writers.
And they face the same issue as I do.
- My professors found research paper writing daunting.
- My content contributors (ex) found content writing a pain in the ass.
- My colleagues struggle to write an email asking the client for a Purchase Order.
And then, there is me.
I write daily. But I struggle daily too.
Some days are easy. One cup of coffee is sufficient to overcome my fingers on strike.
Other days are cursed by the flashing cursor.
Does it sound familiar?
When We Are Stuck — Uproot
The first thing I will do is to uproot myself.
I believe that the environment matters. Sometimes, shifting my butt from my desk at home to the library is all it takes to shock my dormant writer’s mind.
Here’s why.
- I get to see what other people are busy with.
- I can observe people walking past my desk.
- Book titles can inspire me to write.
The final point works well for me.
Serendipitous research is particularly helpful for extracting hidden ideas buried deep in my mind. Writers have tons of ideas. Unearthing them takes effort.
Sometimes, a longstanding idea pops up when I start flipping the index of a book.
Or when I see one word that draws out a string of others. Today, these 2 words closed the job for me.
Street Smarts.
And how did I chance upon those 2 words?
Simple. I am walking down the aisle of shelves housing finance books. Jim Rogers’s book called out to me. That title is Street Smarts.
And the rest is history.
This article is born.
Writing Inspiration Comes from Curiosity and the Opposite
Curiosity is a big topic.
Of course, I am not an expert in this genre. But I do know one thing. Some things attract us. Others don’t.
And this observation can help drive what we write.
A simple exercise can help explain what I mean.
Firstly, start with a list of topics that interest you. Avoid overthinking. Write what you think about daily.
This is my list.
- Eloquent on-stage presentation
- Effective communication
- Leads / Sales pipeline
- Client relationships
- Entrepreneurship
- Writing better
- Writing faster
- Investments
- Finance
These topics naturally hold my attention. I can think about them, read, and write extensively without mind-to-finger friction.
Those are the good days.
On bad days, however, we may be trapped in our thoughts bubbles. We run in circles. We think about the same thing.
We get bored with ourselves. Our writing becomes dry.
And we know it.
We type. We delete. We type again.
Backspace, spacebar, enter, backspace, spacebar, enter, backspace, ad infinitum.
We can combat our tail-chasing day by pulling out that list of topics we naturally engage with. This time, we ask ourselves a different question.
“Why am I not interested in the other topics?”
The purpose is to step out of in-the-zone thinking. Plus, the world you are not interested in is more likely to be bigger than those you gravitate towards.
And that is a rabbit hole worth journeying to create a library of future articles.
The start of that journey begins with a conversation between me and my mind.
Me: “Oh, a chemistry YouTube clip.”
Inner Voice: “Chemistry is outright boring.”
Me: “Why do you say that?”
Inner Voice: “It puts us to sleep.”
Me: “But this video clip may be interesting.”
Inner Voice: “Okay, let’s watch.”
This back-and-forth conversation within myself allowed me to re-examine the biases in my head. I scribble such perspective biases into my journal and apply them to marketing, a topic I rank on par with chemistry.
Articles on business marketing are born as a result.
I Look to Uncommon Sense
Again, this is inspired by one of the books that caught my attention in the library.
We know that common sense is not at all common. And there is another angle to it. Uncommon Sense.
It refers to ways of the world that cannot be explained by logical thinking.
You know them. You probably just brushed them aside.
Take, for instance, the following observations.
- Queuing 3 hours for a Hello Kitty plush toy outside MacDonald’s.
- Speaking loudly in a community library.
- Buying things that people don’t need.
These are not people without common sense. Instead, they embody uncommon sense.
They see value in activities or things that defy the gravity of logical thinking.
I will never queue 3 hours for a Hello Kitty plush toy. It is beyond me. But witnessing this phenomenon is an eye-opening experience.
Such experiences can lead to unexpected blogging possibilities.
You can start with this question.
“Why do people even do this?”
And then, try answering this answer with out-of-the-world speculations. It might make a brilliant article.
Parting Keynotes
Stuck? I got your back.
You might think this is a big problem. Of course, it is. But you are not alone. Many writers struggle to put in the time and effort daily.
Some days are more frustrating than others.
I have such days too. And when I do, I focus on the following activities to restart my writer’s brain.
- I uproot myself.
- I ask why I am not curious about Topic X.
- I tap into the realm of Uncommon Sense.
They help me blow past that wretched writer’s block by injecting fun into a monotonous task.
I can start writing again.
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
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