4 Unusual Ways To Get Ideas For Your Next Article
Let’s think outside the box and write something we haven’t written before
I mostly write about personal development and creativity. Sometimes I write essays about self-love and my content creation journey.
The articles that don't fit in the above category are often absurd ideas I am romanticizing or personal experiments. I enjoy writing the latter category more since it challenges me. It allows me to create something that only I can think and write about.
To write articles that I usually don’t write, I follow several unusual ways to develop ideas that unleash my creativity and help me come up with exciting pieces.
Today I am sharing four unusual ways to get out-of-the-box ideas you can use to develop compelling articles that will make you take a new writing approach.
1. Use Image Bank to Inspire You
In a previous article, I talked about how having a collection of images or an image bank can help you can save time. I didn’t mention how these images could also inspire you to write about what didn't cross your mind.
When we’re writing a story, we are not sharing our ideas and thoughts through words; we are also backing our story with images, illustrations and creating a visual impact.
When you do your research to create your image bank, you’ll come across images that will evoke emotions in you. How?
Let me give you an example. While refilling my image bank, I come across a picture of a girl looking upward and lost. At that time, I was thinking a lot about my productivity.
After seeing that picture, I instantly get an idea to write an article about how writers can manage to stay productive even when they're not writing. I might not be able to come up with that article if it wasn’t for that image.
Some photos will remind you of a trip or a distant memory. Some images will make you ponder about your past mistakes; some will set you free. When you get some notion from a photo, start writing it down.
Side Note
I picked this habit in design school. We had to explain our entire design process during our jury, including the images we used in the mood boards.
Sometimes, we also had to build some random stories during our photography presentations. More than the composition and technicalities of the picture, our faculty was more interested in the story.
It’s as important to be visually literate, to understand pictures and how they affect us, as it is to be word-literate. Many of us employ visual language, often without realising it. Being fluent in the language of images gives us an advantage at school, at work, and at home.”
You don’t have to do the same and spend time thinking about every image you use. But there will be a few ones among the hundreds you reject that will make you think something.
You only need the first few thoughts that come to your mind and expand in with your stories and experiences. It’s slightly challenging but fun.
2. Disagree with Yourself
One thing that often happens with me when I go through my old work is I find several errors and points that I'm afraid I have to disagree with.
If you’re a growth freak like me, you’d learn new things every day and discover new things about yourself, and that will make you question your beliefs and your conclusions in your previous work.
Once you find that disagreement with your old article, you can write about what made that change happen.
It might not happen regularly, but it will follow if you’ve grown a new perspective or an experience that made you think otherwise about a pre-requisite notion.
I wrote a couple of articles last year about hard work that I don’t agree with anymore. In the tech world, you need to be street smart more than degree smart. Accepting my mistake made me conscious and nervous for a while. But being honest with myself and my readers was more important.
I also read somewhere that disagreement with your previous self is a sign that you’re growing and learning.
Writing about what you learned and how your views about a particular topic changed can be valuable to your audience.
Being honest and vulnerable requires courage and when you show it, your readers will appreciate you.
The truth about creating content online is you can always go back to it and see how much you have grown and changed. It's a good thing that means you understand the concept better; you’ve more experience to back you up.
3. Write About Bizarre Things You Find Online
I am sure you might have found some crazy pieces of content online. I can’t deny coming across weird posts on LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media platforms.
Some posts leave me with a chuckle, and I can’t stop thinking about how blatantly people share their dysfunctional opinions with the world.
Well, everyone has the freedom to share their opinions and write what they want. Instead of pulling people down and commenting on your views, why not write your separate article and propose your point of view?
Writing your article about what you find unacceptable and why you find it essential to be discussed. This makes you understand the concept better, will allow you to research and build a solid understanding of the subject.
Writing is also documenting, and your future self will thank you for compiling quality content and your thoughts at that point in life.
I was tired of writers on Medium saying publish every day. To make my point, I wrote a piece about how publishing and writing are two different things.
There is no limit to the bizarre things people say online. If you disagree with them, maybe you should write about it and share your perspective.
Now since we spend so much time online and consume so much content, why not take inspiration while doing that.
We don’t always have to write about what we believe in. We can also write about what we find funny, unbelievable and share the thought-process that helped us reach that conclusion.
4. Apply First Principle Thinking
Aristotle defined a first principle as “the first basis from which a thing is known.”
When we apply the first principle of thinking to any topic, we find the blindspots we miss and get new ideas that never came to our mind.
Think about a niche you write about all the time. Most of the time, we keep repeating the same message about that topic.
First-principle thinking allows us to think from a blank canvas and draw a new painting from scratch. A whole new world of possibilities opens up where we are free of prejudices and believes.
All the tech companies serving the world came up with groundbreaking ideas because of first principle thinking.
The same principle applies to writing; the articles that we click on and the ones that we read till the very end have a unique offering; they are the ones that we haven’t read before. They are the ones that question the status quo, and they are the ones that make us question our beliefs.
They offer first principle thinking; they offer originality.
Writing run-of-the-mill articles is easy. Everyone does that.
Writing an article that questions your own belief system and that of the world takes courage and conviction.
Parting Thoughts
When you experiment with the way you get your ideas, you will find a new voice. It will hone you as a writer, and you’ll be surprised by the number of unconventional stories residing within you.
I hope this article inspired you to find stories in places you haven’t looked before and write what you haven’t written before.
If you use the same methods to get ideas for your articles, you will more likely follow the same thought pattern to finish it. As Albert Einstein once said
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
