4 Ways To Never Run Out of Writing Ideas

It is possible to get a steady stream of ideas. Here’s how

Have you ever found yourself struggling to come up with an idea for your next article?

Would you want to know how to easily come up with ideas for your next article without having to break your skull over it?

Coming up with a good idea for your next article is as good as writing the article itself. Many writers often find themselves stuck when it’s time to drum up another article. Here are a few tips that’ll help you never run out of good ideas.

Listen to a lot of podcasts: There are a lot of podcasts out there. Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, you name it. You can potentially get at least 2–3 good ideas from every podcast you listen to. The idea could be hidden in a sentence the speaker makes, in a question, or even in the topic of the podcast. There are hidden treasures in podcasts, don’t shy away from them. Here is an example of a writing idea I got by listening to a podcast.

Read a lot: If a billion article ideas are hiding in podcasts, then you can imagine how many there are in books. But it’s not just books. Read the news, read magazines, read columns, and read opinions. Read everything that interests you. The wider you read, the more informed you’ll be, and the greater your reservoir of potential writing ideas.

Write your ideas down: Have you ever had a random idea just pop into your head in the shower? Sometimes I’m at the supermarket or somewhere else and something happens that gives me an idea; I should write about this. Chances are that if I don’t write down that idea immediately, I’d forget.

Make a habit of writing down your ideas whenever you get them. You don’t have to flesh out the whole idea immediately. You can just write a few keywords, a phrase, or a sentence to act as a pointer when it’s time to develop the idea.

Stay curious: The curious mind is a fertile mind.

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people — Leo Burnett

You need to stay curious. There should be a hunger in you for new knowledge.

Think critically and deeply: A lot of people read books or listen to podcasts every day. The difference between you and every regular person is in the way you process the information you get from those podcasts and materials you read. When the speaker on your favourite podcast says something interesting, other people might just nod their heads in agreement and move on. To be a good writer, you should always think deeper; what is the implication of what the speaker has said? Are there other applications?

Thinking critically also means that you should try to find the links between ideas. There is probably a link between the new information you just received and an old one you already had.

Similarly, every piece of information usually has multiple implications. It is your job to find it.

Congratulations! Finding your next writing idea just got easier.

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