How I Generate Ideas All Day Long and Never Run out of Things to Write About
Where do ideas come from?
I love Seth Godin’s newsletters. They are usually very short. Refreshingly so. No links, no sales, no bs. They are so brief I read them. They require so little investment from me — just a few moments of my time — and in return, I receive great value.
Here is one in its entirety from the other day:
It’s probably not completely original. It’s probably not breathtaking in scope. It’s probably not immediately popular. But… it’s definitely worth pursuing, consistently and persistently for years and years. If you care. If it’s generous and helpful and worth the journey. All the big ideas that made a difference follow this pattern.
How true.
My most compelling and read stories on Medium follow this pattern. Stories are never entirely original. You’d be hard-pressed to find a writer who doesn’t find inspiration from outside themselves.
- My most viewed post was a book review recapping one of my favorite books.
- The post is four minutes long and took an hour to write, not breathtaking in scope.
- It wasn’t immediately popular. It didn’t go viral for four months.
Writing is worth pursuing consistently and persistently for years and years. I get the most joy from helping people. This idea requires that the writer genuinely cares for her audience. And even though I don’t always hit my monetary goals from writing, readers’ positive comments keep me going on the days I don’t want to write.
I like it. I would say, some days I love to write.
My more original and personal ideas come from the larger ones percolating for some time. My accumulative output from daily work leads to more significant ideas down the road, never letting me run out of things to write about. It’s fulfilling. I would write for free.
The days I jump out of bed excited to write about something I’ve been stewing on remind me of why it’s great to be alive. Those days, I can’t wait to sit down and pound away on my keyboard. These are the days I write with ease, and time seems not to exist. I’m not distracted or resenting my work but content.
Like today.
A question that often comes up is, how do you write so much content?
I asked this very same question when I set out to write on this platform for 30 days straight, then 60 days straight adding another 30 to make it 90 days of consecutive posting. It was a great exercise in discipline and becoming an idea-generating machine.
Like writing, coming up with ideas is another skill that works like a muscle. The more you practice it, the easier it becomes. It was overwhelming at first. I had nightmares, and often, the first thought when I woke was, what the hell will I write today?
After a year and a half, I’m no longer jolted awake by this thought. I don’t have time in a 24 hours to live and write about all the ideas I have accumulating on my desktop, notes app and the many lists scattered around my workplace and home. It helps that I’m naturally curious. But I’ve noticed you have to be naturally curious about only few things, and it builds on itself as you investigate the topics you are most interested in.
As writer Nora Ephron used to say, “Everything is Copy.” Use anything in your life that’s happened to you, mistakes you learned from, books you’ve read that your mind can’t let go of, topics you love to chew on and want to learn on a deeper level, or that keep coming into your life for reasons not yet clear to you. Figure it out on the page. Learn out loud.
What makes ideas original and breathtaking in scope is you.
You are the part of the puzzle different from everyone else’s take on the same topic. That is the one part of the equation that is always different depending on who is wielding the pen.
You have a different upbringing, perspective, experience than anyone else.
Your life is colored by your unique situation you alone have had each day on earth. There is no one on the planet like you. Not one. So no one can write the same way you write on any topic. Bring your perspective and opinion.
In Fran Lebowitz’s special Pretend It’s a City with Martin Scorsese on Netflix, she comments how “not everyone likes her because she always has an opinion about everything.” She has her own Netflix special. People pay good money to hear her opinion.
As a writer, your goal isn’t to be liked by everyone.
It is to give an interesting perspective and opinion that’s all yours. Choose any topic; love, writing, books, politics. Make them yours. When dissecting these topics, add your personality, your temperament, your ideas, and thoughts. Certain readers will respond. Everyone won’t love you, but you’ll be read if you can get your perspective through with clear and concise writing that resonates with your tribe. You won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but you don’t want to be. You want to find those people who like you for the writer you show them, which requires you to show up as yourself. And have confidence while you’re writing.
William Zinsser, in his book On Writing Well, talks about confidence.
Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going.
Confidence is a writer’s best friend. Have you ever noticed that you wake up some days and aren’t feeling 100 percent, and some days you wake ready to take on the world? The latter type of day is when I write best. You can’t always have those days, but you can cultivate them through routine and habit.
Writers develop the right patterns and triggers for them through years of trial and error because it increases the chances of having successful-confident-writer days.
Below are concrete ways I generate ideas to be able to publish as often as I do.
Read Books
This is my number one idea generator. Pick up a book, any book. Turn to any page. I bet there are one or two ideas on that page that will pique your curiosity, give you something to chew on, and make your own.
I read a book with a pen in my hand.
After I have finished a book, and sometimes before, I write about what I have highlighted.
Reading is the most effective content generator for me, but it takes time. I have five books by the side of my bed I’m dying to read. I’m not the fastest reader. I don’t skim. I like to chew on a good book. If I do skim a book, it’s because it isn’t very good.
I just finished a book I loved so much, as soon as I read the last page, I started it again from page one the next night. If I could read all day and get paid well for it, that would be my profession.
Podcasts
Podcasts flood my brain with endless possibilities. I almost don’t have the time to write about all of the ideas I want to. I often wonder how people run out of things to write. I blog about many different things, from love to money to writing. I get the most from podcasts that dive into various topics — especially productivity and how to live life to achieve more effective results while creating your best life. Tim Ferriss delves into this better than most on The Tim Ferriss Show.
Tim Ferris has thousands of episodes to choose from. Something will spark your interest. Look at each podcast’s title and listen to authors and subjects in your area of interest, and you’ll have plenty of ideas to write about from your perspective.
Quora
I’ve been getting more into Quora. Quora is a social media platform. I often share my writing on Quora via a Medium Friend Link. But, you can also use it as a question and answer tool for the general public.
There are questions on nearly every topic. When you search for a topic, you get useful intel on the level of interest by viewing how many people followed the question. This is a great indicator that other people will be interested in the same topic on other platforms.
Quora is great place to test the general interest on a particular topic
- Go to Quora.com.
- Go to the search bar and enter your topic.
- Look at the questions. Which questions are a lot of people following?
- Make a list of possible ideas to write about based on the question and answers.
I entered “how do you know you’re in love?” This is what popped up.
There are a lot of people interested in this topic, as you can imagine, with some crazy responses.
Go to the “Questions” tab. Readers rate the questions by upvoting. This is a treasure trove of information which give you never-ending ideas to write and sus out.
You must schedule in downtime
Downtime for me is any time I spend away from a screen, phone, laptop, and TV.
Once I have all these ideas infiltrating my brain from consuming large amounts of content via books, podcasts, movies, docs, social media platforms, blog posts, etc., I schedule downtime.
Downtime gives my psyche the space to relax without conscious thought. This requires you to do something monotonous and boring like taking a walk, exercising, singing in the shower, or cooking with music. This is when my best ideas forge out of the information I’ve been consuming — it melds.
Part of my process for turning out large amounts of content is to marinate in an idea for a day or two, then see what I can add from my personal experience and put it all together when I sit down to write.
This requires downtime. Schedule it in.
More inspiration…
Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering Type A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.
