How I literally never run out of writing ideas

It’s been almost exactly one month since I jumped back into writing in a big way, and I’m proud to say I’ve managed to pump out 49 (!) legitimate articles in that time.

Actually, this one will be magic №50 when I hit publish. The crazy thing is that I’m having trouble finding the time to touch on everything I want to.

In fact, for every article I’ve written, I have nearly two headlines written out already that are waiting for my attention. In my notes app, I have 89 post ideas that I’d really like to get to!

Now, I have a full-time job, two young kids — both of whom I coach in hockey almost every single night — and various side hustles that all demand my attention.

I’ve sort of accepted the fact that I may never get to a large percentage of these posts (though I have to admit, as an ADHD person, I am fixating on that and it still does annoy me!).

The important thing, however, is that they’re there when I’m ready to grab one or two and develop them out into full posts.

I see some people post that they’re sometimes feeling unmotivated to write, or they can’t think of enough topics to be consistent.

You have more writing ideas than you think

Well, I’m here to tell you that you do have enough ideas to fill endless reams of paper should you find the time to get to them (you do have time to get to at least some of them too, by the way, but that’s a topic for another day — give me a follow for my thoughts on that later!).

And here’s the secret to filling your notebook with more ideas than you know what to do with: you must capture them the very moment they float into your head.

This seems like such a simple strategy, but so few people actually take advantage of it.

Ideas, whether they be writing topics, entrepreneurial brain waves, or whatever, are like feathers floating in the wind.

Some will drift lightly around you for a little bit, begging you to grab hold of them, and some will be gone in a moment due to a gust of wind (i.e. your kids yelling at you that they’re hungry).

But one thing is certain for most of them … if you don’t grab them, they will quickly blow away, never to be seen again.

The Larry David approach

I was a massive fan of the sitcom Seinfeld, and in particular the mastermind behind its creation: Larry David. (Yes Jerry was obviously a massive contributor, but Larry is the genius generally credited with developing and maintaining the show’s sensibilities.)

In an interview with either Larry, Jerry, or one of the writers on the show — it was a long time ago so I’m a little foggy on it (should have written it down, James!) — the interviewee was talking about Larry’s infamous notebook.

He would carry around a notebook and a pen, and any time he would see something funny, interesting or out of the ordinary, he would write it down.

This would eventually come in handy on a sitcom that needed a new episode every week.

Any time they would get stuck on an episode — either short on ideas or something about the structure wasn’t working — Larry would look to his notebook and there would be something to fill the gap.

All of a sudden the gang would run into George’s dad talking to a mystery man in a cape or something (I don’t actually know if the cape guy came from the notebook, but you get my drift).

Larry wrote everything down as it happened and, if you want to capture your brilliant ideas, you should too.

My ideas pop up all the time and in all kinds of random places. I once started writing down where I was and what I was doing when the idea came up, just out of curiosity. There were things like “at the gym” or “doing dishes” or “on a walk” or “showering” or “making a snack for the kids.”

Your mind will effortlessly deliver ideas to you

Writing ideas can be anything. They can be your emotions around a challenge in your life, your thoughts on last night’s football game, or they can be business ideas and how-tos that you’ve figured out.

Whatever they are, you must write them down. NOW.

Whether you use a notebook like Larry or an app on your phone like me (I use Google Keep), the important thing is that you capture the idea the moment it grabs your attention.

Then, you’ll never run out of ideas for articles like this one!

Looking for more inspiration? After writing this, I fished around for some other posts on this very topic you may be interested in:

• Write about these things if you’ve run out of writing ideas by Biliz Maharjan
• How to never run out of writing ideas by Sinem Günel
• How I ‘walk’ for writing ideas by August Birch (I really liked this one — it focuses a lot on how motion gets your wheels turning)

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