How I ‘Walk’ For Writing Ideas

Use this one little hack to develop an unlimited well of written content

I write a lot. Not only must I create my own material and courses, but I also write approximately 600,000 words of article content every year. When you create a steady stream of content there’s nothing worse than sidling-up to the desk without a clue.

My writing time is limited. I’ve still got a (yuck) day job. Every keystroke matters.

So, I’ve got a rule for myself. I never sit behind the keyboard (or phone) for a content session, without an idea. There’s no time for daydreaming. And sitting is the least-efficient way to generate novel topics anyhow.

Here I’ll share how I developed an unlimited well of content ideas, and how you can too.

We’ll use our brain the way it was meant to be — in motion. We are designed to do our best thinking on our feet. Or, at least while moving. If we sit and move little but our fingers, all those great ideas will be stuck in there. Like when your kid sister flushed the roll of toilet paper at Grandma’s, during Christmas.

It’s time to end ‘empty content syndrome’ forever.

End the idea constipation

If you want an unlimited well of content, you need to two things: movement, and an idea capture system.

Whether you use a fancy, paper, pocket planner, or some digital app on your phone, matters not. What matters is you capture every content idea as they come to you, without judgement, and capture them immediately.

You won’t remember later.

You’ll rack your brain trying to get the great idea back inside.

You’ll waste a bunch of time and you won’t recall it.

Record every idea as it comes to you. Make some general dump file you can access quick. The curating comes later. The tweaking happens when you’re ready to write. But now — we capture, capture, capture.

OK?

Cool.

The second part is movement.

We’ll uncover our bottomless well of content by taking a walk. A great way to do this is when listening to your favorite podcast, or book on tape.

Your subconscious knows these content ideas are important to you. Don’t worry. Your brain is working in the background. The important part is the idea trigger.

• Maybe you see a fallen tree on your walk and think of a story about fallen leaders.
• Maybe you see kids playing and think of a story about how to uncover what kids want to be when they grow up.

Grab your idea capture device (I’ve got different ones all over. In the car I dictate into a digital recorder. You can also do this with your phone. Walk.

You can’t force a novel idea.

You may not come up with anything new today.

Tomorrow you may have a dozen new ideas in your log.

Uncover more ideas than you’ll use

I like to walk for ideas a few times per week. I might uncover 3–7 ideas per walk. I also listen to podcasts while I exercise, and keep a notepad close to my weight bench.

I might grab another 3–5 ideas per exercise sessions.

This back-log of content accumulates quick… and this accumulation is a good thing.

Not every idea is a good idea. Not even close. Especially since the titles are so critical for curation. I might have an interesting idea, but can’t develop a good title for it — delete.

We want to capture more ideas than we’ll ever write. This is the key to better content.

This gives us room for curation. Our readers want curated ideas, not stream-of-thought nonsense. The reader has no time either. She wants us to use our expertise to deliver only our best content ideas. Not everything.

I know this concept is simple. But it works. I’ve road-tested this concept for 20+ years.

We spend so much time behind screen and keyboards. The only thing moving, for hours, is our fingertips. Not only is this set-up terrible for our health (I’m just as guilty), but it’s a cancer for our ideas.

We don’t think well in stasis.

It’s time to start walking.

Your content will thank you.

Your readers will thank you.

Your wallet will thank you.

And when you’re ready to take your content to the next level (by building a platform you own instead of borrow) tap the link below to enroll in the free, Tribe 1K Masterclass. Build your first email list. Grab your first 1,000 subscribers without spending a penny on ads.

We’re waiting for you.

Enroll in my Free Email Masterclass. Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers

August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indies how to make work that sells and how to sell more of that work once it’s created. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.

You just read another exciting post from the Book Mechanic: the writer’s source for creating books that work and selling those books once they’re written.

If you’d like to read more stories just like this one tap here to visit