The Trick to Avoid Writer’s Block and Stay Productive

The Ten Idea Trick Which Sharpens Your Pen

“I have lots of ideas. How do I pick the right one? Execute on as many as possible. The right idea will pick you.” ― James Altucher

I don’t know if you’re familiar with James Altucher, but he’s a pretty well-known author, podcaster and entrepreneur.

A few years ago I read a couple of his books. In the book ‘Choose Yourself’ (which I highly recommend), he introduces his daily practice of coming up with 10 ideas every day. His suggestion resonated with me and I took on the challenge to write down 10 ideas every day for a year, no matter the subjects.

If you’re interested in the philosophy behind this, please read his guide on becoming an idea machine. He compares coming up with ideas with training. If you want to get bigger muscles, you have to lift the weights. Same with ideas, when you want to become an “idea machine”, you need to exercise your idea muscle.

“Idea machine” sounds a bit intense for my taste when it comes to writing, but I’ve found his philosophy to boost my creativity immensely.

When I did this for a year, I noticed that I was always quick on my feet with coming up with solutions to problems. It’s great.

When I applied it to writing, I’ve seen both my creativity and productivity increase. Luckily, I’ve never experienced writer’s block, and I think it’s largely due to the fact that I still train that idea muscle.

Of course, I have the luxury to write what I want without deadlines. Furthermore, I write short stories, non-fiction blog posts, commercial copy and I’m working on a novel. That rotation keeps the writing fluids pumping too.

For my suggestions below I’ve used short story writing as an example. However, these tricks can also be applied to other forms of writing, like novel writing or non-fiction.

Conjuring Up a Story Using Idea Lists

A short story is mainly a collection of various ideas across different elements combined into prose. A story always starts with multiple ideas. About a conflict or question, characters, scenes, themes, etc. Something might bother you, a film you saw inspired an idea or a conversation with a friend. What are you passionate about? Use this. I’ve got a list full of random ideas for short stories.

However, if you find it difficult to come up with an idea for a story, then try listing 10 ideas. It doesn’t matter if they make sense. Maybe they’ll be even more intriguing that way. It can be anything. You can even mix and match those ideas and find something truly unique.

For inspiration, you might want to read a chapter from a good fiction book, take a walk or visit a museum before you sit down. When you expose yourself to art or the outside world, you never know when inspiration strikes. Then, when you get back, or even when you are in the museum, write down the ideas on your phone or on a notepad. (You know, with paper and a pen, like they used to do in the old days).

Scribble Down 10 Ideas For Plot and Everything Else

So you have an idea for a story, but do you already have a plot for your story? What journey will your characters be taken on? What goals do you have for your story?

If you don’t know yet, jot down 10 ideas for your plot. Don’t hold back. There’s no such thing as a stupid idea. Just write it down. Now, you may have found yourself one or multiple angles to work with.

I usually pick a short story idea that’s on my mind lately, one I have already multiple ideas for. (I do write them down. Whenever I have an idea, at night in bed, at the cinema, or in the pub, I write it down no matter what).

Sometimes, however, I have a good idea for a story but I don’t know what I want with it yet. For instance, I volunteered on a summer camp for mentally challenged kids, to help them prepare for high school and gain confidence. This was such a beautiful experience for me, I really wanted to catch that into a fictional story.

The problem was, I knew I wanted to write a short story about it, but I had no clue who my character would be, what he or she was going through, what his/her motivations should be or even what the camp would look like.

So I sat down and wrote down the following 10 ideas:

Title idea: The Bubble Boys
Neglected boy
Stepfather puts him in the garden shed
Smart but weird
Get angry easily
Difficulty making friends
Insights at camp
Safety of a magic bubble, benefits of it to protect against the harsh outside world
Camp provides kids with the tools to cope in that world through lessons, acknowledgment, recognition, and training
An unlikely friendship with another kid

So there I have it, multiple angles to work with, completely random. I’m expanding on those ideas and I’ll work on it next month (I have two other short stories to finish first).

You can use this trick too. Best of all, you can re-apply it until you have a foundation for your story.

Write down 10 ideas for:

Subplot(s) or messages you want to convey
Characters
Character traits/background info
Scenes
Dialogue
Etc.

Jot them all down in one document. Congratulations! Now you have multiple starting points to work with. The ideas are there. Now, you can continue writing.

How to Revive a Story When You’re Stuck

List Your Ideas at the End of Your Document and Start Writing

Transfer your best ideas, plot points, pieces of dialogue or other phrases to the bottom of your document.

Now it’s time to write. At this point, you probably have an image in your mind as to how you want to start off your story. Go from there. Write at least 500 words. Don’t hold back. Anything is possible. And if you end up hating what you’ve written, you can always delete it.

Use the ideas at the bottom of your document as your guide in writing your story. Constantly refer back to them. Copy/paste and write!

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ― Maya Angelou

Bullet point Paragraphs

So you’ve started writing the story. Maybe it flows right out of you till the end. Maybe not.

Usually, after I’ve written about 1,000 words, I start to go back to my idea list at the bottom again and start mapping out the rest of the scenes of the story.

When I’ve followed the above steps, I usually have a pretty good idea of what I want to write about. Then I write down ideas for scenes and bits of my story. Again, if you have difficulty with the direction, jot down 10 ideas for that scene. Do this for all remaining scenes. Now, write!

How to Use the 10 Idea Trick for Non-fiction

While I’ve taken the short story as an example in the idea generation tricks above, I apply them to writing posts like these too.

So I knew I wanted to share this trick an hour ago, but what to discuss?

I made the following list:

James Altucher + article
My experience with keeping idea lists — what happens?
Look at earlier posts and what I said then
Keeping idea lists for my short stories
Scribble down ideas for plot
Ideas for characters, scenes, dialogue etc.
What to do when you’re stuck
Idea list at the end of your document as a reference
Bullet point scene writing
Non-fiction tricks

Voila, that’s the foundation of this article. While there were no words on (digital) paper an hour ago, now there are.

This trick helps me immensely. I hope it helps you too if you haven’t used it already.

Please let me know how it goes if you try this!

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