What if you don’t know what to write about?

There are days when you really don’t have an idea. What can you do then?

Today I have decided to write two articles. Usually, that’s not a problem, but today it was different.

The idea for my first article came quickly: “Multitasking is the enemy, but serial tasking is your ally.”

I wrote the article, uploaded it, and felt good. But then I wanted to write the second one and thought about a topic. But there was nothing.

All the usual methods for brainstorming failed. I took a walk to free my mind and gave my subconscious time to develop a new idea, but back home, there was still no idea insight.

Next, I tried books. I went through my Kindle library, looking for inspiration. But again, nothing happened. None of the topics I stumbled across seemed worth writing about.

How could that be? I can always rely on my creativity.

Our brain is not a machine

Of course, there are many excellent creativity techniques that help and develop new ideas. We can brainstorm, use freewriting, draw mind maps and a thousand other things.

But these are all tools with no guarantee of success. Just as on some days a headache tablet doesn’t help, these techniques can sometimes fail.

Our brain is a highly complex organ and is influenced by so many circumstances that it is impossible to always say why it reacts in one way or another.

I admit it is really very rare that none of my techniques help me to stimulate my creativity, but it seems to happen. For me, this experience is new, but I can accept it.

Creativity needs context

It is not enough to want to write any article. We have to find something that speaks to us. Of course, I can write an essay about mining in South Africa, but since I’m not interested in the subject, I won’t do that.

So if it were just to write about something, I wouldn’t have a problem today.

But I do claim to catch people with my enthusiasm for a subject. If I lack this enthusiasm, I cannot expect to reach readers with it.

So when I say that creativity needs context, it also means that the moment I want to write, I find a topic that concerns me and occupies me.

In my attempts to find a topic today, I came across dozens of possible issues, but none of them were related to me or my current interests.

Sometimes you just have to let go

After neither my walk nor one of my creativity techniques had brought the desired success, I decided to forget it for today.

Actually, the walk was supposed to do that, but I knew I was only doing it to clear my mind and let new ideas come to me. My subconscious had apparently seen through this trick.

That’s why I officially quit today. The next day the creativity so painfully missed today would surely return.

I closed my laptop, went shopping for dinner and sat down on my terrace when I was back. The sun shone in my face, and I relaxed.

So that was the yield of my working day, I thought. A lousy article. Does that sometimes happen to other authors?

I shook my head and tried to scare the thought away. Why should I think about whether others had the same problem as me? Knowing that wouldn’t help me either.

And suddenly the penny’s dropped

As soon as I asked myself this question, everything was clear to me. Of course, other authors sometimes felt the same way as I do now. And they, too, desperately wondering where their creativity has suddenly disappeared and how they can get it back.

I immediately ran back into the living room, rebooted the laptop, and started writing.

Half an hour later, I had written a full article — this article you’re reading.

Conclusion

The method of devoting one’s mind to other things to leave the solution of the current problem to the subconscious really works.

But you really have to let go of the current problem. Otherwise, it won’t work. On my walk, I was aware all the time why I took it, so it didn’t work.

It wasn’t until I got back home and gave up that my subconscious had a clear path.

So if you don’t know what to write about and your usual techniques fail, just give up for today. If you don’t, you probably won’t get an idea anymore. But if you give up, your subconscious mind may go to work and solves your problem.

Only, you must not speculate on it. Tricky? Sure, but on some days giving up is really the last chance.

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