Writer’s Block? Here’s My Favorite New Way to Generate Creative Ideas

You can write about anything — you just need a little inspiration

I have cracked the code for generating fun ideas for articles.

At least, for myself, I have. And it took me a good while to figure it out.

See, I have tried all of the other things that other writers have suggested. I have tried the lay-in-bed-at-night-and-generate-ten-ideas thing. I have tried the keep-a-notebook-next-to-my-computer thing. I have tried the look-at-what-is-trending-right-now-and-write-something-similar thing. None of these hyphenated things have worked for me.

My idea generating windfall started when I was complaining to my husband.

“I think I have writer’s block,” I said. “I have no idea what to write about.”

He shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I don’t know anything about writing.”

I looked at my blank screen and sighed. “I just need an idea. Some kind of idea that isn’t in my head. Just say something. Tell me what to write about.”

My husband looked around the living room. “I don’t know, babe. Write about the praying mantis.”

I turned to gaze at Dracarys, our pet praying mantis. Seriously, dude? I rolled my eyes. I was looking for help, not sarcasm. I internally fumed. What an idiotic idea. Okay fine, I thought. I’d write about our freaking praying mantis.

I stared at Dracarys for a few minutes. And then, I had an idea. I started a new story.

And voila! An article about a praying mantis. I was stoked. I would never have thought about this on my own. And I never would have written about Dracarys if I hadn’t been so angry about my husband’s idiotic suggestion.

That one little subject was a shining little fresh gem of inspiration in my dull old brain. I needed another idea fix, but I couldn’t do it on my own.

The thing is, we get bored with our own thoughts because we need novelty. That’s why the best writers are also the most voracious readers. Because, by reading, they ingest fresh thoughts; new shirts and pants and scarves to try on for size.

So, I decided to give this new idea-generating method a try with someone else. While I was in a Friday night Zoom cocktail hour with my girlfriends, I asked, “I need something to write about. Say the first thing that comes to your brain and I’ll write it down.”

There was silence. Then, suddenly, a barrage of random suggestions came through my headphones. It was like the bedroom scene before “My Favorite Things” in The Sound of Music. I started scribbling.

“Bathtubs!”

“Sex!”

“Sex in the City!”

“Your Roomba!”

“Chapstick!”

“Gardening!”

“Covid hair!”

“Football!”

My friends were a giggling wealth of ideas! I could write about all of these things. It would be a blast to find an angle on Roombas and Covid hair. I thanked my friends and immediately started writing.

The fact of the matter is that there is logic behind this strategy. Constraints are really good for creativity. A study detailed in the Harvard Business Review says, “We reviewed 145 empirical studies on the effects of constraints on creativity and innovation, and found that individuals, teams, and organizations alike benefit from a healthy dose of constraints”.

That’s the secret, I thought! I had unwittingly set up a constraint for my writing that gave me more freedom than if I had no constraints. I loved it. I. then decided to poll different friends. And then family. And now I have a super random list of pages and pages of ideas from which to start any article. I haven’t looked back since.

So, the next time you have writer’s block, poll your friends and family for random ideas. You probably won’t connect to every subject, but it will definitely get your brain going just a little bit faster (or, it did for me anyway).

Here are some articles inspired by my friends:

Now, if you please, I invite you to join the party. If you leave me a random thing in the comments to write about, I’ll respond with a random thing for you to write about. Let’s inspire each other, get creative, and get writing.