For a long period in my life I had a hard time coming up with good ideas for stories and articles, mostly because I was going about it all wrong. Then when I was off doing other things in my daily life (doing housework, my job, watching TV) I would reminisce and day dreamed of good experiences in my past or what life could be like. I also had many interests and hobbies, but I failed to connect them with a means of getting ideas for my writing.
One day I woke up and said to myself...?I have all these things that I love and so many good experiences in my life, good and bad, and I have so many visions of what life COULD be like, why don't I just incorporate them into my writing?? So that's what I did. And the ideas have been flowing ever since.
Here is a breakdown of how you can come up with ideas for writing. Once you master this method I'm sure it will help you like it did me.
Fiction writing:
1. Draw on your past experiences, both good and bad, to come up with a story.
2. Draw on your day dreams, fantasies, and what you think life COULD be like.
3. Try to keep writing even if you don't have any particular idea or subject matter for a particular section of the story. A lot of the time, people like me, have a rough timeline with the main plot, actions and events, but not what happens in between. I have found that I come up with brilliant ideas as I am sitting down and actually writing my story, ideas that I didn't think of before. You should realize that there is a limit to the ideas that you can carry around in your head and it takes the actual sitting down and continuously writing the ?filler? of the story to come up with new ideas.
Non-Fiction, article writing, and copy writing:
1. What are your favorite things? What are your favorite things to do? If you have answers to those questions, write about those things. Like if you love fashion and are always shopping for a new clothes, you might as well put down on paper what your thinking when you look at that outfit you love so much. If you love it, so will other people and they want to know what you think.
2. Watch a TV program that deals with one of your favorite subjects. Or your can read a magazine that has content that deals with your favorite things. I'm not saying you should copy what you see on TV or in the magazine, I'm saying let whatever they're talking about spark an idea of your own. You will be surprised at what you can think of that the TV or magazine missed.
