How to Constantly Generate Lots of Great Writing Ideas
All in one in-depth guide to help you never run out of ideas to write consistently
Do you run out of content ideas? Do you struggle to come up with good writing topics? Well, you are not alone. Coming up with new topics and writing ideas every day can be quite exhausting, especially if you’re simply coming up with ideas off the top of your head.
Truthfully, writer’s block happens to all of us. Most of the writers have faced the challenge of constantly finding new topic ideas. There are times when we all run out of new ideas to write on a regular basis.
This research shows that about 57% of B2B marketers’ biggest struggle is producing content consistently.
I’ve also been there and I understand how challenging it can get to consistently come up with fresh topic ideas. Sometimes when I sit down to write — nothing comes to my mind to write about. Sometimes, it feels like so many articles have already been written, and there’s nothing left for me to write anything new.
I struggled a lot in generating new topics as a new writer. So out of pure necessity, I’ve gathered lots of different strategies from the web to come up with more writing ideas. Some strategies worked and some didn’t. Today I’m going to share some of these working strategies that made it easy for me to constantly source new topics to write about.
So, if you’re stuck and can’t generate enough writing topics then you can just try these simple strategies and see if these work for you.
1. Read More to Generate New Ideas
There are many ways to come up with new writing ideas. But I had to put this at no.1 position because this is the most important thing if you want to come up with new ideas and recharge your creative juices for your next writings. Reading will help you to increase your critical thinking skills.
A disciplined reading habit will help you to come across ideas that inspire you — and you may be able to transform that inspiration into new writings written in your own words.
“Indeed, learning to write may be part of learning to read. For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading.” — Eudora Welty
If you don’t read enough, you won’t come up with good ideas. So, if you run out of writing ideas, try to read more instead of wasting your time searching here and there for new writing ideas. If you read more, ideas will flow to your mind like a river.
2. Use Quora Questions
Quora is a hidden gem in terms of generating more content ideas. Quora is a social network where people ask questions and give answers to the asked questions. The questions that are asked in Quora can be a great source of topic ideas. You can follow topics of your interest, follow the profiles of writers that inspire you. You can find valuable information about any topic on this platform.
How to Use It to Generate More Topic Ideas
You can use Quora without an account. But you need to sign up to take full benefit from this platform.
Questions will be picked for you according to the topics and spaces you followed while registering on the website. For example, if you’re following the topic of Hairstyles For Men, Quora will also show you the spaces related to Hairstyles For Men. You can also see some of the related topics on the right side as well.
After you follow the topics or spaces that relate to your niche, you can simply go to the “Answer” tab and find the questions related to that topic. These questions can be used to generate topic ideas for you. You can check the answers to gain some knowledge for your next article as well.
You can also follow and bookmark the questions that you like — so that you can check back later to extract ideas out of those questions to use in your next article.
3. Use Reddit
Reddit is a can’t-miss resource if you want to constantly generate more content ideas. According to SimilarWeb, Reddit is the 20th ranked website on the planet and it’s ranked #10 in the United States. According to these statistics published in The Next Web, Reddit is more engaging than Facebook or even Twitter. So you know Reddit is not a joke.
How to Use It to Generate More Topic Ideas
Similar to Quora, you need to follow topics of your interest at first — in this case, these are called subreddits. Use the search box at the top of any page on Reddit to search for communities(Subreddits) where your topic of interest is discussed:
Next, you have to dive into the subreddits you’ve joined and look for problems using the search function again, look for phrases that indicate that someone is struggling with something. Here are some of my favorite phrases to search for: how do you, I’m struggling with, can someone help, figure out, tips, biggest challenges, hardest part, how can I etc. I’ve given an example with “how do you” in this picture:
You can repeat this process across all of the subreddits you’ve joined to. Then you can write down the ideas or combine them to come up with a great number of potential content topics.
4. Other Social Media Platforms
It’s impossible to neglect the power of social media these days. Just like Quora or Reddit, other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest etc can be used to gather more topic ideas. Many people share their opinions, questions, and contents everywhere on these social media platforms — that are full of inspirations to generate more content ideas.
Trending hashtags on social media
Always keep track of all the trending hashtags on these social media platforms. For example — Twitter can be used to look for worldwide trends or trends in a specific location. You can use Pinterest to pin the posts you find inspiring to your boards and then you can check your boards whenever you are in need of an idea.
Also, you can follow accounts and people that you find interesting. You can use their thoughts and opinions to get inspired and get ideas for your next articles.
Read Comments
This applies to all of the social media sites I’ve mentioned above. Look at the comments and the responses people give to them to catch anything that can inspire you. You can find lots of comments on posts that are filled with fresh content full of insights.
You can find many people commenting with different opinions and knowledge about certain issues — which can help you generate more ideas and help you look from different perspectives. So, the comments can be a great source of inspiration for more ideas.
Remember social media is full of content ideas and personal opinions. Check it out from time to time and find the topics that inspire you to come up with more topic ideas.
5. Topic Generator Tools
Sometimes when I run out of ideas, I use topic generator tools to come up with more writing ideas. These tools can help you save time by generating lots of topic ideas very quickly.
I’m going to mention some of those tools that I personally used and trust me if you are having a hard time coming up with good enough content ideas — then these tools will definitely help you ease your burden. Using one or more of these tools will allow you to come up with an infinite number of topic ideas for your next writing — without having to do any heavy lifting.
BuzzSumo
You may have heard about BuzzSumo. This tool is awesome when it comes to generating content ideas because it does more than just providing you with content ideas. From the picture below you can see that it tells you the number of shares and social engagements content receives, shows you top trending content and number of engagements, identifies key sharers and more.
MOZ Keyword Explorer
MOZ’s Keyword Explorer can help you get more topic ideas. This is a great tool that not only generates topic ideas and keywords but also shows you accurate monthly search volume, SERP Feature data, SEO competition metrics etc. However, some feature requires MOZ pro. You can try MOZ pro free for 30 days. Otherwise, you will get 10 free queries per month in a free account.
To get topic ideas go to MOZ’s keyword suggestions and type your keyword in their search bar. For example, I typed “weight loss” and chose “are questions” from the “Display keyword suggestions that” drop-down as shown in the picture. This will show you questions related to the topic or keyword you entered. These questions can help you to come up with more topic ideas.
You can also export the results to CSV with the search volumes and other metrics to use later.
Answer The Public
Another tool that is worth mentioning that can help you with generating more topic ideas is called Answer The Public. This is a site that generates a “wheel” of questions related to your topic. You can use those questions to come up with great writing ideas.
Go to their homepage and write the topic you are interested in. You can also use the drop-down menu to select the area from where you want to get the answers.
Their research is organized by common questions that begin with the words where, who, which, what, why, when, how etc. If you find it hard to follow this “wheel” of questions then you can easily click on the “Data” option and the questions will be arranged on different boxes related to the basic questions.
Just like MOZ, you can download a CSV of the questions to help you generate writing ideas later.
Some Other Tools Worth Mentioning
● UberSuggest
● Portent’s Content Idea Generator
● Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator
● Alltop
● GoogleTrends
6. YouTube Videos
YouTube can also be a source for generating new writing ideas. I’m a regular YouTube watcher. YouTube really inspires me, because it has countless content and potential that we sometimes tend to overlook.
You can get content ideas from the title of the videos. You can also watch good videos that you find interesting and fulfilling. These videos can help you get inspiration to help generate more ideas. The YouTube algorithm will get a grasp on your taste and then they will start to show you relevant content on your homepage. You can also find relevant content on the right side of the screen while you’re watching a video.
Also, you can check out the comments on the videos you’re watching to help generate new ideas. People share their problems and ask many different things in the comment section that can be helpful in generating more topic ideas.
7. Recent Events, News and Industry Updates
Recent events and news can be a great source of more content ideas. Keeping in touch with what’s happening around is very crucial for all writers — regardless of what genre you write for.
You can read from online sources, you can watch the news and updates. When you’re watching the news or reading updates from an online source, try to figure out how you can use these to come up with more topic ideas.
This way more ideas will come to you easily because the world is going through changes every single day. You can take this advantage and create interesting topics based on recent events and updates.
8. Your Own Achievements and Individual Experiences
You can always write about your own achievements and experiences. When you are out topics to write — you can share your professional or personal experience with others that will help them improve their skills.
You can turn to your own life for inspiration whenever you feel like you’re running short of topic ideas. Always try to keep track of your recent achievements and experiences — these are great topics to share with the world.
You can write about a personal struggle you went through and tell your readers about how you overcame it. These kinds of topics are easy to come up with — and also very fun and easy to write since you’ve experienced them personally. You can provide useful insights to your readers by writing about your own experiences. This can help them get through their own journeys as well.
9. Some Other Methods Worth Mentioning
I’ve mentioned some great methods of generating writing ideas in this story. But there are some other methods that are also worth mentioning. I’ll mention some of those methods as well — you can also try them to see which one works for you.
●Revisit your previously published content: You can revisit your previously published content to rewrite it or get new ideas to write.
●Sign up for newsletters: Signing up for newsletters will keep you up to date with trending topics, news, and events which can help you generate more topic ideas.
●Product reviews: You can always turn a simple product review into a well-researched article.
●Online Courses: Online courses can be a great way to generate topic ideas. You can learn more about something and gain experience to come up with more ideas to write.
●Goodreads Quotes: Goodreads quotes inspire many writers including me. You can search for good quotes and get inspiration from them to get more ideas and thoughts — which can help you to come up with more writing topics.
●Google search suggestions: If you’ve got a general topic in mind, start searching for it on Google to get suggestions that could be topics to cover.
Conclusion
It’s normal for all writers to experience writer’s block from time to time. There will be times when you will be stuck to come up with writing ideas or you won’t feel like writing at all. Don’t hesitate to take a break from writing in this situation. Sometimes taking a breather can also help you get new writing ideas. You can write more insightful and great content — if your mind is relaxed.
There are many resources at your disposal to help you come up with great content ideas. I’ve tried to mention some of them. Feel free to do a little experimenting to find out which works for you and learn how to take advantage of them.
I hope this article will help you generate more writing ideas. Happy reading and good luck on your writing journey.
