How to Never Run Out of Writing Ideas
Creativity is a choice once you manage your ideas.
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When I started writing, I felt I had nothing worthy to say and that I’d soon run out of ideas. Two years and 300 articles later, I know I was wrong about both.
Everybody has something worthy to share.
And creativity is a choice.
The following lines reveal how you can have endless ideas and what to do with them.
“Most things have been done, but they have not yet been done by you.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
How to Train Your Brain to Have Endless Ideas
After I had published my first three articles, I had no ideas left. I faced most writers’ biggest fear — a blank page.
Luckily, I soon learned how to always have ideas at your fingertips. These are the two creativity principles I’ve used ever since.
Don’t kill your baby ideas…
In the beginning, almost all ideas are shit. They lack substance, examples, research, or anecdotes.
That’s why new writers judge and discard their ideas very early. In fact, too early. Ideas need time to mature.
If you kill your ideas when they’re still at the baby stage, you’ll never know how they might have turned out.
And, even worse: you tell your brain your ideas are worthless. It will soon stop generating new ones.
What you want to do is to be neutral towards any idea that crosses your mind. Acknowledge it’s too early to know whether the idea is good and continue with step two.
…but capture them.
Every idea is worth capturing. Because you’re now telling your brain, it's worth generating new ones. Your brain will become your best idea supplier.
The challenge?
Ideas come when you don’t expect them.
Most of my ideas come while I write another article, meditate, go for a run, or have a conversation with friends. That’s why you want to have a clear workflow for idea capturing.