7 Ways to Come Up With Great Writing Ideas

Flynn Hannan
Writers Republic
Published in
4 min readOct 25, 2021
great-writing-ideas

If you are thinking of writing a novel of your very own, it is important that you come up with great writing ideas that you could use. These writing ideas will be the main topic of your story, and you should not rush the process. Take your time with these ideas. You should make sure that you take the right steps for generating ideas for writing. Here are 7 ways to come up with great writing ideas.

1. Read Content On A Daily Basis

One of the most consistent ways you could come up with great writing ideas, is to read content on a daily basis. At the start of every day, you should make sure to read any kind of content. You could read novels, history books, newspapers, short articles, and long articles, anything you could get your hands on. By reading new content on a daily basis, you will have a fount of writing ideas that you could draw from.

2. Use Past Experiences As Inspiration

Yet another way you could come up with great ideas, is to use past experiences as inspiration. Have you ever had a messy breakup? Or lost a loved one? Have you gone through a harrowing experience? These emotions are very potent and could be used as a great source for your writing motivations. The great high fantasy author J.R.R Tolkien used experiences in war as inspiration for his Lord of The Rings series of books. Take a feather from his cap, and use your own experiences as a source of writing ideas.

3. Have Meaningful Conversations

A great way you could think up writing ideas, is to have meaningful conversations. Take the time to engage in conversations with as many people as possible. Remember that everyone has a story to tell. You could have meaningful conversations with family and friends. Ask older family members about their early years. You could also have a heart to heart chat with your close friends. However, some of the best conversations may even come from people you just met. Just remember though, that not everyone is willing to have meaningful conversations. Some people will open up to you without too much persuasion, while some won’t. Be careful before you start talking to someone you just met. Feel things out first before you start sharing details about your life.

4. Make A List Of Writing Prompts

Yet another way to come up with writing ideas, is to make a list of writing prompts. These are meant to make it easier for you to write stories. Writing prompts are short sentences that are meant to give you a fresh new perspective on the writing process. These prompts are also a great way to jumpstart your writing ideas.

5. Use Myths and legends from various cultures

The myths and legends of various cultures are great sources of writing inspiration. Take the time to read about the myths and legends of many cultures. This will allow you to draw from their age old stories. You could use these old stories as inspiration for a storyline, or as inspiration for a character you are writing.

6. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box

When you make your writing ideas, it is important that you think outside the box. Don’t feel that you should stick to tried and tested concepts. Don’t be afraid to push the boundaries of your genre. However, you should not write just to create controversy. You should write for the sake of writing great content.

7. Expand on old content that you wrote

There have been a lot of authors who used their old short stories to create great content. Why not take a look at your old works? If you’ve written short stories when you were just starting out, you should take the time to check on these old works. Who knows? Maybe you already had a bestselling idea to begin with. You just needed to expound on the idea a bit more. If you are going to look through your old writing ideas, you should be as detailed as possible. Be patient, and look through old short stories, manuscripts, and even poems that you wrote years ago.

Conclusion

If you want to come up with great writing ideas, you will need to have a set strategy. With these tips, you’ll be able to come up with truly great writing ideas.

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Flynn Hannan
Writers Republic

Bibliophile , Senior Indie Editor at Writers Republic