Creating Ideas for Writing

What should you write about? This is a question writers often ask, especially beginning writers who have not yet built up an inventory of written work. More importantly, how do you come up with ideas to write about? The short answer is to write about what interests you. If you're not interested in your subject matter, it will show in your writing, and readers will not be interested either. But coming up with ideas that interest you can sometimes be daunting. There are several well-tested techniques for generating ideas you can utilize such as: listing, freewriting, brainstorming, diagramming, consulting, etc. You can also use ideas you've already written about and explore ways to re-slant those ideas into a new piece with a different focus. You can try combining odd or opposite things to come up with original ideas that are fascinating to readers. You can expose yourself to new experiences that will generate new ideas and interests. You can free-research with no particular goal or theme in mind to see where you end up, much like closing your eyes and putting your finger on a map. These techniques will often generate many more ideas than you can actually use, and from these, you can select the ones that seem most promising. Coming up with ideas is relatively easy. Staying true to what interests you is the real challenge; but doing so will not only inspire your writing, it will also inspire your readers.