Generating Ideas

Generating ideas for writing projects can, at times, be a writer's toughest challenge. Sometimes ideas appear on their own, emerging from a subconscious level and presenting themselves in ready-to-go form. Sometimes a vague notion of an idea hovers near the conscious level, but it is not yet a fully developed idea. More commonly, however, writers are simply stumped regarding what to write about. Beginning writers will often say: "I want to write, but I don't have anything to write about." How do you come up with ideas when the blank page is staring you in the face? There are many techniques writers use to generate ideas and it's just a matter of discovering which techniques work for you. Listing ideas through free association is one technique. This can be done by either listing words or ideas in a linear fashion or by making a drawing that links ideas together with lines or arrows, much like the spokes on a wheel. Drawing works well for people who are visually-spatially oriented. Another technique is closing your eyes and putting a finger on two words in a book or magazine (i.e., justify and humor) and then developing a concept or story from those two words. A variation of this technique is pairing two odd things that don't normally go together (i.e., fence and socks) and developing an idea from them. Another technique is to put yourself in a new environment or engage in a new activity, pay attention to the sights, sounds and senses you experience, and write about them. There are numerous ways to get your creative neurons firing. Using these types of techniques regularly will keep you supplied with ideas and with the motivation necessary to continually grow your writing repertoire.