How To Have And Develop More Creative Writing Ideas Than You Thought Possible

One of the biggest struggles writers of all types have is coming up with enough good ideas.
If ideas are scarce, when a good one does appear it’s leapt upon and devoured like a slab of fresh meat thrown to a pack of ravenous alligators.
This kind of pressure doesn’t exactly create an environment conducive to writing freely and creatively!
So how can you turn it around?
The first part is to have more ideas. This make the second part of developing those ideas so much easier because you have more ideas to work with, and there’s less pressure and expectation to develop every single one into an incredible piece of creative writing.
Here’s the technique I use that enables me to write an article every day before I’ve even taken my last bite of toast and sip of juice at breakfast.
1. Capture ideas. The first step is to develop the habit of capturing all the ideas you have, without judgement. I use a journal for creative writing and for article ideas I have a text file on my computer in which I store the title ideas in a list.
Bonus tip: I start each new idea with a “*” symbol so they’re easy to see. I always have at least 10 extra “*”s at the end of my list of ideas. Just having these blank invitations that suggest they will soon each have an idea beside them helps me fill them more quickly. Very subtle, but it try it, it works!
2. Choose an idea to develop. Each morning when I get up I go to my computer and scan through the ideas file. When I see a title idea that catches my eye for some reason, I copy it, and paste it into a blank document. Don’t go through EVERY idea, you’ll overwhelm yourself. Pick the first that appeals and run with that momentum.
Like the bonus “*” tip above, this again works by suggestion. Just having the title of the article in place, it suggests to me that before long the rest will be filled in. A completely blank page is just too intimidating!
3. Play with the idea in your mind. Next step is to let the idea and the title roll around in your head a little. Think about different angles, maybe how you can break it down into a number of points or sections.
I’ll come clean, I do this part in the shower. Because my body is involved in a physical action, my mind is freed up to think more and be more creative. I find a similar effect happens when I’m washing up! Just sitting and sweating at a blank screen or page DOESN’T work.
4. Start writing your piece. Take what you’ve developed in your head and start writing your thoughts down beneath the title of your writing piece or article. Don’t try to arrange it perfectly as you go, just write and get the meat of the idea down on the page.
With experience, I’ve found certain patterns develop naturally. In creative writing, I just know which lines fit together and which need an extra part between or don’t fit at all. With articles, the more you write the easier it is to use a template such as “5 Tips to…” or “7 Steps to…” without even needing the numbers written down beforehand.
5. Editing. Step 4 is all about the flow of the writing, getting down as much as you can and finding the rhythm and structure of the piece. Now you can go back and edit, check for mistakes, make sure the words read well and so on.
This part can be done immediately after you finish the article or piece of writing, though sometimes it works well to do this once, then come back a day later with fresh eyes and make any last little adjustments or amendments you need to.
This is the technique I use to write an article a day before I’ve finished breakfast.
I use a similar technique for creative writing, it’s just the content and structure is different, and I tend to use a paper journal for ideas more than a text file on a computer.
Apply these 5 steps today and notice how you too can have and develop more writing ideas than you thought was possible.