Sitting around at home writing in your underwear is a pretty low-stress gig, but sometimes it can be too much of a good thing. Writing is a solitary pursuit, which can ironically leave you without the ideas that got you started writing in the first place. If you end up with severe brain drain, try one of these creative writing techniques to get your writing groove on.
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1. Grab a trashy magazine and check out the headlines.
- Saving
- Investing
- Making $ Online
- Frugality
- Career Advice
- List
- Photo Essay
- Long Informative
- Link List
- Review
- breeds of cats
- personality types
- musical instruments
- fish
- tools
There are great ideas both on the cover and inside. I like to use this “creativity exercise” as an excuse to grab a Maxim and check out whats going on in men’s heads. It scares me. I digress. At any rate, headlines such as How They Did It: Five Women Lose 100 Pounds in Five Months can be morphed into How They Did It: Five Bloggers Get 1000 RSS Subscribers in Record Time . If you’re the serious sort, instead of grabbing a trashy magazine, use The Economist.
2. Play cards with yourself.
Get three different colored markers and 15 index cards. Divide the index cards into three piles of five. On the first pile of index cards, write subjects from your niche. If you have a money blog, it might look like this:
Then, using a different colored marker, write down five formats on the next five cards. For example:
Finally, with the last marker and set of index cards, list some random things that come to your mind. You may want to add some more index cards at this point.
Now mix up the cards. You may end up with something like a list of ways to be frugal with illustrations of a Persian and alley cat next to one another. If you don’t like what you get, mix it up again. Eventually you’ll come up with something. Just don’t do what I did and include “underwear” in your last set of cards!
By the way, if you like to play cards, consider winning the $50 in my Strip Poker Contest. It’s easy, but there is only a week left!
3. Lie awake at night and stare at the ceiling.
Eventually you will drift into a alpha state where you think of all sorts of odd ideas, some of which might even be good. Keep a notebook and pencil next to you, because, believe me, you are not going to remember this stuff when you wake up. In the morning, review what you have written. The ratio of nonsense to brilliance typically runs about 99:1, but that’s okay, because that one percent pays off. Good ways to induce insomnia include having a teenager, drinking coffee too late, contemplating the nature of consciousness and owning a cat who enjoys “making biscuits” on your head with its extremely sharp claws at two in the morning.
4. Copy other bloggers.
Look at the structure of articles you enjoy and duplicate it using your own content. This is how I got the idea for 11 Mistakes Your Blog Makes in Bed. Likewise, if you see some content out there that you can do better, go for it. You can put your own spin on anything. Ultimately, it is your voice and perspective that make your blog unique more than anything else.
5.Read books.
Make a habit of keeping some Post-it notes next to you whenever you are reading a book. Whenever you get to a passage that relates in some way to your blog, however vaguely, stick a Post-it on the page. You’ll find that a single well-written book can spawn a dozen posts. Don’t disregard fiction–you never know when you’ll run across a quote, story or character that will spark a completely unique post.
Subscribe. It’s fun to waste time on the Internet.
i do the same too. reading trashy woman magazines, particualrly when i want to write a list post. self-help book is another great fodder for my humor writing. reading other bloggers’ material give me so many ideas to take pot shot at them.
Some nice tips on writing. Interesting blog Blogrrl.
These are great suggestions. I especially love the index card one!! Can’t remember how I ended up here but you have a very informative and interesting site here
Hey Michelle, you just got a link on Problogger. Maybe we should play that guess your site visits game tomorrow.
I just wanted to stop in and say “Hi”. Another great post by the way. Take Care, Emma
Great tips Michelle.
I keep a piece of note paper hidden under my keyboard at work to scribble down random topics that pop up. I’ve gotten so used to doing it this way, that I sometimes have a hard time finding something to post on weekends, when I’m away from the office.
Hi there, just found your site…. I like your advice, especially the card idea… Perhaps I should pull out my tarot deck for a variation on that.
And a nitpick (really hate to do this in my first comment, but it will bug me the rest of the day if I do not). In your third suggestion, you are actually talking about the alpha state (beta is not very good for creativity, getting more associated with logical thinking)
Thanks for the great tips. And for giving me an excuse to waste time reading trashy magazines.
Wow, my blogging is grooooovier already and I haven’t even posted anything since reading this. You rock!
No, really.. you do
Off topic - You’ve been added to the ProBlogger Blogroll. Well done.
This is a groovy kind of post!
Great tips. I ought to give some of them a try, but making all those cards sounds like a lot of work. I think I’d rather be blogging.
Oooh. I could write a script to do that for me, instead of cards…
Great article, Michelle.
I particularly enjoyed #2 as I am always looking for creative uses for 3×5 cards.
BTW, having gotten a glimpse of what’s going on in men’s heads–you really shouldn’t start an article with talk of sitting around in your underwear.
@Nenad: Thank you! It has been changed.
@ReddKnight: Maybe that’s why I do it.
Very cool blog… way cool information and writing. I’m glad I stopped by.
Sometimes, I am really too busy to look for entertainment! haha
just dugg it!
You’ve got some great tips here!
I usually take some time out to play City of Heroes or a game to get my mind off of things and then return back to working. OR…if I’m really good, I’ll do some situps! 
#2 looks awesome. great idea!
Great ideas! I like #1. I also like to make sure I watch Best Week Ever on VH1 and keep up with my TMZ to try and find catchy pop culture headlines that I can merge with a topic.
These are some awesome suggestions and I like the index card ones especially, but anything that you suggested should work really.
[...] to Paul Robb for his big list of magazine headlines, and to BlogGrrl for telling her readers to swipe trashy headlines months [...]