![]() ![]() In my writing class, Effective Writing, I’ve dedicated a few lessons to teaching my students how to do better research. When I came back to my note to write this article, I knew exactly what to say. Place some notes there that may help your future self remember what you originally had in mind. So write down your ideas as if you’re explaining them to a friend. That person doesn’t know what you’re talking about because we’re forgetful. When you record your ideas, think about your future self. So, I immediately opened my primary writing app, Ulysses.I wrote the headline: “How To Come Up With New Ideas For Articles.” Below the headline, I placed “Explain my process. Then suddenly, my brain was, “Hey, that’s an article!” We were just talking about some ideas I have for upcoming letters. ![]() ![]() For instance, I came up with the idea for this article when I was talking to Amy Shearn about my Medium column, the Stoic Letter. But it’s about the practice of regularly recording ideas. I probably have 20 ideas for books that I want to write. Start seeing articles, books, podcasts, and art everywhere. Did you launch a successful business? Another one!.Did you experience a nasty breakup? Article!.Did someone stab you in the back at work? That’s an article!.To make sure you always have enough ideas to write about, you must train yourself to think in article ideas. Step 2: Always record your ideasĬollecting input is only step one-everyone can do that. If I thought I was too good for getting a corporate job, I wouldn’t write that article and many others. I’ve received hundreds of emails and messages from people who said it was the most useful thing they’ve read on the topic. I took a corporate job just to experience it.īased on my experience, I wrote this piece on cold hard truths about the workplace. Every experience serves as material to you. But it can also involve personal experiences. And you do that by consuming good material: Great books, articles, podcasts, videos, etc. Your job as a writer is to treat your mind the way an athlete treats their body. If you overeat junk food today, your gut pays for it tomorrow. What happens if you drink too much on Friday evening? You wake up with a headache on Saturday. If you don’t have good input, you will also have good output. You know this, but it’s important to stress. That’s the output you need to measure yourself on. ![]() Step 1: Always collect good materialĪs a writer, your primary job is to produce words. I’ve used this process more than 400 times and counting. In this article, I explain my complete process for coming up with new ideas for articles. Instead, I always make sure I have something to say, which makes writing easier. It’s a waste of time to start writing an article or book from a blank canvas. But my experience taught me it’s a foolish strategy. We’ve all stared at our word processor, waiting for inspiration to strike and finally get us typing. It seemed like those writers got their inspiration from traveling, drinking, or whatever you think generates inspiration. I thought of Bukowski who was drunk half of the time. I imagined Hemingway sitting in a dark cafe in Paris. I always assumed that writers got their new article ideas from some mystical force of nature. The first lesson I had to learn as a serious writer is that inspiration isn’t something you wait for. ![]()
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