Writing is hard.  Once you’re on a roll it seems easy, but until the idea has gotten started in your head and things have started to flow on paper you may find yourself staring blankly into space, frustrated that you’ve done absolutely nothing productive.  Writing is fun once you’re on a roll so let’s look at some tips for coming up with fresh ideas so that you don’t get stuck in too big of a rut.

Branch Off Old Ideas

If you have a few topics of expertise you may feel that you’ve exhausted every possible topic you could think of.  Maybe you write about exercise and you feel that you’ve pretty much covered every aspect of working out.  Well, an easy solution would be to talk about them again!  You don’t want to write the same article of course, but similar and identical are worlds apart and I bet you have more to talk about within each specific topic than you think.

Search The Internet

Sometimes when I’m stuck for ideas, but have a general topic in mind I’ll do a quick Internet search related to my interests.  These searches will lead to other quality articles that will put a spark into your fingertips and have you writing in no time.  Obviously you don’t want to copy write an article, but other writers are often the best inspiration for coming up with new ideas.

Learn or Do Something New and Write About That

I think a new experience or recently learned topic is one of the best.  It’s fresh in your head, exciting and you’re eager to share that energy with the public.  Not only that, but it’s a great way to learn a new skill or learn about something you were interested in since you’ll want to have a great understand before writing about it.  Sometimes I need to write articles about games, so I thought of something different and learned more about the classic hacky sack and wrote a great article about it.  So, read about something new or head off on an adventure and snap a few photos and come back and type about it.

Make Mental Notes During Everyday Life

The best time to think of new ideas to write about is during your normal day-to-day life.  If you’re an opinionated person, and I think most of us who blog are, your internal dialog kicks in wherever you go.  You’ll see something happen and think, “Oh, that’s so stupid,” or “Wow, that’s awesome!”  Guess what, those little thoughts are all great topics to write about.  You need to be telling everyone what was so dumb or great about your daily experience, that’s what blogging is all about!  Keep a pen and paper handy and make little notes when you think of them and come back to them later when you’re at your computer.

Put Your Own Spin on a Different Topic

Often times I’ll want to write an article about something that I feel is outside my area of expertise, but I think all topics of discussion are more intertwined than you may think and frequently those are the most interesting, unique articles.  Maybe you’re a tech wizard, but need to write an article for a health blog.  Don’t assume that you have nothing to offer; there are many gadgets and applications that are related to health and fitness or a study that talks about how technology is affecting the world’s average weight.  The sky is the limit really and you can use your imagination to tie your expertise into a wide variety of subjects.

Start Writing

This is classic advice, but remember that sometimes you just need to dive right in.  If I get stuck for too long I’ll get started with a very broad opening paragraph and before I know it my mind has clicked on and my focus has narrowed and a great article is born.