How to Come Up With Writing Ideas

Whether you write articles, poems or a blog, you need to keep finding writing ideas. Sometimes ideas come from the left side of your brain, like when you build a logical argument for a magazine article or persuasive copy for a brochure. But right-sided brain activities like writing exercises, games and prompts can fuel creative ideas.

Instructions

1. Combine two of your favorite stories to create a third. Pick stories you like with different themes and from different time periods. "Pride and Prejudice" combined with "Clan of the Cave Bear," for instance, can focus on love, social norms and acceptance in a prehistoric setting.

2. Come up with an unusual situation and find rational explanations for it. This forces you to get creative with problem solving, useful when working out plot ideas. Imagine a woman walking down your street scattering dead flowers and singing "When the Saints Come Marching In." Describe the scene and explain why what she's doing makes perfect sense.

3. Scan your local newspaper for story ideas. This is a classic exercise and has spawned many stories and novels such as Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment." But to get creative with these, take a different angle than the one in the article. Pick another point of view or create empathy for the villain in the news story.

4. Copy the first paragraph or two from a short story or article you like. Then get creative with the idea presented to you. A variation of this writing exercise is to choose a title and let it spark your own story idea. Writing Fix has links to some story starter sites.

5. Tap into online sites for writing prompts. Search Amazon for books devoted to creative writing exercises. "Writing From the Heart" by Leslea Newman is a classic that guides you through the techniques of fiction. For every exercise she gives an example, which can also serve as inspiration.

Tips & Warnings

• Spend only 10 percent of your writing time on creative exercises so they don't become a way to procrastinate.

• Don't feel constrained by a creative writing exercise. Deviate from the instructions if that's what inspires you.

Resources

• Find many creative writing techniques on Writing Fix.
• Creative Writing Prompts can help you generate creative ideas.
• Subscribe to get a daily writing exercise at Wake Up Writing.