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Health & Fitness

The Write Lane: Generating Ideas

A blog about writing, by a writer, for aspiring writers.

Where do you get your ideas? A dreaded question for most writers, myself included. Why? Because the answer is composed of words most of us really, really hate to utter:  I dunno.

I wish I could say, “Well, let’s see. I run five miles, stand on my head for half an hour, drink a smoothie made of disgusting things like fish oil and kale, and then lo and behold, the ideas come tumbling out.” 

Unfortunately, this is not the case. I know because I’ve tried all of the above, and the only idea I got was to seek out the nearest bottle of wine and down it fast. 

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Like so many other things in this world, ideas come when we least expect them. So I’m with the Boy Scouts on this one and I like to be prepared.  I love my iPhone for this because I can tap my ideas into one of the little apps and feel so productive.

Never mind that the chances of me ever finding that particular note are about the same as they were when I wrote them down on scraps of paper and left them lying around the house. But it does make me feel good. 

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For those of you who insist on an answer to this question of ideas, I do have an exercise that might help. 

Five Ideas in 10 Minutes:

I.   Write down five things you like or are interested in.

II.  Write down five facts about each.

III. Ask yourself the following questions about each of your answers to number I. (Note: Not all will apply.)

           1.  What if you lost it?

           2.  What if it was stolen?

           3.  What if you became an expert at it?

           4.  Why is it interesting?

           5.  When did it begin?

           6.  How do you do it?

           7.  Who else likes it?

           8.  Who doesn’t like it?

           9.  Who does it really well?

           10. Where were you when you first learned about it?

Try it and let me know what you think, and if you get a good idea, send it my way!

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