How to Stop Your Idea Well Drying Up

Simple techniques all writers can use no matter how busy.

Do you struggle with article ideas? After eight years of writing, I still do at times. The world gets in the way, and we forget to capture future article titles. 

There are techniques you can use to stop the ideas from drying up. These are all techniques I regularly use that help me publish four times a week on various subjects. 

No matter which genre you write or the platform you use, these techniques will help you collect and implement your ideas into a killer publishing schedule. 

Random Thoughts

The first technique you have to master is collecting these ideas. I bet you have enough ideas to write about for years. 

The problem is that you are not capturing these ideas, and they are disappearing from your head as quickly as a child who has found sweets. 

The best way of capturing these ideas is a notebook. Yes, paper and pen, not technology. Keep a tiny notebook in your pocket and write down every thought that comes to your head, no matter how stupid. 

Later, you can think more deeply about these ideas and delete the ones that will never make articles. 

A notepad does not distract you with little red dot notifications. It is basic and free from other tasks you might need to finish before you record your idea. Checking just one email may be enough for you to forget that idea. 

My latest novel, The Water Plague, started with one random thought while watching the news about floods. I wonder if we could live upstairs completely if the water never receded.  

That spun into a story of 80,000 words, for which I am now looking for an agent. 

Questions 

If you still do not find your idea well overflowing, another technique I have used is sitting down with pen and paper and thinking about my life. 

First, you must identify the target market that you are writing for. What genre are you writing in? Once you are clear on this, you can ask yourself these questions. 

• What are five fears my target audience has? 

• What are five frustrations or problems my target audience may have? 

• What are the five wants my target audience has? 

• What are five long-term aspirations my target audience has? 

Any one of the answers to these questions could be an article. I find this technique particularly useful with this publication. Being a part-time writer, I know the problems and frustrations I have. How I overcame them are articles to share with you. 

Repurposing

Every idea you have ever had someone has written about. How depressing is that? However, no one has written about the topic with your voice and experience. 

If you agree with an article but think the author has omitted some points, write a post addressing these gaps. Don't write the same information. Take a little from each and repurpose what you have read. 

When reading and you disagree with the author, then write an article putting your views forward. You don't need to state who you disagree with. Package it as your idea. I actually would suggest you don't name the original. There is too much petty back-biting on sites like Medium for my liking. 

You can also look at your work and repurpose that. I am willing to bet that when you look at some of the first articles you wrote, you will shudder over the writing and the number of points you could have expressed better. This is your opportunity to change that by rewriting it. 

With social media, you might cut your articles into smaller chunks and use these as posts for X or Facebook, add an image, and have an Instagram post. 

Social Media Posts That Explode

Some of my articles have come from social media posts that have gained a lot of attention. Social media is also a brilliant way to establish whether articles will do well. 

You may have three of four headlines or article ideas you are considering. If you make each a social media post, you can see which gains more interest. These are the ones that you turn into longer-form content. 

Many of my articles come from short status updates on X that have gained a lot of attention, so I have elaborated them into full pieces, which have also gained a lot of readers. 

Don't Panic

Making time in your daily schedule to work on some of these techniques will help you grow an idea well. I have two different ways of storing these ideas. Article ideas are stored on my computer once I identify they are worth keeping. 

Fiction: I keep a notebook on me at all times. In this book are random thoughts and lines. For example, a line in my notebook says, 'the wind whistling down the chimney,' This will be included somewhere in a short story. It might remain in my book for years or be used next week. It doesn't matter; I have captured it. 

These techniques will help you build your idea well. Once you have a good collection of ideas, writing becomes easier as you can look at these ideas and decide what you are interested in writing. Every day, you sit down to compose a new article, you have many to choose from.