Lack of ideas on what to write? Here’s what to do.
A simple framework for a writing-productive day, every day.
When my mind is blank on what to write, I know it’s a classic symptom of a lack of reading.
So before I drown in the “What do I write?” ocean, I use this simple framework to keep my head above water:
The best part of this framework is that it’s not linear.
The idea is not to finish the items in the reading list and then move to the writing list. The idea here is to activate the lazy mind. 🥱 🧠
What happens in 15 minutes of reading?
Just like you do a warm-up before a long run or a gym session, think of this as a warm-up for your brain. 15 is an arbitrary number, the magic can happen in 5 mins or 10 mins, sometimes even in the first few mins!
Normally, when you’re around halfway through reading an article or watching a video, your mind starts brimming with ideas. 💡💡
The type of ideas may vary.
- If you are super lucky, you instantly make a connection between what you already know with something that you read just now. And voila! You have a brand new and interesting thing to write about. These intersections are very exciting. When this happens, it’s time to stop reading and switch to a long and focused writing session. ✍️ ⏳
- At other times, you come up with an interesting topic that you’d like to write about but you’re not sure what all would go in there. It’s more of a half-baked idea. It would need more thinking or research. When this happens, quickly jot down the idea in its crudest form and get back to reading. ✍️ 📖
In a very interesting essay that I was reading, I had to switch multiple times in the first few minutes! Exciting ideas kept popping up in my head and I didn’t want to lose them. I would write a new idea, go back to reading the essay, write another idea, go back to reading, and so on.
It went something like this…
Finally, I just wanted to read in peace. So I kept my laptop on one side and decided to continue reading for the next half an hour without any more writing interruptions. ✍️ 🚫 → 📖 ✅
What to read?
For idea generation, what helps me are the non-fiction inspirational writings, not the ones that give you a step-by-step on how to do something.
Step-by-step instructions or a narrow framework restricts our minds from thinking wide and from making weird connections.
Thinking wide and making weird connections is the holy grail of getting new ideas.
What inspires you will be different from what inspires me. But if you’re interested, here are some of my go-to resources:
- Long-form reading: Paul Graham essays, Ness Labs articles, and Farnam Street articles.
- Instant inspiration: 3–2–1 by James Clear and daily blog by Nik.
- Inspirations from past: Often, I revisit my past articles for inspiration. This is not to brag about my writing skills. On the contrary, I almost always feel like I can improve an existing piece I wrote. That is the biggest challenge in reading your existing writings — you need to ssh 🤫 the editor in you.
- Books: Homo Deus, Think Again, and Thinking, Fast and Slow.
- YouTubers: Huberman Lab, Ali Abdaal, and TED-Ed.
Where to write?
If you are prone to editing each sentence you write, writing on paper is a better choice. It will also help avoid distractions by social media notifications and help develop a focused, writing habit.
If you don’t have the above problems and would rather not sacrifice speed, keypad is a better choice.
I prefer using a physical notebook for morning pages and Notion for work writing.
Eventually, you never want to run out of ideas. And for that, you need to build a library of your ideas.
Building a library of ideas
If there’s one point you can take from this article, it’s — read, read, and read some more. Reading helps your mind generate a lot of ideas.
Build a library of ideas as they pop up in your head.
And they do pop up. Every now and then…
Not just while reading.
Ideas pop up while walking, running, showering, TikToking, even while you’re watching Netflix.
Jot them down. Every single time on any medium of your choice: in your writing app, a small diary you always keep with you, on post-its, WhatsApp yourself, your bathroom mirror, it doesn’t matter where.
Soon, you’ll have enough ideas to last you for weeks and months to come.
Happy writing ✍️
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