Quirky Places Your Writing Ideas Are Lurking Around
And you have access to them all, but one (maybe)
Remember the game Hot-and-Cold, where one has to find something by asking ‘hot or cold’? Well, content ideas are always HOT around you. Coz they are everywhere.
Nonetheless, many writers get stuck at this stage for a long time. But if you pay close attention to little things that happen around us, this would not be that daunting a problem anymore. In fact, it becomes a minefield of gold.
A piece of advice- always keep something handy to catch these ideas. They are as slippery as an eel. Even as you read this story, many might surface. Do not let go of them.
Movie characters
May it be Betsy Solverson of Fargo, who is diagnosed with cancer but gives a ‘f’ about it, or Tali Shapira of Hit and Run, who is heavily pregnant and shatters all the fallacies of fragility attached to pregnancy. Characters like these, and so many more, are inspirations to write about. May it be about the character, what it stands for, what it proclaims.
Travel
Long or short, between the city or beyond, near or far. Every travel gives away a story that needs to be told. The magnanimity of nature, the small tea-shop by the road, a family of ducks crossing the road, the endless meandering road, or the irony of life when you see that poor beggar near you, yet so far away — everything can be a story. Sometimes, it may tickle your funny bone as it did for me once.
Daily mundane activities
Yes, there can be magnificence in mundanity. For example, I had an idea while doing dishes — about doing dishes. Another, while I was clearing out my cupboard. Studies prove that mundane routines and repetitive actions induce mindfulness. It is this calm that opens doors to ingenious imagination.
Brain dump
I was introduced to this concept recently in a workshop, and it has proven quite effective. As the name suggests, it is an exercise to empty your brain; to devoid it of a single thought. It can start with a single word/phrase. And then it goes from one random thought to another. I started mine with the word ‘clock’, and somewhere in between, I had this idea of why one should not be a my-kids-are-my-life sort of parent.
Children
This one is a cornucopia of ideas. Equipped with limitless imagination and devoid of the limitations of logic and boundaries, children are always full of ideas to borrow from. My nephew became an idea source for me when he said- my life is full of passwords! That led to a piece on guarding screen time of a kid versus own sanity. Not just that, just being a parent gives you endless things to talk about. So, go out. Have a chat with a kid!
Eavesdropping
Yes, you heard it right. We hear a lot of things around us. Loud neighbors, talks in gatherings, conversations in public places — you hear them all though you are not the intended listener, and yet, they have the potential of being a great content generator.
Life incidents
Life is what, if not a story? It is a collection of some significant and some insignificant ones. So feel free to take few pages from that book. Life incidents inspire many personal essays and opinion-based articles. Things as big as a failed business to a random birthday message, a childhood incident to the loss of a dear one — life has given us writers a lot to write about.
Images
I was attending a webinar today, and one of the slides was this.
It got me thinking. Why is there the picture of a woman when it comes to staying at home and spending time with kids!? How biased are we, still, at a subconscious level? And some.
You know what I am saying.
Images are relative stories.
The same image may trigger different emotions for different people. Or might trigger nothing for many. Keeping your eyes peeled. How is that image triggering you?
A piece of news
I call it a readymade idea. Something that has already happened. Something that needs to be talked about and opinionated about. May it be the decision of the german women gymnast team deciding to give the middle finger to sports sexualization or about the state of humanity after Pakistan stops border crossing with Afghanistan.
Incidents trigger sentiments and emanate opinions. That’s food for the writer.
Conversations
My husband once referred to Amazon as my husband. Of course, that was a casual comment, but thank you; I got my story — why I would choose Amazon over my husband! Or when my old professor asked me why I sounded submissive in my writing.
Conversations are like more than one person brainstorming. Double the chances of an idea popping its head. Grab it with both horns.
Respinning
In fact, this story is a respun one. But, I had so much to add to this later piece—version 2.0. You, too, must have several ideas that can be made into still better stories when you re-think now. Go ahead, do that. To add to that, it is an easier task since the groundwork has already been done.
Quora
It is a great source of ideas. It is like they are just waiting to be picked and written about. It’s a sea of people ideating and questioning. The same goes for other social media platforms. Today the last thing a writer could fall short of is an idea!
There is so much content all around us, that you actually need to shut your eyes and maybe switch off your wi-fi to stop ideas to come to you!
Reading and borrowing
We writers are symbiotic creatures- we feed each other.
And as James Clear once said- Your quality of thoughts is determined by the quality of your reading. So I have fused reading and borrowing because they are inseparable.
And there is nothing wrong with being inspired by another writer. One may have a different opinion, something to add, or a better way to tell it. As long as a writer is totally genuine with the writing, it is fine.
Can you imagine a situation where every topic was written about just once!? I cannot. So, go along, read, and be inspired.
On the commode
The quirkiest one for the last. This is the one I was doubtful about when I say ‘access to all, but one’. I don’t know whether it works for you or not, but it does for me. It’s a me-space for me. I hear that distant sound, see that splotch of water on the floor shaped like a sheep, or just my toes. And from there, my thoughts wander. Oh! And to where not!
One more thing, I do not carry my phone inside. That hinders my thought journey. What about you? Do you carry your phone or book to the thought throne? (That’s a great idea! Commode being a thought throne!)
So, how many ideas do you have?
I hope you are sitting on a pile by now.
I believe coming up with a great idea to write about is the easiest part of the job when it comes to writing. However, making a fire of that spark might be an uphill task.
Ideas are like easter eggs strewn around, waiting for you to pick that basket and start collecting them.
