This post was originally published in November 2018 and revised and updated in June 2024.
Sometimes, you might want to write – but you don’t know what to write about. You’re out of ideas.
Whether you’re working on blog posts, novels, short stories, freelance article pitches, or something else entirely, you need ideas. And you might have times when it feels like fresh ideas are in very short supply.
Perhaps you could come up with an idea if you truly had to – but it wouldn’t necessarily be something
that interests you enough for you to devote valuable writing time to it.
When I’ve finished one big writing project, like a novel, I often feel empty of ideas. So much of my creative energy has gone into the work I’ve just finished, it feels like I’ll never have any more ideas that I like as much.
Having gone through this several times now, I know that a new compelling idea will eventually come to me! It’s just a matter of time. I don’t need to worry that I’ve come down with some incurable case of writer’s block.
But if you’re in that situation too, what can you do to fill the time while you’re waiting for that new idea? Or how can you help it
along?
At this point, I could give you a long list of writing prompts: a hundred things to write about to pick from at random. I do think writing prompts can be helpful (and we’ll come onto some good sources of them later) … but, probably, you’re more interested in finding an idea of your own, one that really grabs you, not some ready-made idea from me.
Here are some things to try.
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