The most common question that authors are asked is “Where do you get ideas?” The second most common questions is “How do you produce blog posts week after week without running out of something to say?”

 Here is the short answer:  Get busy filling up the well and you will never be lacking in the idea or creativity realm.

IDEAS:HOW DO I KEEP REFILLING THE WELL?

• Read ebooks, ezines, other’s blogs
• Listen to music, audiobooks, podcasts
• Indulge in new things like a new sport, a new talent (art?), anything that will make you want to write about it
• Watch movies, videos, documentaries, webinars
• Meet with others and ask questions to enlarge your horizon
• Go back to school, take a class, go to a conference
• Examine your family history, write about your childhood, get the juices flowing

Enjoy a well-lived life. Envelop yourself with things that make you happy and excited and give you inspiration and motivation. Go AFTER your ideas.

BE MINDFUL OF THE GIGO EFFECT

Garbage in and Garbage out will not benefit you in any respect. Be mindful of what you spend your time on while enlarging your horizon. Too much mindless video games, or bad movies, or political pandering might inhibit your creativity rather than encourage it.

WRITE ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE

Take your experience, be it through book, music, art, or another form and try to write about it. Paint a picture with words. Post it on your blog, put it into a book of your own. Make poetry with it – or even a podcast. This will enable your creativity to flow and be effective. It will seek out another of the same interest and spark something inside of them and they will be off and running on their own journey.

That’s the beauty of artistic endeavor. It must be shared! 

Today, as I walked down a corridor at work, I experienced a fun situation. A really wonderful woman that I work with was a little distance ahead. She walked with her left arm crooked and her purse draped artfully over it. I could just picture her as a child doing the same thing with a bag her mother gave her – and how proud she was to be able to prance around carrying a “purse”. It made an instant impression on me that I know will at some time go into a book or story.  This idea came completely out of nowhere – but once I had it, it followed me all day long.

This is exactly what I mean – [Tweet “Ideas come unbidden-but once they arrive, they demand attention #zenforwriters”]

What else do you think would help you?