Write.
Write down ideas when you have them. You’re more than likely to forget them if you don’t. This isn’t only helpful for remembering ideas but also generating new ones and it applies to helping you come up with any idea, not just when it comes to writing content.
By writing your ideas down, you can easily see them all at once and combine them to create new ones. You can keep a Field Notes⇗ log or a stack of index cards. It doesn’t matter your method, just pick one that works for you and stick with it.
Content Generation
This method helped me with generating content for a blog I once maintained at a previous job. I kept sort of an editorial calendar, which was a spreadsheet with a few tabs within it.
The first sheet would list out the content that has already been posted to the site and some analytic info about each.
The second sheet would list items that were in the works or queue, and who should be the writer of them (usually me).
The third sheet had post ideas.
The Big Picture
By laying all the content out in front of me, I found it simpler to come up with new content and ideas, which sometimes included combining existing ones. And, as I’ve posted before, clearing ideas from your head by noting them down makes room for new ones.
It’s easier to keep the ball rolling than to have to start it new each time you go to write. Then again, this doesn’t have to apply just to writing.
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Comment and Connect
What’s your preferred method for coming up with and logging new ideas? Feel free to share it with me on Twitter, @flyinthecoop.
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