Most writers will tell you that some pieces they write just came to them in a dream, a thought, or something, and they were able to just write and write and were done in a matter of minutes (or hours or days depending on the type of work). But it normally doesn’t happen like that. Don’t get me wrong– it can happen and sometimes often– but inspiration usually is one of those traits that needs to be nudged out into the light– so to speak.
So how does one nudge their inspiration and come up with the greatest topic to write about since the invention of sliced bread? Well, there are a few ways to get some inspiration, like reading someone else’s books or blogs, watching the news or reading the paper, looking at your calender, or even your own writing. Let’s look into each one of these for a bit.
I love to read. It’s another one of my passions in life. I like to sink myself into a good book and play the heroine for a bit and I also like to read about someone’s else’s thoughts in a blog. These blogs or books can give me some ideas for my own writing, be that a review of their work, or just a great topic to explore for myself in a book, poem, or article.
Watching the news is another great way to get ideas for topics. It’s even a great way to re-discover one of the topics you’ve already written about. Now, exactly what do I mean by this? Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was watching The Today Show and they were interviewing a couple who wrote a book on intimacy. Naturally this sparked my interest because I too had written a book on intimacy about a year ago. It’s called Fibromyalgia and Sex Can Be a Pain In The Neck… and back and shoulders in case you wanted to know. I started to listen to the couple’s commitment to one another and genuinely liked what they had to say. Now, I didn’t leave it at that, I chose to write a blog about my thoughts on this couple and I also wrote about my own thoughts too. This not only gave me a chance to re-visit a topic I had previously written about, but it also gave me a chance to put another plug in for my book– and that can’t hurt can it?
Another great way to come up with a topic is to look at your calendar. What day, week, or month is it? Is there an Awareness Day coming up like Breast Cancer Awareness? A holiday like Christmas or July 4th? Or maybe you’re fond of a particular season or someone’s birthday? Each day on a calendar can be a potential topic for you to write about and the topics don’t have to be limited to that particular day, for instance, Memorial Day may be the kick off for the summer season, but it is also the kick off for home improvements. There’s two topic ideas for one day out of the year and it doesn’t have to stop there because the possibilities are endless.
Lastly, your own writing can be a great way to find a topic. I like to keep everything I write– I even have things I wrote from 20 years ago. Why? Because I’m a firm believer in letting something lie for a bit so you can get a clearer perspective on the subject. In other words, I will keep an article, poem, whatever, even if I deem it as really bad writing, for future topics. This has worked for me countless numbers of times when the subject I was writing about was great, but the actual writing wasn’t so good or didn’t make the point I wanted to convey.
These are just a few ways to come up with some topics for your writing. There are so many more and maybe I’ll go into a few of them in another blog. Right now, I think I’ll let this topic lie for a bit. Take care of yourself and happy writing!
Kimberley
