The Daily Freelancer: Generating Ideas
(When in a bind with generating ideas for a blog, write a blog about generating ideas!)
When I began moving into freelance writing, especially wanting to pitch to publications, I needed to have ideas. I mean, I have writing ideas, of course! But as a fiction writer, you’re really only swirling around one idea for a few years. When you do this professionally, you need to have a steady stream of ideas to pull from. Here are some things that I’ve learned, knowing that I’m still learning!
Start Small
This was the first mindset I had to overcome. I was concerned with only finding the One Great Idea that I could write, and all others were too small. But a lot of content is centered around small ideas — they need to be, if you’re producing frequent content. A professor of mine used to say that when you’re writing, don’t start with the “universe, the earth, the heavens” and narrow down; start with one image and build up. It’s better to have ten tiny ideas to build on.
But Will There Be Interest?
This was another mindset I had to overcome. There are a lot of things that I know about writing, and I always thought that either everyone else knew about them too, or no one would care. The reality is that most people actually don’t know the things you know, and even small ideas can draw an audience if the audience is interested. Someone may think that learning how to change the design of bullet points on a Squarespace template would be too small, or a waste of time. But I Googled that a few weeks ago, found a short post someone wrote, and used the information to change my bullet points. There always seems to be interest.
Coming Up With Ideas
The best hedge for idea generation is having a place to keep them. I would advise having one place you can go to over and over again so you can have ideas readily in front of you. Some people use a notebook. I use Evernote, which is a great web or desktop notepad (that you can organize or search). First, start with things that you know about, and think about everything related to that topic, like things you do on a daily basis that might educate others. For example, things on my list include how to read better, how to conduct an interview, how to submit to literary magazines, how to engage on social media… Think in terms of one-off posts, and series. As ideas pop in your head, write them down. Or spend some time silently crafting them, too. You’ll begin to have a well to pull from.
Advanced Brainstorming
Is there such a thing as a right and wrong way of brainstorming? Apparently there is! Head over to this primer on brainstorming from IDEO, a design thinking firm. This guide is for groups, but you can apply it as well. The key takeaways are this: when you’re writing down ideas, you want to get the initial ideas out, and then go behind those initial ideas; don’t judge your ideas as you go, but let them flow freely; find new methods to come up with ideas, like mashing ideas together, doing a survey, or changing up your medium with something like drawing instead.
Pitching Is Not One-and-Done
You don’t get one chance to pitch your one brilliant idea. Even with the same publication, you can pitch multiple ideas multiple times, which is why it’s good to have many in your pocket. Additionally, if someone is interested in working with you but didn’t like your first idea, they may ask what other ideas you have — make sure you have them! Again, getting turned down by an editor doesn’t mean you can’t pitch a new idea to that same editor. Keep trying!
Hopefully this will be enough to get your juices flowing. And leave a comment below to tell me about your process for idea generation.
Hi! I’m Jessica, and I can write your content. Head to my Writer for Hire page, and work with me today!
