Photo credit to Jad Limcaco

Oh, the good old blogger's default bank. I've been so busy the past week that my usual "just let the ideas come to you" method hasn't worked, so we're going to take one from the ol' blogger's default bank.

Long story short, we're going to talk about creative block.

(Thanks for the post suggestion @greenbigfrog)

No ideas.

Your trusty old methods have failed you - what the f$#k do you do now?!

If you're a normal person, your first instinct might be to go into panic mode and start overthinking. "Why can't I get new ideas?" might be the first question to yourself on that really long list.

If the previous section described your situation accurately, it might be helpful for you to take a look at the image below before you continue.

Now that we have that in mind, we can move forward. It's time to find your next big idea. You may think that it is hard, but after you've completed this process, you might not find it that hard at all.

Step 1: Give up.

What?! Give up? But I need those ideas by yesterday!

You can't force ideas to come to you, but you can help the process move along. You need to accept this.

I think we've all had moments in our lives where you need ideas quick, but you just can not come up with something instantly.

We've also realized that trying to force the ideas to come leads to nothing good, leading back to the title of this section - "give up."

Step 2: Do something different.

You might need both sides of your brain to find a solution to the situation.

If you're stuck trying to come up with ideas, try doing something else for a while and then come back to it. Your brain works on problems while you're doing something else and switching activities might help you get that next killer idea.

What has worked for me personally is doing something for which I don't need to actively use my brain. Some examples of these kinds of activities are washing dishes, going for a walk, cleaning etc.

Step 3: ???

Step 4: Eureka!

Congratulations! You've now got an idea.

Alright, maybe it's not that simple.

You need to brainstorm for topics though. Here is my three-step process for brainstorming for topics:

1. Think about the world around you. What is interesting to you right now?
2. What knowledge do you already have that you could use to write about what is interesting to you right now?
3. What more specifically do you want to talk about?

Once you've got your general topic and a somewhat specific target, it's time to lock in what you're going to write about. I like to do this by choosing a title and that will be exactly what I'm going to talk about. An example is the title of this post:

"I've run out of ideas - what now?"

I use the title to guide me throughout the writing process. Everything I write should follow what the title states.

Conclusion

Not having ideas is not the end of the world. You can not force ideas, but you can help the process along. Try to use different parts of your brain, it might help and do boring activities so your brain has time to play around.

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The style of this post is a little different from how I usually write, so I'd love some feedback!

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