James Altucher, an internet celebrity and writer, advocates writing a list of 10 ideas every day. The hope is, by generating 3650 ideas, you will have a few winners: ideas that make a big impact.
I followed Altucher's suggestions a few times without much success. I just don't seem to have it in me to become an idea machine.
When a writing challenge I'm part of, sent a prompt for "100 ideas you wish to write about", my first reaction was to give it a miss. I almost quit just a couple of days after the challenge started.
Then I decided to give it a shot. I listed the broad topics I wished to write about - which was only 3 ideas.
I then used a couple of frameworks I had created to break these topics down into component ideas. This gave me just under 20 ideas.
Then I used my favourite framework for developing ideas: Why-What-How-Now. That helped me get to 72 ideas.
I took a break, went for a walk, and thought of a few more adjacent themes that I could write about. Then applying the frameworks, I came up with more ideas that allowed me to cross the 100 mark.
My takeaway from this exercise: don't just rely on your brain/memory to come up with ideas. Use frameworks that increase the number of ideas, even if mechanically.
See: 100 Ideas I Wish To Write About (List)
I followed Altucher's suggestions a few times without much success. I just don't seem to have it in me to become an idea machine.
When a writing challenge I'm part of, sent a prompt for "100 ideas you wish to write about", my first reaction was to give it a miss. I almost quit just a couple of days after the challenge started.
Then I decided to give it a shot. I listed the broad topics I wished to write about - which was only 3 ideas.
I then used a couple of frameworks I had created to break these topics down into component ideas. This gave me just under 20 ideas.
Then I used my favourite framework for developing ideas: Why-What-How-Now. That helped me get to 72 ideas.
I took a break, went for a walk, and thought of a few more adjacent themes that I could write about. Then applying the frameworks, I came up with more ideas that allowed me to cross the 100 mark.
My takeaway from this exercise: don't just rely on your brain/memory to come up with ideas. Use frameworks that increase the number of ideas, even if mechanically.
See: 100 Ideas I Wish To Write About (List)