3 Unusual Places to Go for Your Writing Ideas

Writing is relatively easy.

Once you have an idea about the topic you want to explore, google and collect the available resources, start typing away on your keyboard, and after a couple of hours of editing and modifying, you have your newly birthed article on the screen.

Perhaps, I am a reductionist.

There is no denying that writing is a lot of work. On several occasions, I have slammed my laptop down out of frustration and shouted at my walls.

However, what makes it even harder is getting the perfect idea for writing. With the advent of affordable and accessible internet, everyone and their mothers are on the world wide web.

The articles that have been written and the ones in the process of being written have seemingly covered all the topics under the sky. It can get frustrating to get novel and unique ideas everyday.

It is more annoying to get an idea and find that it has already been covered in a much better and detailed post.

The other day, I was planning to write an article about the marketing strategies used by an Indian author, who went from a nobody to the top bestseller.

There was already an excellent piece about that on Medium. However, in my two months on Medium, I have discovered three unusual places I can get beautiful ideas.

These have helped me accumulate 100+ writing ideas in the form of drafts.

Park/Cafe

I have gotten my best ideas from observing people in their comfortable spaces: parks and cafes.

Human beings are the most exciting creatures to observe. When we believe that we aren’t being observed, we drop our masks. These are the times when you can observe the genuine emotions on their faces. These observations can tell you entire stories about their lives.

I have spent hours in my local coffee shop, looking at people.

Once, I saw a married couple getting all cozy. The woman was wearing all the accessories that a Hindu newlywed is supposed to wear for a couple of weeks after her wedding. On the other hand, her husband could have passed off as a single male, except for the wedding band on his finger, which was less apparent than the jewelry the woman was covered in.

As soon as the husband left to get their order, the woman stopped smiling. It seemed like she was no longer making efforts to hold on a pleasant face.

Immediately I started noting down points that led to this article.

Takeaway

Always keep your eyes open. While you can come across beautiful interactions and scenarios anywhere, cafes and parks are the best places in my experience. Human beings tend to relax while they are in these settings. It allows for more exciting and straightforward observations.

LinkedIn

I never expected LinkedIn to be a resourceful place for getting ideas for writing.

During the pandemic induced lockdown, I finally made my account on this website. While I didn’t care much initially, after I started writing for Medium, I started getting brilliant ideas from the app.

For instance, one of my contacts shared her experience with her disability. She talked about other people’s expectations regarding her disability.

What turned out to be insightful was that she concluded that movies were responsible for setting an idea inside people’s heads about how a person with a disability is supposed to behave.

That post led to a couple of hours in front of my laptop and resulted in an article.

Takeaway

Even though social media is already a well-established source to get writing ideas, apps like LinkedIn should not be ignored. Rather every site that has people sharing their personal stories can act as a great resource of ideas. Even Tinder can be one. I already have a draft inspired by my tinder experience.

Online publications asking for submissions

It might sound weird, but hear me out.

I recently read an article by Linda Caroll, where she listed publications looking for articles for their magazine. It led me to google online magazines and publications that are seeking submission.

I discovered that all of them have a list of topics that they publish. Besides, they have a list of topics they don’t publish.

Interestingly, these lists have given me some ideas for my medium articles. In one magazine, I saw that they had listed trauma as one of the topics. As I scrolled down, I saw relationships as another tag.

As my brain combined the two, I came up with an idea and immediately started typing. Another unique magazine is Bicycles and Broomsticks that ask for short pieces that include witchcraft and bicycling themes through a feminist lens.

Takeaway

Reading other writer’s work can help you, both directly and indirectly.

Conclusion

The moral of the story is that you can get ideas to write in any nook and cranny of the world. All you need is to keep your mind open to all possibilities. Never ignore any source of information that you might have lying just beside you.