How To Always Have Ideas in Your Creative Well

Writers rely on Ideas and inspiration to craft a story. But a day would come when you’d feel depleted of ideas. You’ve squeezed out all of your creative juices. You’ve poured everything out — and therefore, you have little or nothing left in your creative well.

So how do you get it refilled? I think a better question should go this way: How did the now exhausted creative well manage to have creative juices in the first place?

True writings flow naturally. It emanates from a source within you. It is the voice that only you can hear — and the images only you can see. And these voices — and images come from a source that enriches itself through you — and for you.

“The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.”—Emily Dickinson

Nothing comes in if the windows of the mind are shut. So if your creative well often gets depleted, then maybe you’re not allowing your imagination to capture ideas for you. And this could be because you have a lifestyle that doesn’t support your creative life. You don’t make out time to relax — and immerse yourself into enjoyable activities and experiences that refill the creative well.

When you leave the windows of your mind open, you allow your imaginations to capture unique ideas that are encased in nature — and life. Your mind will filter them — and then the filtrate will drop right into your creative well. Sometimes the residues will also find their way right into your creative well. They’re the dregs that’d settle at the bottom of the well after you’ve used up the juices.

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Stress-free activities like walking, listening to music — and reading helps to enrich your subconscious mind. These activities disconnect you from busy activities — and connect you fully into the serene — and peaceful aspect of life where creative ideas stealthily dwell in abundance.

Walking for example is ideal for capturing fresh ideas — and for ideas that are already in your subconscious to swim to the surface.

The key is not to go looking for ideas and inspirations. You’re not even to expect anything. You just have to Immerse yourself into any relaxing activity you love — and soak up the aesthetic and pleasurable experience of life.

Another way is to consume the right information through reading. Even stepping into a bookshop or library and reading the prefaces — and titles of as many books as possible — can spring up ideas that are already in your subconscious.

And after engaging in any stress-free and enjoyable activities, you’re going to see juicy ideas swimming up to the surface from your subconscious. This could happen when you’re driving on a lonely road or stuck in traffic. It could happen when you’re having a delicious meal — or when you reflect on a conversation you had with someone over the phone. A fresh idea could trickle into your creative well at any time.

Sometimes I’ll see them trooping in just when I’m about to turn in. And I’ll instantly reach out for my phone and begin to type. The beauty of it all is that life will always send creative ideas to you. You just have to be alert to pick it out — and write it down immediately.

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” —John Steinbeck

An idea could trickle in — and later turn out to yield many pieces — or a writing path that may never come to an end.

You can take a leaf from J.K Rowling. An idea she came up with while sitting on a delayed train turned out to yield many wonderful stories — and movies. All she did was to fully immerse herself at the moment — and allow her imagination to do the work — and from there, the idea of a great story was conceived.

Jo conceived the idea of Harry porter in 1990 while sitting on a delayed train from Manchester to London king’s Cross. Over the next five years, she began to map out all seven books of the series. She wrote mostly in longhand and gradually built up a mass of notes, many of which are on odd scraps of paper. —J.K Rowling

Imagine if J.K Rowling hadn’t started working on that wonderful idea immediately? Probably the idea would have dissipated forever — and as a result, the Harry porter series may never see the light of day. And this, I believe is the reason why most writers start their writing from their creative notepads.

A good rule of thumb is to always write your ideas down. If you don’t write your ideas down, then you’ll always lack fresh writing ideas — and you’d hardly produce an original piece.

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When those images keep coming up in your head. You see them move beside each other — taking various shapes — and forms. When all of a sudden a particular line flashes up in your mind. You see one line linking up with another. It connects to images. And you know for certain that if you begin to write it down, you’re sure of writing more than a paragraph — then you have a story to write.

And it could turn out to be a great piece of work if you write it down forthwith. It can also become a great loss if you choose to ignore it. So it pays to always write those ideas down immediately — because they’re not going to remain at the bank of your mind waiting to be attended to.

“Ideas aren’t magical; the only tricky part is holding on to one long enough to get it written down.”—Lynn Abbey

Every idea is worth putting down even if it’s just a sentence — and then watch that single sentence metamorphose into a paragraph — and many pages of a wonderful story or a lovely book. It starts from a word, then a sentence, a paragraph, and then many pages.

In the words of Stephen King: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

Therefore as a writer, you must inculcate a lifestyle that ensures that your creative well never gets depleted of creative ideas. And this could be done by frequently consuming the right information through reading.

And by enriching the subconscious mind by routinely involving yourself in relaxing activities like walking, playing a musical instrument — and listening to music.