Back to Basics: Generate Ideas to Find What You Have to Say
[Ep 226]\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWith my Back to Basics series, I'm providing tools you can apply to your next project in hopes it will make the writing process easier and the final product stronger than ever\u2014so you can make an impact.\n\n\n\nLast time, we started by identifying a project's high-level elements\u2014its Topic, Audience, Purpose, and Medium. After that, you can focus on the message of your project; that is, given your topic, what is this project\u2019s IDEA.\n\n\n\nWhat do you write about\u200b?\xa0Is it\xa0running, longevity, RV travel, cooking on a budget, stamp collecting, or social justice?\n\n\n\nMaybe you\u2019re known for this topic and it\u2019s your brand identity, or maybe you\u2019ve been assigned this by an editor. Regardless, you start with a topic, but you don\u2019t stop there.\n\n\n\nYou have to hone in on an idea: a narrowed idea suitable for this particular project and this particular audience. Your finalized idea will reflect the slant or angle you\u2019re taking that will provide focus and set your project apart from others tackling the same topic.\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s tempting to latch onto the first idea that pops into our heads\u2014and sometimes those are indeed fresh and full of potential. Most of the time, though, if we want to write something that stands out, we\u2019re better off taking time to send the idea through five phases:\n\n\n\nGenerateNarrowValidateRevise (adapt, adjust)Confirm or Finalize\n\n\n\n1. Generate\n\n\n\nFirst, you\u2019ll generate ideas. You\u2019re about to hear lots of tips for generating ideas in this episode, and I\u2019ll include links to a few other articles and resources. You can test them out and find what works best for you.\xa0\n\n\n\n2. Narrow\n\n\n\nWhen you land on some ideas with potential, you\u2019ll narrow them to suit your audience, purpose, and medium. You\u2019ll also find your unique slant.\n\n\n\n3. Validate\n\n\n\nWhen it seems your idea has potential, you\u2019ll validate the idea, especially if you\u2019re launching a big project like a book. But even when you\u2019re planning an article or blog post, it\u2019s smart to take a few steps to vet the idea, and I\u2019ll explain that in another episode.\n\n\n\n4. Revise\n\n\n\nAfter that process, you\u2019ll adapt it based on the input you receive during the validation phase, revising and adjusting the idea as needed.\n\n\n\n5. Confirm or Finalize\n\n\n\nThe last phase will be to confirm your idea and finalize it so you can dig in and\u2014finally!\u2014write.\n\n\n\nA five-phase process just to lock in an idea may sound like overkill and it may seem like it\u2019ll take ages, but you\u2019ll breeze through it\u2014especially for short projects. And it\u2019s definitely worth it for longer projects because they\u2019ll come together more efficiently when you walk through these phases.\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s start with what it takes to generate ideas.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGenerate Ideas to Find What You Have to Say\n\n\n\nWhen we begin our search for writing ideas, we start with ourselves. What are you drawing from to produce your projects? What\u2019s in you? What do you have to say?\n\n\n\nGenerate Ideas by Remembering\n\n\n\nOur writing usually flows out of the person we are. The ideas we share are ideas inside us, so writing about our past and drawing from memories, we can pull up ideas that formed us, challenged us, confused us.\n\n\n\nUsing those memories as the centerpiece of a project, we can dive in to explore the meaning, the truth, the lies, and the message locked in our past.\n\n\n\nThese ideas flow from the richness of remembering.\n\n\n\nGenerate Ideas by Living\n\n\n\nWe continue to add to our memories by increasing experiences. So another way to generate ideas is by living.\n\n\n\nThe stories we tell, if nonfiction, are experiences we\u2019ve had or observed in others\u2014or heard from others.\xa0\n\n\n\nAnd, actually, if we write fiction, the scenes and ideas still flow from what we\u2019ve seen, heard, tasted, smelled...from what we\u2019ve experienced. Even mundane assignments start with our exposure to and understanding of the subject matter.\n\n\n\nTo generate ideas, we have to live. To live well, we can make choices that take us places, switch things up, change our perspective, widen our lens.