Finding more ideas on what to write can be challenging, especially when feeling uninspired. After all, you cannot fill up a blank page without cultivating new ideas to write. And no matter how good a writer you are, you’ll eventually run into that dreaded state of mental blankness and find that your creative well has run dry.
Are you stuck in that horrible moment when brilliant ideas aren’t flowing? Do you struggle to come up with an idea worth sharing? Your mind goes blank, and you can only think of one thing: “What should I write?”
You’re not alone. All writers struggle with this situation.
Worry no more because this article will share with you things to write about. You can use this as fuel to keep the inspiration to write burning.
But first, let’s discuss how to figure out interesting ideas for your content.
Table of Contents
Smart Ways to Figure Out Things to Write About
Find Ideas on the Internet
The Internet is a great resource for your writing prompts. However, consider whether someone else has already discussed what you want to write about when you’re looking for ideas to make your creative juices flowing. It’s most likely that several people have already covered a particular popular subject if it’s a broad one.
You should observe how other authors have produced their work and consider how yours would differ. Make use of your perspective about a particular idea.
Your perspective is a unique blend of experiences, influences, knowledge, interests, emotions, and opinions. Since no two people are exactly alike, you’ll have some things that set you apart from others.
You also might want to look online for writing prompts. There are many websites out there that offer story ideas. With the abundance of writing prompts, you are likely to find a good idea that you can use for your writing prompts.
Search engines like Google Search can be a big help too. When you start typing in a query, the autocomplete feature will suggest popular search terms related to your topic. Try using “how-to” or “what-to” in your search and see if the autocomplete suggestions are something you’d like to write.
Tip: Use online tools to help you find data on what people are searching the web in your niche. There is no shortage of these tools these days. Some examples are Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, Moz Keyword Explorer, and Keyword Surfer.
List All the Things You’re Passionate About
Start with something that excites you, something you genuinely believe in, and appeals to you personally to find inspiration. After all, you’ll enjoy and be motivated by writing prompts if it’s something you’re excited about and brings you happiness.
Thus, you’ll be more successful in sharing your ideas if you’re enthusiastic about them.
List all the things you love, whether simple or complex or big or small. This list can be a source of inspiration for you for your writing projects.
Look Back to Your Experiences
It is possible to use your personal experiences to inspire you. Take a moment to think about the different situations that you have experienced. Write about how you felt in those moments and how they affected you.
When you think about your life, write all the thoughts, images, and words that come to mind, and you’ll be surprised at how much you can get out of your memories.
Determine Your Expertise
Everybody has expertise in something. You should look at yourself and figure out what you are good at. Write down your abilities and talents.
You can be good at your job, and you can be good at cooking, playing sports, and many other things. You have a skill that is unique to you and can use it to have inspiration for your next writing project.
Ask Your Family Members or Friends
It can also be a good idea to ask people you know well, like a family member, if you’re struggling to develop a topic for your content to find inspiration.
Your family member, best friend, or close friend might have some ideas for you. They probably have a better comprehension of your point of view.
These people will be able to help you think about whether there are effective ways to approach your experiences in a way that people will find interesting and helpful.
Record Random Ideas
Do your daily routine as you normally would. Then record all the random ideas and specific detail that pop immediately into your head.
Try to keep a pen and paper handy or a digital device so you can jot down anything as soon as it comes to mind.
You’ll be surprised to find more and more things to write about.
Creating a long list of ideas is good because it helps you get rid of your mental blockages, helps you feel more creative, and is the best way to ensure that you will never run out of things to write about.
If you get bored with your chosen idea or feel you’d instead write about another topic, you can return to this list.
Experience the World
You’ll run out of ideas if you limit your experiences to your usual daily grind.
Creative ideas are often a product of experiences, so go out of your comfort zone and explore the world more to see world events.
Listen to as much music as you love, go for a walk, shop, run, whatever. Ideas will often pop out to you when you least expect them.
Things to Write About
The above should be able to help you come up with things to write about, but because we want to go all out to help you, we came up with a list of writing ideas for your perusal, both for fiction writers and non-fiction. So indulge yourself, and feel free to use these for your following great content.
For Nonfiction Content
If you can’t think of content ideas for your nonfiction book or blog post, here are some topics to help you.
Questioning the Position of an Article
The best content is that which makes readers question their assumptions and beliefs. When you get stuck on ideas for content, try finding recent headlines and articles that are highly interesting.
Make sure you’re well-informed on the topic you choose and then write a piece of opinion where you challenge the stance of the article.
If you don’t outright disagree with the argument, try to find some weak points.
There’s always a flaw somewhere.
Arguments That Change Your Mind
Many people cannot be easily convinced to change their stance about something. But what about your experience of having your mind changed?
Remember when you were so sure of something but came to believe something else? How did it happen? How did you feel about the subject before you got involved with the argument? And what is your current opinion on the subject?
If you were converted, then it’s likely that you can change someone’s mind, too. This can be a suitable topic for your next content.
Detailed and Specific Content
While you’ve probably already looked at several bigger-picture blog post, now it’s time to dig into some details.
For example, if you have already written a broad topic about marketing, you might now consider writing specific content such as social media marketing, why Instagram reels are great for getting more sales, or the benefits of sales funnels.
About Your New Hobby
If you’ve gotten a bit of a new hobby, there are probably people out there wondering what it takes to get into the swing of things and what they’re going to get into when they start.
So, become that person who can tell them what it’s like every step of the way. Write about how to learn the basics, where to look for tips, advice, resources, and more.
You can even talk to someone who’s “been there, done that” about their experience.
Your Failures In Life
We cannot achieve success every single time. So why not write about a time when you failed?
Be vulnerable and share your story. Your readers will be able to feel your authenticity through your struggles and learn about how you overcome them.
You might find it motivating to let your audience know this aspect of your real life because they’ll find your failures relatable.
An Open Letter to Your Younger Self
Writing a heartfelt letter to your more youthful self is great content and can be helpful.
They can be quite therapeutic, and you can use them to laugh at past mistakes. It’s probably a good idea to start your letter with an honest assessment of yourself in your younger years.
Perhaps you’ll be able to identify the traits that led to your mistakes. Then, you can focus on the changes you want to see in your life and tell your younger self exactly how you want to change things.
This can be a great way to make your more youthful self feel less responsible for your current circumstances and more of a cause for celebration.
A Different Perspective of Your Popular Post
If you’re into a blog post, one of the best indicators of whether your posts hit a sweet spot is how many people click through to read them. Can you cover the same topic freshly or offer different information?
Write a follow-up post based on an existing topic. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to make yourself stand out. Take an alternative approach, give it a new twist, or tackle the same topic differently.
Content About Your Addictions
I’m sure you know of the things that make you tick: maybe it’s a medication you simply cannot live without, a TV show you love, or an activity that is a must for you every day.
Dissect what it means to have this obsession. Are there consequences? Is it a good thing? Or is it a bad thing?
If you think about the implications of the thing, how it affects society or how it’s perceived, you may see the potential for a longer writing prompt.
From a Famous Line or Statement
Countless statements, from literary content or in the news, can prompt a reaction from people.
Look for one that resonates with you and could lead to a reflective, analytical, or emotional response. You’ll likely come up with something interesting—maybe even a thought or feeling of your own—that will get you thinking.
The goal is to find something that strikes a chord with you and then write about it.
A Particular Issue That Affects You Significantly
Is there an issue that you’re concerned about? If so, do a bit of research online. Look at newspaper and magazine articles relating to the issue or at academic studies on the topic.
Start writing your self reflection on it based on the information you’ve found. You might find that your experience confirms or contradicts what you’ve read.
Your Writing Profession
A good starting point idea to write is about writing itself. Talk about your writing habits, what motivates you, and how this profession affects your life.
Reflect on your writing experience, how writing feels, what you find most satisfying about it, what you struggle with, and when you are most productive.
Yes, it’s fun to have a little reflection and share this with your readers.
For Fiction Content
If you’re writing a novel like science fiction, short story, or even flash fiction, you can use these topic ideas as a starting point for your story.
About a Strange Person
It’s amazing how many interesting characters we encounter every day. Whether they are from work, school, or a local coffee shop, we come across people who inspire us.
What if you could write short stories about them? For example, you may meet someone at a coffee shop or a bar who inspires you.
Maybe he is wearing a hat, has tattoos, or is wearing an earring. What if you could write about him? You can invent a backstory for everyone. What if they used to be famous rock stars?
Or maybe they are a criminal you saw on the news, and you could imagine how they got caught. Getting a fictional character for yourself is always challenging, but once you’ve got the idea, you can expand it differently.
Your Worst Fear
It’s a good idea to imagine what would happen if your worst fear happened. It is possible to become creative when you are scared of something. To write an exciting novel, use your fears and concerns.
It could be used as a scenario in a thriller, an adventure, or a romantic suspense novel.
Fictional Interview
Have you ever seen a movie where a psychiatrist or therapist interviews a person? They’re asked a series of questions about their lives and the things that have bothered them.
You can use this technique to create a story where you are asking a few questions about your main character.
A Character With an Adventurous Life
Write a story from the perspective of your protagonist. Make your character do all the things you want to do. Make it adventurous, wild, and exciting. Would your character jump off a cliff?
Runaway from home? Drive a much faster car than the one you have right now? Or try to escape from prison? Be creative and see where it leads them.
Alternative Scenario From Your Childhood Memories
It’s a great book idea to imagine an event from your earliest childhood memory about a time that may have impacted your life and envision an alternative scenario. What would have been different had you done something differently? What if your life had taken a different course?
Would you be the person you are today? Perhaps you would be a completely different person with a different personality, career, or even different gender. What if you had been born into a different family? Would you be married to someone else, living in a different city, or even in a different country?
What if you go back in time and try a different path? Play around with “what-ifs.” You might just come up with a winning story from your childhood memory.
Revitalized Popular Story
It’s a good book idea to create a new story based on the ideas and characters from an old one. You can add characters to make it fresh and relevant again for your audience.
Change your storyline and settings to be different, but the basic idea of the plot should work with the theme. It’s better to add new events than to subtract the old ones.
Your audience might like it better if you put in some new twists. Make the ending different from the original. And add some additional elements to make it exciting.
Story Behind the Lyrics of a Song
Songs are so often used to express emotions. They can tell stories uniquely, but it’s not always easy to see them. As you listen to songs, try to imagine what the world of the song is like. Think about the characters in your favorite song.
Try to see their problems and what they must overcome to find happiness.
Imagine the scenes they experience and where they are. You’ll find that you can start writing a story by taking a closer look at the lyrics.
Random Sentence in a Book
All you need to do is flip to a random book page of your favorite book, find anything on that page, and use that sentence as a starting point for your story. Since you’ll do this randomly, don’t aim for a particular part.
To avoid plagiarism, don’t use the sentence as an opening line; instead, use that as a writing prompt.
Old Photograph Narrative
Do you have old photographs? They hold many memories, and stories are behind each photo. And that could be a good starting point for a creative writing project.
You can also use them as writing inspiration for a story or novel. You can create characters, settings, and plots and even write about a past event.
Inspired by a Weird News
You can also get inspired by the web’s weirdest, most obscure, and offbeat stories.
To create a plot idea for a story, read a headline from the Daily Mail, HuffPost, BBC News, or other news platforms.
And even if you don’t end up using the ideas, reading about them can help you think creatively and develop unique story ideas.
Favorite Recipe That Brings You Nostalgia
Some foods can trigger recollections and significant memories, either of past events or times in your own life experiences. The smells, tastes, textures, and sights of preparing and eating food can transport you back in time.
Maybe that’s why most people like to eat when they’re feeling down; there’s something about food that makes it a magnificent vehicle for reminding you of the happy times in your life experiences.
If you want to write something that has a certain amount of nostalgia or contemplation to it, try using a recipe or a simple narrative about cooking as a starting point.
Be Inspired and Write!
If you feel you’re going through writer’s block, remember that it’s a natural part of your profession. Even if you work on your craft with the utmost discipline, you will likely experience a creative slump. It is frustrating to keep trying to write when nothing seems to work.
You might even get into a routine and fall out of your writing groove. Yes, there will always be days when the ideas just don’t flow.
Keep in mind that no matter how hard we try or how many approaches we apply, there are random things beyond our control. However, we can control our attitude and put our best effort into our craft.
Hopefully, this article will be helpful in your quest for interesting topics to write about. Take a shot anyway if you don’t see an idea immediately grabbing your attention. You’ll never know what writing inspiration will come along!