Article Writing - 20 Ways to Brainstorm Lots of Great Ideas for your next flood of articles.

Article Writing - 20 Ways to Brainstorm Lots of Great Ideas
By Sayma Anher

Some days the writing ideas flow like rivers after a heavy rain, even to the point of breaching the levees and flooding every piece available paper and byte of computer memory. Other days they dry up like a desert river bed during the dry season. It's during the dry season in the desert that writers need to take the time for a bit of brainstorming so that they're ready for the writing storm that comes with the next rainy season. Check out these places generating ideas for your next flood of articles.

1. Mine Your Interests and Hobbies

Mining your interests and hobbies requires making a list of all the things you like to do, including writing. For each of the items on the list, make a list of all the lessons you took to learn the required skills and all of the lessons you learned from mistakes made. These lists should provide loads of How-To articles.

2. What Subjects Interested You In School?

The subjects that interested you in school offer another area of topics to mine. Were there specific stories  or subtopics that interested you in particular (the story of Denmark Vessey, pumpkin chunking in physics, stories and books you read in Lit class). Use those history or lit course stories or those fun science experiments as a basis for stories you can write. Those lit class reading materials are now literary reviews, those history stories are now mini-biographies, and those science experiments can be creatively transformed for teachers and students at the elementary and middle school level, or for science fair projects.

3. Check Out The Course Catalog for Your Local College / University

College courses are getting more interesting these days. One class I took for my history minor was "The History of Pirates and Smuggling." That was one of my favorite classes. I still have a lot of the course material. Come to think of it, I need to see about using this as fodder for a few articles. But I digress. Look at the topics being offered for classes and make a list of any of those topics to inspire you to write.

4. The Questions People Are Asking

Look online at your favorite writing sites. Many of them have an area where writers ask questions and receive answers from readers and other writers alike. Another way to find questions is to ask friends and family give you a list of questions on topics of your choosing, or even on topics of their own choosing. If you let them choose, you could come up with some interesting ideas or inspiration for articles on related topics.

5. Make a List of Things You Want to Know

Make a list of all the things you have ever wanted to know about. Keep a pen and paper with you at all times, and every time you catch yourself thinking "I wonder if..." or "I wonder why..." write it down. Then look it up. Whatever information you find for each "wonder" is another article.

6. Ask Friends and Family What They Would Like to Know About

Ask your friends and family to make a list of everything they have ever wondered about.

7.Ask Random Strangers About Their Interests

Sometimes, the people you haven't met yet have ideas, beliefs and interests that you have never considered before. Use what they tell you to inspire a list of ideas to look up and research further. One time, while "stuck" on a long flight from Houston to Seattle, I sat next to a man who was a long distance trucker. He frequently carried loads for the government that required certain levels of government clearance. He didn't go into specifics about any of the jobs, but I learned enough to make it an element in work of fiction I was writing for college.

8. Eavesdrop on Conversations

The next time you're enjoying a cup of coffee at Starbucks, or pancakes at IHOP, listen to the conversations going on around you. What topics are people discussing? What are the family dynamics? There are so many things that people will talk about when they think nobody is listening. If the discussion raises a moral dilemma (their parenting skills vs. yours, for instance), that moral dilemma might become a topic for an article.

9. What Other Writers are Publishing

Read the articles others are writing on your favorite writing sites. What topics are they covering? If you find they are writing in topics that interest you, find out what has already been published and where there is a whole in that range of topics that you can fill. Also by reading other peoples' articles, you may be inspired to write something on a relate topic or along a similar vein, yet is still different from the original articles.

10. Re-Use Previous Research

Whenever you've done research on any article, don't throw it out. If the research was done online, keep a record somewhere of the articles you read and the websites where you found the information, so you can look it up again. This research can become fodder for more articles along the same vein.

11. Re-Write or Update an Old Story

Find some of your old stories, pull them out of those moldy old files, dust them off, then re-read them. Yeah, some of the older work probably consists of awful writing - your writing has improved over the years. Look past the bad writing and re-discover the great topic that inspired you to write this piece in the first place. If you re-wrote this article, using you updated skills, you would have a new and improved article ripe for the publishing. On the other hand, the topic may be dated, or some of the details and research you used, may have been accurate at the time you wrote the story, but are now considered no longer precise. Re-research the information, and update those articles and re-release them for publication again.

12. Politics and News Items Online

Read the news in newspapers, in magazines and online. Listen to the news on the radio and TV. Anything that  occurs in politics or in other news can generate ideas for timely articles. The list of ideas that can be brainstormed off news stories alone could keep any writer in the black for an eternity.

13. Look Through the Books in Your Personal Library

Most writers have a small library of books at their disposal. The books usually contain some works of fiction that they have loved reading (Book Reviews!) and some nonfiction books that can be used for improving their writing skills, or that cover topics of interest to the writer. Scan through these books until you find a few that contain nuggets of inspiration. Try closing your eyes and randomly picking a book or two or three. Then jot down a list of whatever ideas these books jar out of your memory. Ask friends and family if you can look through their libraries as well.

14. Go to the Public Library

Go to the public library and scan the shelves. Yes, you can go online and check out their card catalog, which is a great way to locate materials when you're researching a story and don't have a lot of money to spend. But there's something intriguing about simply scanning the library's collections and seeing what books jump off the shelve into your waiting arms. Leaving your mind open to the possibilities rather than going in with a predetermined set of ideas, leaves room for the imagination to take hold.

15. Check Out Local Book Stores and Magazine Stands

Try the above ideas (used at the public library) at your favorite book stores and magazine stands. Go in with an idea of what you are looking for to obtain materials for articles in progress. But also scan the shelves in other parts of the store for books and magazines that invite you to sit down and read them. What topics and articles do they suggest to you?

16. Investigate Places of Local Interest

Can't afford a vacation? Then take a staycation. Go to all the places you love to visit in the city and towns near where you live. When driving to your destinations, check out some of the smaller lesser known points of interest, stores, galleries, parks, etcetera. Make a list of the places you have visited, jot down notes about each spot while they're fresh in your mind. And take pictures to include with your article. 

You now have several travel articles. 

Not only will you get a bit of notoriety for publishing these articles, but the places you write about will also benefit. Don't just write about the major attractions (the science and art museums, the amusement park, the zoo), these are all important, and your take on them should be heard and read. Include some of the smaller and lesser known attractions, the ones that people don't usually read about. Investigate some of the strange stories and oddities about the area where you live. What can you find out about them? Do some research and take pictures. 

Most writers go after the major points of interest because they are easier to research and locate. But sometimes tourists and visitors are looking for something different, something off the beaten track. That's where the real stories are.

17. Learn About the Places You Plan to Visit on Vacation - and Take Plenty of Pictures

If you are going on vacation this summer - or any other time of year - find out as much information as you can ahead of time. Keep a record of that research so you can use it to write as many articles as possible when you get back. Take notes while you're there, while the memories are still fresh in your memory. Take lots of pictures - pictures always make for great inspiration. And while you are there, ask the people at the hotel, at the restaurants where you eat, who drive the taxis where they like to go and what the like to do. 

Talk to the locals. If they see that you are truly interested in their town, their state, their country, they sometimes open up a bit more and will give you some extra tidbits that isn't in the travel brochures. You may end up eating at a restaurant or visiting a point of interest that's popular with the locals but that most travel agents and travel websites don't mention. Be open to the experience, and be ready for an adventure. Whether you tell the people you talk to that you're planning to write articles about the place you're visiting, is up to you. If you find that people are turned off by the prospect of some "journalist" just there to write a story, you might want to leave out that bit of information

18. Attend Fairs, Exhibitions and Local Events

Fairs, exhibitions and local events (i.e. Katy Rice Festival) offer up possibilities for obtaining information on jobs, hobbies, and industries in distinctive areas (oil industry exhibitions, gun shows). Find out the history of the event, show or exhibition as background for any stories you might right. If the event is invitation only or only open to people in the industry, see if you can wrangle and invitation. Otherwise you can use the event and the background information to inspire a list of articles on related topics. 

For example, the local gun show could inspire articles on gun laws, the NRA, gun crime, the number of people who own guns, why people feel the need to own guns, gun and rifle ranges, gun training, carrying a concealed handgun license, requirements for purchasing guns...

19. Write Stories Related to Special Museum Exhibits

So your local museums are holding some special exhibits on a limited engagement. This offers up suggestions for articles on the museum itself, the special exhibit, what other museums in the area have on exhibit that may or may not be related, and most especially, on a whole host of topics and items related to the special exhibit. For example, if King Tut is coming to the museum, anything on Egypt, Egyptian culture, King Tut, mummies, sarcophagus's, reincarnation, religious beliefs surrounding death and burial...

20. What the Kids Are Doing in School

Find out what your kids and grandkids are doing in school these days. Investigate teaching methods and compare them to your own school days. What topics are being covered? where are they going on field trips? Also make a list of things that you can do with them during the summer, spring break, or winter break. Make another list of ways they can entertain themselves. The list of things to do can be written up as a single "things to do" list article. Or the list can be separated out and written up as separate articles - one article each on swimming, games, trips, picnics, etc.

Article Source:  Article Writing - 20 Ways to Brainstorm Lots of Great Ideas