WritingThoughts

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One of the most common questions that I get is about how I always seem to have something to write about. They ask, “where do your ideas come from?”

Of course, that can be a hard question to answer, because my ideas often come from more than one source. However, after a lot of thought I was able to come up with an answer. In this post, I’ve identified five sources for my blog post ideas that you can probably use too.

Five Sources for Ideas

I definitely have a lot of ideas for blog posts–more ideas than I’ll probably ever be able to write about. Some of that comes from the fact that I really do enjoy writing and find this way of earning a living to be very interesting (at least to me).

In fact, I’ve already written a post chronicling common sources of inspiration, but I’ve found that post really doesn’t cover it all for me.

However, I took a closer look at my own sources for ideas and was able to identify five sources that nearly anyone can draw from.

Here are the five sources:

1. Experience–The majority of what I write is based on my own experiences. I’d say that over seventy-five percent of my blog posts come from something that I am experiencing at the time or from something that I’ve experienced in the past. Experience is a great source of inspiration. (And the wonderful thing about it is that everyone’s experiences are unique.)
2. Emotions–Another source of inspiration for me is my own feelings. I know that whatever feeling I’m struggling with at any given time is a feeling that others struggle with as well. Writing about my own struggles is not only therapeutic for me, but for me readers as well. These tend to be some of my most popular posts.
3. Training–Everyone has been trained differently. Even if someone has studied the exactly same areas as me, they’ve likely learned different things. What you learn is always with you. I’ve found my own formal training in business to be surprisingly invaluable to my career as a professional freelance writer.
4. Random Occurrences–I can’t help it. Many of my posts do come from random things that happen to me. Often, these things are totally unrelated to business or freelancing on the surface, but if I think about them closely I can see a parallel. An example of this is when I saw a flower growing out of concrete.
5. Other People–No one lives in a vacuum. The people I interact with sometimes become the inspiration for my blog posts whether they are family members, clients, fellow freelancers, or just someone I happen to meet.

Of course, regardless of where you draw your blog post ideas from the important thing is that you stick with it. The more you write, the better you will become.

What is the source of your blog ideas?