You hit ‘Publish’ to get your daily post/article out — day 5 of your ‘daily writing’ habit. You’ve been maintaining an inventory of writing ideas, just like that writing guru on X/Twitter suggested.
Fantastic! The next day, however, you find yourself staring at a one-liner idea on a blank page and feeling stuck. Oh, so that’s what writer’s block is, isn’t it? Feeling a bit stuck?
It is as important to maintain an ‘ideas inventory’ as it is to nurture and grow it. This is how it works:
- Write an idea down as soon as you get it. Don’t rely on your memory. At this stage, your idea might be just a single line.
- The next day, review that idea and try re-writing or re-framing it. It might grow into 2 to 3 lines.
- On the next review, do the same and aim to expand it to half a page.
- Next time, rewrite and add two key ingredients to your piece: relevant context and examples.
Continue nurturing your ideas until they are ready to be published. Nurturing ideas should be a consistent background habit to your daily writing routine.