Where Do You Find Your Writing Ideas?

I am a writer. It is in my blood, it is in my soul. I do not remember a time when I did not write, except for the years that I was married to my first husband. That man dried the creative process right out of me - but that is neither here nor there. I have had people ask where do you come up with those great ideas to write about? How is it that you always know what to write? Is it easy to decide on a topic and explore it? It is not always easy, and yes it is hard work, but eventually I always find something to write about. This hub is all about finding my way in the writing world and how I end up finding things to talk about in articles.

The place that I get my most writing ideas from occurs where most people would least expect it. The bathtub. I fill up the bath with warm running water and sink into bubbles and just lay there letting random thoughts float through my mind. Before I know it I have topics to write about and I even have articles partly outlined in my head. That's when I have to quickly get out of the tub and run to the computer. Most of the time I remember to dry myself off and put on clothes. There has been an occasion or two when I forgot - but luckily no one else was home at the time.

Facebook conversations, Twitter conversations and talking on the phone all help me generate ideas. Sometimes writers forget that there are other people out there to generate ideas from. If you stay connected you will find new topics to talk about and you will be able to see what other writers are talking about as well.

Questions asked by readers is another way that I generate writing topics. I had a reader mention that I need to talk about how to backlink. A new hub will be born from that conversation after I sit and try and figure out the best way to approach the topic. Its a perfect example about how communication is so important and how others end up learning from what you write.

Brainstorming is another technique that I use to create writing ideas to talk about. I will sit down and write a bunch of stuff out that I want to know about, and then I will use the ideas as a way to research articles.

Reading other writers often inspires me to comment back about the topic they are writing about, or create my own take on the topic - something completely separate and different from what they have written and talked about.

Books and magazines gives me ideas on how to write creative topics, and I sometimes look at pictures and think "What are they doing? What are those people thinking about? Where did that house come from? What is going on in the picture?" and then I free write from there. Something good usually comes out of it.

The news generates ideas even if I am not a political or current affair writer. Sometimes it can be simple things like talking about new social media or web information while other times it can be "I know how to do that" and the question on the news will turn into a how to article.

As you can see, generating writing ideas is not difficult to do, and after a while you, too will get the hang of it. However, I must admit, that my very favorite place to find ideas for writing is in the tub!