Every creator has to endure this horrible and meaningless question probably a thousand times in life:

“WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS?”

Urgh, forgive me.

This question is the worst.

The common response is “they just come to me”. I hope you have been helpful …

Other people offer more details, as if their ideas occurred to them while driving, in the shower, on long walks …

But surely the people who ask this question also walk, drive, and (swallow) take a shower?

The honest answer?

We put the work in.

Fans like this question because many of them say to themselves, “Once I have a great idea for a novel / business / app / whatever, I’ll get to work!”

But creative people don’t have that problem.

Most of us don’t hunt for ideas, getting enough to survive …

The problem facing your typical creator is not a drought but a flood. Of the many, many, many ideas, which one do you focus on and which ones do you ignore?

If you don’t have this problem, your creativity is out of control.

But that’s not the worst of this terrible question. The biggest problem is that it hides a similar question, and much better:

How do you get better ideas?

Because you can always have better ideas than what you do.

That is how:

Saturate your brain with knowledge

If you’re writing for someone other than yourself, pay attention when you run out of ideas.

It is a sign, like a canary in a gold mine, that you have work to do.

If you write fiction, think about your audience.

If you are a copywriter, think about your market.

When you know them well enough, you will always know what to write.

You will know what they like, what they hate, what they are fed up with and what will catch their attention.

Then you can go to the other side:

Learn as much as you can about something other than your audience or topic.

Immerse yourself in some random topic that you find appealing. The only condition is that it must not be related to what you are working on.

Every idea you have ties into every other idea in your mind. Some of those connections are strong and obvious, others are subtle. By focusing on two unrelated things at the same time, you force your brain to make connections that it normally wouldn’t.

Do it and your brain will fill with ideas.

Practice makes productive

If you want more or better ideas, treat ‘brainstorming’ as a skill:

Something you can practice.

So if you want to improve, do more.

If you have trouble coming up with ideas, force yourself to think of ten of them. Right now. They don’t have to be good, they just have to exist.

If you’re having a hard time starting a project, take one of your ideas and … well, get started. Close your browsers, put your phone in a drawer, and sit there, ready to create. Again, you don’t have to write a lot or write well, just write something.

And so.

You are probably excellent at various stages of creation. Be good at all of them and your writing will get away from you.

Imitation is the sincerest form of inspiration.

If you are a creator of any kind, you must have people you look up to.

Every talented writer reads, a lot. It’s part of the trade, how you develop your skills and refine your thinking.

Also, if you don’t like to read, what are you interested in writing?

I’m sure you have writers that you like.

Favorite authors, favorite sales letters, whatever.

Next time you read a bookmark, take a second look at it.

What do you like about this?

What elements really work?

Is there anything subtle, clever, or unusual they are doing to make the writing stand out?

How descriptive are they?

How long are the words, sentences and paragraphs?

The goal is not to copy and paste what they write. That’s a move that even hacker writers scoff at.

Nor is it about becoming a cheap copy of them.

Or even a great copy.

It’s taking a look under the hood and seeing what makes your writing tick, learning those elements for yourself.