Gathering Ideas For Writing – Keeping an Idea Book or Journal

Techniques for gathering ideas, sometimes called prewriting strategies or invention techniques, can help you discover how much you know about a topic before you decide to write about it..

Do you find yourself worrying that you have nothing to write about? Often, you know far more than you give you give yourself credit for. The challenge is to uncover what is there but seems not to be.

Let me explain: As you use the various techniques I am about to explain, find out which work best for you and your style of thinking.

No one technique of generating ideas always works for all topics. Experiment. If one method does not provide enough useful material, try another. Also, even if one strategy produces some good material, try another to turn up additional possibilities.

As you use idea-gathering techniques, do not delete material. You never know what you might want later. Save everything on your computer in a “working” or “writing” folder so that you can retrieve it quickly when you are ready to decide which material you might use and in what order.

Keeping an idea book and writing in a journal

Your ease with writing will grow as you develop the habits of mind that typify writers. Professional writers are always on the lookout for ideas to write about and for details to develop their ideas. They listen, watch, talk with people, and generally keep their minds open.

Many writers carry an Idea Book – a pocket size notebook – to jot down ideas that spring to mind. Good ideas can melt away like snowflakes. Use an idea book throughout your daily comings and goings and watch your powers of observation increase.

Many writers, both amateur and professional write in a Journal. Keeping a journal gives you the chance to have a conversation on paper with yourself.

Fifteen minutes a day can be enough-before going to bed, on a bus, etc. you are your audience, so the content and tone can be as personal and informal as you wish.

Unlike a diary, a journal is no merely for listing what you did that day. A journal is for your thoughts. You can draw your reading, your observations, your dreams.

You can respond to quotations, react to movies or plays, or think through your opinions, beliefs, and tastes. Writing is a way of discovering, of allowing thoughts to emerge as the physical act of writing moves along.

Keeping a journal can help you in three ways,

• First – writing every day gives you the habit of productivity. The more you write, the more you get used to the feeling of words pouring out of you onto paper or computer. Thus the easier it will be for you to write in all situations.
• Second – a journal instills the habit of close observation and thinking
• Third – a journal serves as an excellent source of ideas when you need to write in response to a client request or have another type of writing assignment.

Next time we will discuss: Freewriting

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