Sometimes, figuring out what to write can be the most difficult part of writing - especially for those suffering from a bad case of writer's block -- and the more time you spend stressing about what to write, the less time you spend doing the thing you actually want to do: writing.
Personally, I'm a writer at heart, but a bit of a perfectionist, which has caused my 10-years-going case of writer's block. My fear of writing something badly has made it difficult for me to write at all. I'd tried everything to get out of this writing rut, from freewriting to therapy and more.
Nothing really helped me, until I read a quote about an art professor who grouped his class in halves. One group would be the 'quality' group - who were to be solely graded on the quality of their work. The second group would be the 'quantity' group - who were graded on how much work they finished. At the end of the semester, the professor noted that the group who had the best work, the highest quality pieces, was not the 'quality' group, but the 'quantity' group. The more you do something, the more practice you get in, the more you learn. Doing and learning from your mistakes is 100% essential to any skill, and writing is no different. You must write to become better, which I guess may be common sense for some, but this helped me realize that nobody starts out an incredible writer and that I should not allow my perfectionism to dictate what I do with my writing.
While that was a HUGE help for my motivation to write, I then stumbled upon another roadblock: in the 10 years since I'd last written as habit, I'd somehow forgotten how to brainstorm ideas. These tools and topic generators have been an amazing help for me in overcoming my blocks and improving my writing, and may help you out too regardless of whether you have writer's block or not! Check them out and let me know if you know of any others!
- Hubspot's generator
Hubspot's blog idea generator asks the user to input noun(s) and then gives the users a list of potential article titles. They have a wide variety of titles, each of which gives the writer a different spin on the topic at hand. - Usetopic's generator
Usetopic's paid blog idea generator takes your keyword and analyzes the best performing related content in google, then provides the user with unique curated ideas. - Answerthepublic
This free tool congregates the internet's search data and shows you what people are searching for based on the keyword(s) you provide. Once you know what people want to know, simply browse the list and decide what topic you'd like to explore and write about. - Google Trends
Google Trends is where Google shares its keyword performance. Search a keyword related to what you wish to write about, and google will return with the top related searches on their platform.
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