What problem are you facing that you can’t solve?

Get the experts to solve it for you! For years I struggled with insomnia, and at the time my problem was at its peak, I was already doing a lot of research on how to sleep like a normal person. I joined
an online group for insomniacs at the time and found that a lot of people who were active on the forums were working in creative fields. What a nice revelation! And here’s an idea: Sleeping tips  for the creative person. A nice slant to an overdone topic.

Along with your own research, you’ll talk to experts who’ll help you find other slants and angles and refine your story further. Of course, the problem doesn’t have to be health-related. My personal finance pieces were born out of the financial difficulties my family faced for years, my articles for college magazines revolved around the fact that I’d failed a year of college and knew first-hand the struggles, temptations and problems of not doing well in school, and my business articles were based on the research I did to find solutions to my own small business woes.

Your Assignment: Come up with a list of problems that are haunting you or another family member. Research the topic and find solutions.

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If you were given a free course in anything, what would you choose?

Would you want to learn more about business? How to play the guitar professionally? Open up your computer and mess with the motherboard? Design a book cover? Whatever interests you enough to make you wnat to take a course in it is a great starting point for what you may want to write. Why not learn what you’re interested in doing and then write a series of how-to articles teaching others to do the same?

Your Assignment: You’re heading off to college. What courses have you taken? What are your majors and minors? (No journalism or creative writing courses allowed!)

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What jobs have you held over the years?

Come on, you didn’t think I was going to miss this one, did you? After all, the jobs you’ve held in your life have all contributed to the person you are, and have created the vat of knowledge that you have. So tap into it. Were you a teacher in a previous incarnation? Use that experience with young children to identify the problems in that age group. Worked in tech support? What are the most common problems computer users face? Door-to-door salesman? Pitch a “get better at persuasion” article to a women’s magazine. Human resource manager? Write an article on how you can motivate your kids to do housework.

Your Assignment: Make a list of all the jobs you’ve held previously and for each, come up with an idea that would appeal to a mass audience.

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What compliments do people give you?

Now is not the time to be modest. You need ideas, remember? So go ahead, list every measly compliment anyone’s ever given you.  Do people think you’re very driven? Give motivation tips to self-employed people. Have a great sense of style? Write about the biggest fashion mistakes of the season. Fabulous at preparing travel itineraries? Make one for the local paper!

Your Assignment: You know what to do. Ten at least.

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Where do you spend most of your money?

Yeah, books. I know. Take books, magazine subscriptions and stationery off the list, and what are you left with? All these could be possible specialty areas. If you’re constantly looking out for new gadgets and all the techno frills and fancies, you might just be the gal gadget magazines are looking for. Or if you’re always fiddling around with your photo software, maybe you could tell a magazine’s readers how to fix the problems in their photographs.

Your Assignment: Take out last month’s expenditure sheet and makr the four things you’ve spent the most on (personally). Now find out what prospective specialty that could mean. Come up with two ideas for each specialty. If this is too difficult, what do you wish you’d spent money on?

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What are the big and small successes of your life?

Many ideas will come from the things you’ve achieved over the years. That’s why you’ll see former manic depressives talking about how to beat depression, small business owners who’ve made a lot of money teaching others how to make sound monetary choices, and writers teaching other writers how to make it in the business. You can do the same. Flaunt your successes– personal or professional– on a piece of paper, and voila. You’re a ready-made expert.

Your Assignment: Okay, you’ve listed your successes. Now come up with three slants or angles for each of them.

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How many people do you know?

Here’s a BIG assignment. Make a list of every single person you know, have every met or come across, be it your father or your colleague’s elder sister. For now, jot down fifteen names and keep adding to this list later. Done?

Now for each person on that list, answer to the best of your ability, all of the above questions.

Think you’ll ever run out of ideas again?

So you’ve decided to take the plunge into freelance writing and are ready to give up your pantyhose and make-up for sweatpants and dark circles. You’ve set out a corner in your home to act as a temporary office and are all geared up to do whatever it takes to convince the editors in those high-rise New York buildings to write out hefty dollar checks for your words. The first step is finding an idea. And as easy as this step is, it’s the one that gives writers the most grief. Because anyone can come up with one idea, or ten, but it’s coming up with those regular salable ideas that causes a writer’s hairline to start receding.

Take heart. I’ve been there, and I’ve come out with my hair intact.

At the beginning of my writing career, I’d be particularly miffed by writers who’d say, “Write what you know.” I was still in college, hating my Information Technology curriculum, juggling two jobs, and didn’t have a clue as to where my life was heading. I was pretty darn sure I didn’t know anything.

If you can’t think of topics that you might be a potential expert in, forget it. Don’t wrack your brain trying to come up with the pearls of wisdom only you know. You’ll get there some day. But for now, if you’re planning on making any kind of living, you’ll need to find methods of finding ideas that work for you regularly.

Most of the techniques I discuss here are for how-to or service pieces.

One word of caution before we begin: be clear about what your idea is and isn’t. If you aren’t sure of what you want your article to achieve, you’re going to have a hell of a time convincing an editor. Note which direction the article will take– will it be an in-depth look at a problem, a top ten list of solutions to that problem, or a personal essay on how you faced that problem? Once you’re sure of the angle of the piece, you’ll find it easier to write and research it, too.

Ready?  Let’s begin.

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A Closer Look at Your Life

I’m going to avoid the cliche of mining your own life for ideas, because well, there’s an art to that too. Not everyone can make an itinerary of their day and come up with the most mind-blowing ideas. Rather, most of us will come up with stale, well-worn ideas that an editor wouldn’t want for free.

However cliche though, your own life is probably the best and most under-utilized source of ideas. You just need to get below the surfact to see the real gems.

The techniques below should jostle your brain cells, no matter what your initial capabilities in the idea-generation department. Try to come up with as many as you can for each subhead, but aim for at least one for each. Work as we go along. If you leave it for later, the initial spark of energy will go untapped. And that initial jolt of inspiration is good– it’s sometimes where the best ideas stem from. Don’t worry if the ideas don’t seem salable just yet. All you need to do at this point is to come up with topics that could further be refined.

We’ll begin by answering a few questions about ourselves, which will help us in better understanding who we are and where we get our motivations. These motivations are a huge factor when it comes to writing. You no doubt know of the many people who’ve made careers out of things that ailed them, have written books and articles about their setbacks, and gone on to help others avoid making the same mistakes. Many people who’ve faced financial difficulties will write books or take seminars on how to avoid falling into the credit trap, and people who’ve struggled with life-threatening diseases often write memoirs and self-help books about the recovery process. Those are their motivations. Let’s find yours.

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What are your interests?
Before you go ballistic on me, let me tell you that I hated this question just as much. Sure, everyone has interests. But if you ask ten people what they like to do, at least eight or nine will mention reading, surfing the Internet, even sleeping! Who has time for kick-boxing or rock climbing?

You may find common and basic interests on your own list, too. And that’s okay. But they’ll hardly be worthy as meat for articles. You need something more concrete at this point. So let’s not focus on what you’re already doing, but what you want to do.

So here’s another question: Picture yourself with all the time and money in the world to do whatever you want. Will you be found camping in the mountains, playing the piano or learning salsa? Now we’re getting somewhere. Because those are your potential interests and they’re the ones that are going to lead you to lucrative and fun assignments. Once you’ve figured out where your interests lie, you can propose different angles based on those topics to editors.

Your Assignment: You have fifty thousand dollars to spare. Make a detailed list of where you’re going to spend this money.

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What’s your age?

Are you a middle-aged woman? A retired man? A school-going pre-teen? There are several magazines in each of these categories meant exclusively for these age groups. School-going teenagers often refer to magazines such as Girls’ Life and Boy’s Quest, college students read CollegeBound Teen and Next Step, and the over-fifty crowd refers to AARP. As a person belonging to a particular age group, you’re automatically equipped to write for that magazine, no matter what your marital status, career chart, ethnicity or background. If you’re a fifty-something single, you can certainly write for magazines aimed at this audience on a range of topics such as dating online or managing personal finances.

Your Assignment: Find at least three magazines that are exclusive to your age group. Now figure out five problems that are prevalent in your age group and find targeted slants for them.

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