How I Write: My Writing Methods and Idea Generation

I have a refined and organized method of writing. It starts with an idea that becomes a sentence, then a paragraph, then its own document. That document is a distinct idea with a certain topic. It gets its own folder. New ideas find their way there and branch out into new documents and some get their own folders. The result is thousands of ideas in several hundred documents in over 100 active folders. I don't even keep track of my archives (seldomly-used files and folders).

I jot down my ideas each day, going through them every few days, sorting and organizing them, expanding on my ideas. It is a process that takes time, sometimes a few weeks or months before I am mostly done, adding bits and pieces from time to time.

My method of writing does not take much effort. I just let the ideas write themselves down; I don't try to force it. If my ideas don't want to come out, they don't have to. This leaves me writing more some days than others, but it works for me.

I start with a word. I think of other related words, associations with that word and with the new words. I quickly grab a thesaurus to find more words. I do a web search.

There is soon an explosion of words, new ideas, and new documents. I try write down as many related ideas as possible. My brain becomes a thought ticker. I try to catch the thoughts as they go by. I write down whatever comes to me.

Once you've got your brain going, there is no limit at this point. All you have to do is keep up with your thoughts; your fingers will likely be stumbling all over your keyboard struggling to keep up with your over-active mind.

I'm not concerned with sorting or organizing my thoughts or ideas at this point, I just try to get them all written down. I can organize them later.

I have many ideas going at once and try to catch them all. I usually have about 3-5 documents opened at once. When a thought pops into my head, I jot it down in the appropriate document. This happens when I'm reading a book, watching a movie, reading a webpage, or doing whatever.

I carry a pen and two small pieces of paper folded in my pocket everywhere I go. When I get home, I type them out. I can remember only about 3 different ideas in my head at once. Any more and I start to lose some. That's why I carry a pen and paper with me everywhere I go.

I keep a notebook on my night table at night and usually find myself waking up in the middle of the night to write out some jot notes.

Life is an open book. I never stop writing. A document on a particular topic or idea is never finished; it is a perpetual work in progress. I'm always adding new ideas to them, re-organizing them, and breaking them up into new documents.

I think this method goes hand-in-hand with making a lens. It all starts with an idea but soon expands and branches off to new ideas and you have to make more lenses about the individual aspects of your original idea.

I hoped you enjoyed reading about how I think and organize my thoughts.

Consider getting yourself The Only 12 1/2 Writing Rules You'll Ever Need poster to put on your wall.