Writing For The Web: More Places To Get Ideas

There are many places all over the place to get article ideas. Part 1 of this series explored some of the locations on the internet. This part goes into some of the places you can find ideas outside of the web.

Libraries - Believe it or not, libraries still exist and are going string. In fact, there are dozens of libraries in just about every major cities, and most towns have at least one. Even the town where I grew up, Lake Arrowhead, California, had a small public library.

Libraries are great places to get ideas for articles. I like to just visit and wander up and down the isles, looking at titles, occasionally opening a book and flipping through the pages. It's rare that I don't walk away with at least one or two ideas which turn directly into articles.

Botanical Gardens - A few miles from my house is one of the best places on the planet - the Huntington Library. This is an awesome collection of art museums and displays which is not equaled anywhere in the world (at least in my humble opinion). One of the things that makes this magical place even more enjoyable is the surrounding botanical gardens.

The library gardens are divided up into different habitats, duplicating most of the major environments of the planet. I've spent many enjoyable hours wandering through the place, just looking at the plants and environments, getting dozens and dozens of article ideas.

Something about the gardens relaxes my mind and causes the thinking process to become calmer and more organized. Ideas just seem to float up to the surface, waiting for me to just pluck them up and convert them into articles.

Museums - Of course, museums are excellent places to get article ideas. I have the pleasure of living just a few miles from a number of excellent museums including La Brea tar pits (dinosaur and extinct animal articles), the Air And Space Museum (obvious), Museum of Science and Industry (technology articles), the Natural History Museum (thousands of article ideas just waiting to be found) and art museums galore.

I like to visit with a pad of paper and just wander up and down the corridors, just looking at things. Ideas pop into my head and I write them down. Quite a few of these become articles (and a few stories).

Magazines - I skim over a dozen magazines every single day, looking for anything interesting. Sometimes I'll stop and read and article, but mostly I am looking for ideas for articles of my own.

I must stop here for a moment and discuss copyrights for a moment. The concept I present in these articles is how to find ideas for articles, not to copy or paraphrase other people's works. Anyone can do that, and by the way, it is illegal to "borrow" another person's work.

It is perfectly fine, however, to read an article and get an idea or two for your own. What I like to do is read an article or book and jot down a few ideas. I then let it lie for a few days, come back to it and write my own, completely original article.

For example, I read an article about raising children, and for some reason thought about how to protect plants from small kids. What a great idea for a story. So I wrote it down, and one day I'll write an article about it.

So that's the secret. Just wander around looking at things. It doesn't matter where and it doesn't matter what you look at. Your mind will start working, and before long an idea will percolate to the surface. This may be followed by another and another.

A short disclaimer. If you are not used to this kind of creative process, please understand that it can be pretty frightening. Especially to some of the students produced by our modern education system, who have been conditioned to not have original thoughts anymore. Don't worry, that strange feeling you get when you visit a museum or a library is just your brain cells waking up from the long hibernation that began when you entered Kindergarten. It's not dangerous and once you get used to the feelings they can be quite intoxicating. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

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