Spurring Creativity in Your Writing

Creativity. Originality. Imagination. Basically, how do you form a thought that’s never been brought to light before, nurture it and put it in your writing?

Creativity is the basis of all original content. Even with topics that have been written about before, for content to be truly original it needs to be mixed with a bit of originality that stems from you.

How does the creative process work with writing? How can you increase creativity, whether you’re writing a “how to” article, a blog post or a unique section of copy designed to sell?

Step 1: The Formation of Ideas

The first step in the creative process is to form ideas and capture them on paper.

Often times the ideas that come to your head will be half-formed ideas that may not seem like they have merit yet. But when nurtured, these ideas will often become your best ideas.

Write them down. If you’re in front of your computer, start a running list of ideas on whatever topic you’re writing about.

If you’re not in front of your computer, carry a notepad with you and write down any creative ideas that come to mind. Don’t overestimate your ability to remember

Step 2: Write Without Editing

Many writers find that speed is a crucial element to the creative process. Instead of writing while making sure their ideas actually make sense, there’s a lot more flow in just writing and writing and writing.

Make spelling errors. Make grammatical errors. Start writing paragraphs even when the ideas aren’t completely formed in your head.

Basically, just start writing. And write fast. Get ideas and concepts from your head onto your computer screen as quickly as you possibly can.

Incidentally, this is also a great way to get over writer’s block. Just start writing. It gets the creative juices flowing. Much of the best stuff you’ll write may never have come to light if you were self-editing as you were writing.

Step 3: Refine

Once you’ve got all your “spur of the moment” writings down, then it’s time to go back and edit it.

Generally, it’s a good idea to wait at least a couple days before beginning the editing process. This allows you to come at your content with a fresh set of eyes, so not everything seems like a great idea to you even when it really might not be. You allow the excitement of the writing to die down so you can put down your creativity glasses and put on your critical glasses.

Then, start cutting segments that don’t make sense or just aren’t as good as you thought they were. Spell check and grammar check. Re-structure content to make it as easy to understand as possible.

When all is said and done, you’ll have an article that started out with an incredible burst of creativity, that was facilitated with flow and eventually edited with meticulous precision. When articles like these are read, they often come across as both brilliant and original.

With with your creative process. Don’t stifle it by editing as you write. Get all your ideas down on paper. Then, put on your editor glasses and really polish the article to make it great.

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About the Author

Derek Pankaew has been building internet businesses for over 5 years. He’s helped businesses go from startup to over $1 million per year, has built successful marketing campaigns in 4 different countries and has gotten new sites to over 30,000 visitors a month in under 60 days. His specialties include SEO, content marketing and increasing conversions.