Don't know what to write about (From scratch)

It is well known what a turn off a boring topic can be. All the inspiration and the enthusiasm immediately sink into the bottomless ocean of uniformity. But, despair not!

Ever heard that there are no stupid questions? Well, there are no boring topics either.

Put yourself in a role of a detective, or in the worst case, a reporter, and ask yourself:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

And now - google! Dig! The answers can be quite intriguing. Especially because there is so much trivia, true and untrue, but quite enough to provoke someone's interest and make them read.

If you happen to be working on the topic of the "kitchen utensils", just wait for google solutions and users' questions to open your way up for you.

There are variety of questions you would have never thought of! For example:

• How to make sweets and cakes in the shape of the kitchen utensils?
• Kitchen utensils from "Beauty and the Beast" for my kitchen, and where to find them?
• The multipractical kitchen utensils for outdoor use
• How can you repair a stainless steel kitchen set?

etc.

If your imagination is lacking some craziness, let the others write your plot.

If you cannot come up with a topic or even start writing about something at all, you should use some of your virtual friends' comments, which will certainly give you a musely push.

A really useful trick is to :

• Post a question or a topic on some of your social profiles like Facebook or Twitter. (and do it somewhere where you have lurkers and followers waiting around the corner for someone to post a comment or a picture, so they can react to it)
• Post a question containing keywords that you will base your topic on
• Make them somehow give their own ideas and advice about what you will later use as a material
• Provoke them with the rhetoric question

What you are doing here is practically provoking them to give you a ready-made topic or triggering the process of random brainstorming, which you can safely borrow.

When you are digging for trivia, information and facts, remember that if you type down the "umbrella term", you might not see the end of the day before you dig out the right answer.

Instead, limit yourself to the more specific search for better and more particular results.

For example, if your topic is: Claustrophobia, you might put down

• Fear of the Cellars or
• Fear of the Atticks,

and by doing so, you are automatically choosing your audience, making the material more approachable, easy to come find, and certainly more interesting.

If you cannot come up with anything good enough to be an interesting writing material, use your real life friends and their spirit for good games to get some ideas.

There are already-made card and board games that you can use, but a more simple trick would be to:

• Write sentences (quotes, or random names and words, names of the movies, books, or people) on the small pieces of paper that you will
• Fold 4 times.
• You can even draw on them instead of writing anything
• You should then put all of the pieces in the hat or some bowl, and make people pick one without looking.
• In turns, you should open your paper and tell a story using a drawing or a word on a paper as a topic or idea. There should be no time for thinking. It is an oral brainstorm.
• You can always add something knew to this game. Introduce more papers as a help. For example, plot twists, or a setting, or an object on an additional paper.

You can always have lots of fun and borrow an idea or two from your inspired company. Maybe even a whole story if it turns our great.

Take at least 15 minutes of your time each day to write of whatever pops into your mind.

• Ignore the spelling and punctuation
• Make it random
• Play with your subjects
• Change the mood frequently
• Mix styles and registers
• Write hate letters to the people you are holding a grudge against, by writing a letter to them (which you will never send, of course) :)

Do this for a week and then return to your original project. Alternative is to freewrite 15-20 minutes to stabilize your thoughts, and then immediately return to your work.

You never know, you might come across a new topic by brainstorming like this.

Do the obvious:

•  Turn off everything you are so addicted to that is constantly distracting you (your phone, your internet, in case you do not need it for your research)
• Clean up the mess on your table so you won't be distracted by (it can disturb you and confuse you, however strange that sounds)
• Tell yourself that 3-4 hours of writing are a must for the day
• Write when everyone is sleeping or at least when you know you're safe from the interruptions
• Be alone with yourself (that's how you focus better and are more free to let your thoughts take over)

After you have finished with writing for that day, leave a note or two as a hint or a clue as to what you might write about tomorrow, how to wrap up the already started work, or where you left off the day before.

Keywords and unfinished thoughts can be a good way to get yourself started the very moment you sit down, ready to write.

Setting up the exact time when you start the work and when you finish it is very useful for many reasons.

• You're organized and therefore feel like doing the job properly
• You have a goal and know that after you have achieved it, you can rest assured
• You control your own time and can adjust it to your daily mood swings and needs

Did you know that when you're sleeping, your subconscious is thinking, learning and writing instead of your conscious mind.

A good trick to let your subcoscious do the job for you is to think about the problem before falling asleep. You might have a dream which is practically a continuation of the story you are writing, or a potential topic you are yet to start. Usually, what you dream is the perfect fit in the place you couldn't finish properly.

It is amazing how the characters can come to life in your dreams and get the mind of their own. They will tell you what they want to be and how they want you to present them in your work. You might get a perfect conclusion to your thesis' problem. You never know who is awake in there while you are deeply asleep.