By far the best way to capture ideas is with a pencil and paper. The fewer things that can hinder the collection of an idea the better. A tablet may come a very close second these days and I live in the hope that they may take over; hey I love sci-fi and the future for me is always bright, shiny and wonderful.

One thing I saw that seemed quite interesting was The Musician’s Notebook: Manuscript Paper for Inspiration and Composition (Parchment Journals).This book, and several others, take the next step from just a piece of paper or notepad. They give you some templates for you to use.

By providing you with a set form to plunge your creative ideas these pages take some of the load from your brain, allowing the creativity that little bit extra grey matter to play with.

If we don’t need these particular books we can always make our creativity that little bit easier by creating our own forms or pages. Any resources that we can prepare for when creativity arrives is of use. Personally I have tried many different pre-made pages to help. Some have worked while others have limited my creativity. When that happens the pages get a reworking or end up in the bin.

What capture tools do you use?  Or have you ever created your own?

It’s the beginning of a new week, or the start of a new day. Or perhaps you’re stumbling on this at some other time. Well it doesn’t matter when. It’s time to think about doing something creative.

What’s the weather like? Go on, look outside if you need to, I’ll wait. Is the sun blazing down? Is the rain hammering into the puddles it has already formed? Is the atmosphere as grey as the mood it has just put you in? Well that doesn’t matter either.

What does matter is that you can use the inspiration of the outside to engage your creative thoughts. What does the weather make you think of: warmth, heat, dryness, arid landscapes, global warming, rising sea levels, end of the world, drowning, depression, moods, angst. ? The list is endless.

Use the weather as a starting point to do something creative today. But don’t just see a shining sun and paint a shining vista. Turn things around, the weather is just the starting point. Let your imagination run and develop the theme. Go and create that subverted weather image, wordscape or aural texture.

And also where not to find good ideas. What better way to start the week than with a little bit of inspiration.

Seth’s Blog: Where do you find good ideas?

Writing can be seen as mix between a dark art and the pursuit of the unhinged. Sitting down for ages crafting words isn’t always as enjoyable as it could be. But if you approach your writing as a chef creates his signature dish, then this just might help.

I thought it only fair to return to the creative cookbook and find a few more ingredients you could add to your literary larder. If you haven’t seen the previous post of ‘Compelling writing ingredients’ then follow the link.

Remember, a good recipe doesn’t use all the ingredients you have all of the time, and sometimes the subtle flavour is more effective than the one that hits on the first mouthful. But enough of this extended metaphor, let’s get on with the post.

1. Conflict – two or more characters, in disagreement, in any shape or form will draw the reader in! ‘No, it won’t.’ ‘yes, it will, your reader wants some kind of resolution… or the sequel.’
2. Emotion – love, hate, joy and fear, if you can get the reader to engage with these emotions you’ll have them hanging on every word you write. Why do you think love and horror stories are so well read!
3. Progress – a story, should move from A to B, it shouldn’t be static. Even waiting, as in for Godot, is progress; implied progress counts in writing if not in business.
4. Variety of language – the use of passive vocabulary, which consists of words people know the meaning of, or understand in context, but don’t use everyday, is something to keep well stocked. Try eating the dictionary.
5. Use your voice – all great cooks have a signature dish, or a specialty, as a writer you need to find an ingredient that is your own, unique to you. Sounds daunting but it is an ingredient you already have stocked, you simply need to use it.

So out with the utensils and start cooking. You have a story to write.

It takes a little more than pure inspiration to write that killer content. Although the idea is the kernel to any great literary dish, you should always have on hand the following ingredients to lift your words to the writer’s equivalent of haute cuisine.

You may find that taking these ideas with more than a pinch of salt is just what you need.  But you shouldn’t assume that you need all these ingredients all the time, mix and match; experiment.

There are many more ingredients you could use, but these are my top 5:

1. Nearness – The reader can be drawn in with any geographical or experiential situation that they can identify with, try and create the ‘I’ve been there’ factor.
2. Consequence – Try to make the content deal with matters that have an effect; create consequence in what you write.
3. Human interest – Go on you know you want to, go all out for the cute vote, the shaggy dog story at the end of the news keeps you hanging on for the weather report. Alternatively the opposite is also true, a report on the cost to life of any disaster can be a compelling read.
4. Drama – Action and intensity… if you’re writing a story, this can be quite a good hook.
5. Oddity – Pique that mind, interest that soul. Let eyes pour over your words, washing them into the bowl that awaits like open mouth – sometimes being weird works, trust me, I’m an editor.

Remember these are ingredients, it is up to you how you use and mix them, or even add a few more of your own.

And if you want more:

Five more ingredients of compelling writing