As a writer there is nothing really as sickening as experiencing writer’s block. Being uncertain as to what to write can be extremely irritating, especially when you are working with deadlines. In this article you will learn a few brainstorming techniques for coming up with article topics, a useful skill indeed in this highly commercial world of ours.

The Number 1 Rule for Any Writer, READ!

I would give this advice to any writer whether they are writing articles or fiction novels. You must be a reader to be a writer. Read through magazines, newspapers and other media directly related to your area of specialization. By doing so, you will get a good feel for what topics are hot currently in that area of the market and you may choose to either write another article on those subjects or avoid them completely to stand out with something fresh. If you are trying to get published in a certain magazine, newspaper or website it is essential to analyzing the topics that that media source is currently publishing. By so doing you target the audience that prescribes to that particular medium and end up being a competitor. This is probably the most important brainstorming technique. At the end of the day you will have a greater appeal and more articles published by taking some time to read.

Write What You Know

I’m sure you have heard this advice before. I do not believe it is always the case that you should only write about what you know. However, when you are having difficulty brainstorming something to write about, turning your attention within can be a tremendous help. Think of your life in general. There will always be events and times in our lives when we experienced the greatest joy or sorrow we never imagined to be possible. Such events, episodes or occurrences can be a huge reservoir of humor and regret, plus a good source of article topics. To further add on to what you have experienced you can also talk to colleagues and try to see if they have any interesting stories from their lives to captivate readers.

When Your Brain Doesn’t Work, Use an Artificial One

Brainstorming software has been designed to help people who find it hard to come up with topics for articles. Mind mapping applications and Idea generators are both very popular software propelled mechanisms that come in handy when you want to generate ideas. Mind Mapping software (such as Mind View and NovaMind) are used to create diagrams that represent terms, ideas, tasks, and other objects that are linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps help to generate, visualize, and structure ideas in order for you to get a better overall picture of your subject matter. Idea generators can also be very useful, but they can be somewhat random as well. There are quite a few that run online (like this one at Creativity Portal). If you have absolutely no clue what to write about these can be useful in getting the creative juices flowing. Should you utilizing these examples of brainstorming software, I’m confident many ideas will follow.

I have given you some examples in this article of software solutions to brainstorming techniques, a quick search online will provide you with many more. However, you should be wary. Many of the solutions online are much better at time wasting than providing solid ideas. Look for my upcoming articles on software solutions for the article writer and the article submitters.

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