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Transcript

How to Recognize a Good Idea · The Daily Writer

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer, where we share a lesson each day to help you cultivate the habits for creative success.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: One of the perennial questions writers ask is, where do you get good ideas?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fair question because all of us have struggled with finding good ideas for our writing.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: The overriding feeling we have is that we need to do something more or add some sort of technique in order to find great ideas.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Stephen King wrote this.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get one thing clear right now, shall we?
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: There is no idea dump, no story central, no island of the buried bestsellers.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Your job isn't to find these ideas, but to recognize them when they show up.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: So how do you put Stephen King's words into practice?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think it's not a matter of doing something more.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually a matter of doing something less.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Less time on your phone, less commitments to do things that you don't really want to do, less time watching mindless entertainment, and less time filling every possible nook and cranny of your life with noise and distraction.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Recognizing good ideas is not a matter of addition, but of subtraction.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: When you free up the space in your mind, it's much easier to recognize and cultivate those great ideas that are so critical for writers.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's daily question.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: What is one thing you can stop doing today to free up a little space in your mind?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been listening to this show for any length of time, you know that one of the four practices of a great writer is creativity.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to stay creative, you've got to have great input.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where writing prompts come in.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: A writing prompt is a sentence or two that helps you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Writing prompts are an awesome creative tool for journaling, storytelling, creative writing, stress relief, social media posts, and so much more.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: But the great news is that you don't have to create these yourself.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: We've put together an amazing package of 365 daily writing prompts.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: So every day for the next year, you can have a shot of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out at dailywriterlife.comslash writing prompts.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.