Blue Sky Thinking and how to keep creating Blog Posts when you can’t find Inspiration

I like the unique aspect of blogging that allows you the freedom to create anything. You could literally write a post about anything, but sometime that can also feel daunting. So I like to brainstorm while I’m going about living my life. That is what brings me to the process of blue sky thinking, and how I use it to help me create blog posts when I can’t find inspiration.

Today I am brainstorming. I am going outside and looking for ideas and inspiration, instead of passively waiting for the ideas to come to me.

Sometimes I stifled by creativity. Pressure and deadlines can cause more stress and lead to anxiety. These in turn can affect my creative performance.

So what is blue sky thinking?

Have you ever felt like creativity comes to you in flashes of inspiration? The truth is creativity is a process, just like any other thinking process. We can break down the process to understand our mindset.

There are four stages of creative thinking according to the book The Art of Thought by Graham Wallas.

Preparation: You start to gather as much knowledge about the subject as you can, you study and collect information in a variety of ways. 

Incubation: In this stage, you process all the information you have collected. Instead of consciously trying to solve a problem, you’ll let your mind wander on its own, working its way through the subject. This will lead to more creativity. Basically, your unconscious mind will be at work here. 

Illumination: This is the “Eureka” moment that really occurs when you are not actively thinking of a creative solution. You could be literally having a shower when all of a sudden you have found the answer you’ve been looking for (this is that creative flash I mentioned earlier). 

Verification: In this last stage of the creative thinking process, you want to test your idea. Using your critical thinking skills to fine-tune the idea and ready it to reach an audience.

Now when you get writers block, or you have a period of time where any of these processes just aren’t working for you, not only is it frustrating but it can actually cause the problem to get worse. So that’s when I implement blue sky thinking.

Blue sky thinking is a creative technique for brainstorming, specifically for when the mind is stuck! By using this technique to refresh your zest for creativity, it is a sure way to get your mind kicking again.

The aim of blue sky thinking is to brainstorm without any limits. Logical is not the word here, you don’t want you’re ideas to be grounded in reality. The purpose of blue sky thinking is to kick start the brain into thinking more creative ideas.

For example, you may come up with an idea for an article that is way beyond your budget, for example travelling around Mexico (I know that it’s on my list), and while it’s impossible for me to get there or afford the plane ticket right now, it might inspire me to go somewhere else, like a Spanish speaking country.

The goal of blue sky thinking is to be as outlandish as possible, budget is no limit, in the hope that it will spark an innovative idea.

What affects your ability to create?

In a sentence, although I’ll imagine that you won’t want to hear it, what affects your ability to create is the act of being self-conscious. I’ll admit we can all suffer with that from time to time, it’s unnerving producing something and sending it out into the world for others to see.

We’ve all had this at some point in our lives, for example a classic example would be posting something on social media, that nobody likes. Yikes! This is sure to spark that self conscious flare up. Well, there you go, creativity is the same.

When we produce things for others to see we realise it can affect others and how people perceive us. We begin to evaluate the practical and social values of what we have produced.

So if we get ‘stuck‘ it’s not that we don’t have the ideas, it’s that we shut them down before they have had a chance to develop and grow.

Creating content and evaluating what we have produced, are both important stages of the development process. Every thought is valuable creatively, how you produce that idea and give it value, is how we decide what to post.

Blue sky thinking is the idea that anything is possible. Imagine there are no limits and imagine the possibilities of where that can take you. The sky is literally the limit.

So next time you’re stuck and can’t think of any ideas about what you can write about, take some time out to free your mindset and brainstorm.

Remember with blue sky thinking, anything goes, begin to ask yourself silly questions about what you have written on the page. Such as, “if this concept was a dragon, what would it look like?” or “if money was no limit where would I go?” The aim is to flex your creative thinking, In the hope that eventually make some unexpected connections within the things you’ve written down.

Prepare to get silly and transform those stale ideas that are lurking in the back of your mind somewhere into something vibrant and fresh. Ultimately this should give you the inspiration for some new content.

Your creativity is your vision. This should be allowed to flourish and grow into something beautiful!

The evaluation of how you present that idea to the world is the fourth process and should be kept separate from your creativity.

Blue sky thinking is a process we can use to trigger our minds into creating again when we feel like we’re stuck.

How to keep creating blog posts when you can’t find inspiration.

Have you been blogging for six months? Did you hit a wall? I know that I did, and do you know something, even if you got to six months, congratulations, you’ve done well. It can so, so difficult to keep going when you suddenly run out of inspiration. But plenty of bloggers have pushed beyond this and have been writing content for years, so how exactly do they do it?

First of all, it’s really important to have a niche, but don’t worry if that changes slightly over time, you can always go back and edit old content in a new style. Make sure you write some key articles on what your niche is about, this is what will give you traffic and will be the framework of your blog. Make sure that your niche isn’t too broad or too refined.

Having a niche will help you establish your brand, as in your blog, but if you’ve made it too specific you maybe setting yourself up for a content fail down the line, when you run out of inspiration.

If you feel like this is why you’ve run out of material, try to expand on the subject you’ve chosen to write about. For example a blog about ice cream flavours, could transform into sweet treats that go well with ice cream.

Next, is your niche not refined enough? Perhaps you’ve picked such a broad topic that it’s difficult to pinpoint one topic exactly. Make sure your blog is not overwhelmed and try to refine your content in a way that makes sense to readers.

Now if you’ve done this and you’re still stuck when it comes to content creation, try to do some key word research on your topic, which as a bogger I’m sure you’re doing already but if you’re not, it’s an excellent way to find inspiration for key articles to be featured on your blog.

The term keyword research means figuring out what people are searching for online and developing your content around that.

There are plenty of free keyword research tools available online. A great free one is called WordStream, but if you’d like a professional account for a business for example, I would recommend Semrush.

Another great way of doing some quick key word research is to use search engines such as google. Simply type the word into google and the most popular searches will spring up! If you want to type a sentence simply use the ” symbol to replace a missing word. For example:

Finally, I would recommend trying some blue sky thinking! It’s a creative technique used by many, simply because it works.

I hope my article on how to find inspiration when you are blogging has helped you to feel less stuck. Let your mind be free to create again. Please share my article so we can share the inspiration of blue sky thinking.

Also, if you haven’t got the traffic you want just yet, remember that the more content you have, the more chance you have of going viral. I can’t tell you how to write that cornerstone article, but I can tell you how to blue sky think your way out of a creative dip!

Thanks for reading,

Soph.