Writing Workshop: Gathering Ideas with Lists

If you are looking for writing ideas for yourself, students, or homeschool, gathering ideas with lists can be the first step to figuring out your next writing project.

Some of you may already know exactly what you want to write. If that's the case - awesome! But I'm guessing you are here because you have no idea what to write or how to get started - and you're exactly who I am gearing this lesson towards!

All writers feel this way at times - that sense of "I don't know what to write!" Commonly known as writer's block! When I can't figure out what to write, I use specific strategies to help me gather ideas.

My hands down favorite gathering ideas strategy is making lists. Lists are easy, fun and quick!

writing workshop gathering ideas with lists

Anne Voskamp, in her book "1000 Gifts," uses lists to gather all the moments, memories, and facts of her gratitude. I'd be willing to guess many of those items on her list have turned into more detailed blog posts or chapters in her books! If you haven't read it, I recommend you check it out.

The way we'll go about these tutorials is in a "workshop" format. I'll share with you a method or tip for writing. Then I'll demonstrate this tip either with examples from my own writing, or a mentor text by a published author. The next step is for you to spend some time trying out the strategy yourself!

Gathering Ideas by Listing Moments

Today I want to show you how to decide what stories to write, by listing important moments that matter... because those those moments, are worth writing about!

So... when I'm gathering a list of writing ideas, I like to focus on a category. Today, I'm going to focus on important moments in my life as a mom. It's ok if you are at a different stage in life; you can apply this to any part of your life.

Watch me:

The nurse giving me advice at my first son's birth
My second son's hug when he was just one day old
Our first camping trip with our oldest son
Using the stroller in the house with our first son
Watching my husband carry our first son around the yard in the mornings
The old woman next to us at the restaurant in Massachusetts
Our first 24-hour drive to Florida
First time my son slept over Grandma's

Did you see how I did that? I didn't have to start writing any big piece right away. I just gathered some ideas for future writing by listing important moments that mattered to me as a mom.

As new moments happen, I plan to keep this list going in my notebook. I will also backtrack and remember past moments that were significant to me.

The important thing is to list LOTS of ideas, because sometimes you can't use all the ideas you come up with (but when you're in the flow, just put them down anyway!). For example, I'm going to cross out a few ideas, because they are BIG moments, with lots of people and events, and I honestly don't remember many of the details too well.

As writers, we decide what stories are worth telling. We should always choose to write about moments we can recall with clarity and detail.

It's Your Turn to Gather Ideas with Lists!

Turn to a fresh page in your writing notebook. Title it "Important Moments." Now list all the ideas you can come up with of important moments for you - this may be moments with family or friends. Or perhaps you're writing on a different topic? It doesn't matter because the strategy is the same! Take the topic and write every word, idea, or thought that comes to you with that topic.

Spend about 5-15 minutes writing, or try to generate a half page or more of ideas before stopping. But really it's up to you!

How much time you want to spend on this is up to you - perhaps 15 minutes a few times a week. Maybe you'll have a dedicated hour. Maybe you'll snatch small moments here and there. Whatever works!

Start Your List Making!

Whenever you can't decide what to write about, remember, you can always gather ideas by listing important moments, because these are the moments that matter. So they will become the stories that matter too!

Use this list-making strategy any time you are stuck in your writing. Go back to old lists and add on. Create new lists with different themes (lists of places, lists of books, lists of foods, lists of embarrassing moments, etc).

I'd encourage you to spend lots of writing time making lists... then you'll never be stuck for writing ideas. Besides which, I find lists can be beautiful in their own right - Voskamp's 1000 Gift lists for example, or a list poem, or printing and framing a themed list... writing your memories can take many shapes!