Ideas are hard. OK, I know that is one massive understatement. Ideas, the very foundation of any creative work, seem to be the one thing that always manages to stop a project right in its track – or rather the lack of them.

This week, I’ll try and highlight a few ways or tricks that will hopefully help you come up with some ideas, or at least get out of the idea slump you might be in.

But first, I feel I should make something clear: When I say ideas for writing, I don’t just mean ideas to come up with the entire premise behind a story. Those are included, but I am also talking about ideas for the small things like how your characters talk, or minor plot points. It is easy to forget the little things require inspiration too.

Tip 1: Don’t freak out if you can’t think of something right away. I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but ideas are hard. They take time, and stressing over the fact that you’re stuck isn’t going to help matters at all. Instead, do something that relaxes you, take a nap, or go on a walk. Being relaxed clears the mind and can actually make way for new ideas.

Tip 2: Use placeholder ideas. Maybe you have this great idea for a character but are drawing a blank regarding the setting. If that happens, just pick any setting at random, even if it seems like it’s a bad idea. I know this sounds backwards. What’s the point of using bad ideas? But you can always change things, and it is a whole lot better to be doing heavy revisions than to never have written anything at all. Besides, sometimes those bad ideas can morph into something you actually want to use.

Tip 3: Keep an idea journal. Ideas hit us at random times. Sometimes I’ll be in the middle of a math class and an idea for a story, a character or a single scene will plant itself into my mind. When this happens to you, write the idea down. When you’re stuck, it is helpful to go back and look through this list of ideas. You can work the entirety of one of your ideas into the story or just take a piece of one. If none of the ideas work, then at the very least the journal reminded you that you can at least come up with some cool ideas. I know that when I’m struggling to think of some, it seems like all of my ideas have been bad.

Tip 4: Don’t be afraid to take ideas from your life or other resources. I’m not saying to plagiarize, but you can always build your ideas off things you’ve read, heard, seen, or even been though. Don’t copy, but allow yourself to draw inspiration from anything. I’ve based dialogue pieces, even characters, off people and conversations from my day to day life.

Tip 5: Don’t stop writing. Work on something else for a bit; skip the scene you’re stuck on or just move to a different project.  It might seem like a good way to generate ideas would be to stop actually writing, but that just perpetuates the block. Try and plow through – you might find that an idea strikes you right in the middle of a sentence.

Those are just a few of my tips on how to come up with ideas for your next story, and they are not the only steps you can take. If anything, I hope this blog post has made you realize that reaching an idea-block isn’t the end of the world and that stressing over being stuck isn’t going to help at all.