Second Article, 2nd MP: The Woes of a Journalist: Coming up with Article Ideas

Have you ever sat and stared at a computer screen, trying to think of something to write your next article about? That was me, just five minutes ago. I had searched every news website, googled “article ideas,” and even asked my mom. After all of that, I was still at a loss. What could I write that would still be relevant in two months, when this article would be published? What topic would be long enough and interesting enough? Why couldn’t I think of anything?

In the past two years in journalism class, I have learned that writing articles is much more difficult that it seems. You may be thinking, “Oh, writing stuff to put in a newspaper is easy! All you have to do is grab something off the internet, change a few words, and you’re done.” However, I am the person who gets to tell you that you are wrong. There are many things to take into account when writing. You need to make sure that your article won’t be outdated by the time the newspaper is published, you need to make it interesting, you need to be creative, and, contrary to most people’s beliefs, you can’t just steal things from other, professional newspapers. That’s called plagiarism, but that is a topic for another day.

I am thoroughly convinced that I am not the only person that this writer’s block happens to. When I look around the journalism classroom, I frequently see kids frantically searching news websites, to no avail. I see kids just sitting there, lost in thought, trying to come up with an article idea. I do know that one thing that is running through everyone’s mind is, “I wish I could just make a word search,” but if we let everyone do that, our newspaper would be gone, and in its place would be a puzzle book. I’m not sure that the dean approves of a whole class devoted to puzzle-making.

Every writer in the world has a time where they are stumped for an idea. It’s not just middle school students. It’s a nice feeling to know that if you were to call up Stephen King or J.K. Rowling and ask if they were having a writer’s block, there’d be a good chance that they’d say yes. Then you think, if a famous writer has writer’s block, it’s okay if I do, too. This is somewhat encouraging, until you realize that you, unlike them, have a deadline to make.

I cannot sit here and tell you that I have a cure for the dreaded writer’s block. However, I can tell you some things that I tend to use as inspirations. Sometimes an article of mine is written based on a funny joke I heard that day, a story a family member shared, or something that a character in a movie said. Something just usually sparks me, and I go with it. It may take ten minutes to figure out, or it may take ten days, but I can always use things that I hear around me.

Occasionally, when I’m lucky, I will have an “AHA!” moment. This is when, after thinking for hours, a completely random idea will come to me. Therefore, it requires minimal thinking. I think it’s safe to say that I like when this happens.

You could also try asking your friends for ideas. Other people’s brains are a goldmine for new, fresh concepts. They break you from your usual way of thinking and make you think out of the box.

So yes, it was five minutes ago that I was picking my mom’s brain for things to write about. It was when she was finally out of article ideas herself that she said, “Why don’t you just write about not having anything to write about?” And that is what I did.