Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content

One of the keys to making the marathon work is Ezra Pound’s rallying cry, “Make it new.” Each time you formulate a starter thought, demand that it sends you in a new direction.

Focus-changers have endless numbers or forms. Here’s a partial list of some helpful ones: • How can I make this exciting? • How can I add value? • What else can I say about this subject? • Why am I stuck at this particular point? • How can I get unstuck? • What am I missing here? • What am I wrong about here? • Why? • How can I prove that? • How ca

Try This: Make a list of five common jargon words in your industry, and open up each for five minutes.

Who should you speak with? Dialoguing with a variety of people, in a host of far-out ways, makes for a paradigm-smashing experience:

“Go with the thought. Agree with what you just wrote, and logically extend it.… Be whimsical if you like, but make sure the whimsy naturally follows what preceded it.… Based on this new thought that just appeared on the page, what might happen next?”

“go with the thought” I had just put on paper.

These chunks, by the way, aren’t mere fragments. They’re complete thoughts. That’s what makes this method work. If I read a chunk even a decade from now, it would make sense to me.

Build an Inventory of Thoughts

One of my favorite storytellers is John Vorhaus, a writer of mystery novels, books on writing technique, and manuals on how to win at poker.