You’re depleted. Your resources are spent. Your low on time, energy, money, creativity. And yet, you have a deadline. Or a promise to yourself. What do you do?
You scrounge.
I’m scrounging today. I didn’t have the umph in me to do my planned blog topic—I’m fighting a cold or bug of some sort, and am slightly miserable.
I’m also scrounging for food in my pantry. Going to the grocery store just isn’t happening for another day or two. I’ve had soup the last two nights for dinner—you know, the soup you buy to stock your pantry but aren’t really going to use unless there is an emergency.
Well, Lord, protect us from a real emergency because I have dipped into my food reserves.
My husband loves scrounging, because it helps our food budget, and leaves more cashola for our hiking adventures together. You can read about the fun we have seeing various wonderlands at hikingwithyourhoney.com.
Sometimes, food scrounging produces really good results. My husband marvels at the creations I come up with sometimes…last week it was gluten-free pasta with tuna, pesto and cheese.
But the important thing is that scrounging produces results. You now have something to eat. When you sit down to write—even when it seems like you have nothing—something still comes out. Now you have a piece of writing.
So if you need to “scrounge around” to write, how about asking yourself a few questions:
- What have you been doing for the last hour—and are there any lessons you can glean from it that apply to what you are writing about? (That question was the source of inspiration for this blog).
- What momento in your house reminds you of happy memories? Tell a story about it and include universal, relatable human emotions.
- What activity makes you feel really alive? Why does the activity make you feel that way?
- What product or service are you consistently telling your friends about? Why do you share about it? What does using it make you feel like? Can you draw any parallels to your writing topic?
If none of these questions tickle your fancy, Google potential writing topics or writing prompts. You’ll find hundreds of ideas, from upcoming holidays, to current issues, to travel locations, to leadership and so much more. So, maybe it’s time you do a little “scrounging” of your own.
If you would like to skip the scrounging and let someone else brainstorm with you and give you concrete ideas for a writing project, please contact me. I’d love to help you.
