Sometimes ideas are rumbling around in my brain’s gray matter, but I can’t seem to capture them and put them into words. When I try but can’t seem to compose a meaningful post for my readers, here are some productive ways to keep mentally, creatively, and spiritually “active”–and often, quite often, as soon as I employ one of the ideas on this list, I’m able to generate a satisfying and perfectly usable post:

1. Read Scripture. I’ve already shared my Psalter/Proverbs devotional method, but there are many ways to dig into the Bible and let it inspire you. There’s nothing like a good dose of Truth to get some ideas flowing.
2. Learn about Current Events: Now that I’ve started to receive all of my free subscriptions, I have more resources than ever to sharpen my understanding of world news and current events. I’ve started tearing out articles that might inspire a post and sticking them in a file for a day when I feel uninspired.
3. Visit new blogs: The technological savvy of today’s bloggers blows me away. Oh, and the amazing photos, clever blog-enhancing tools, and consistently creative writing ability showcased in post after post are so inspiring. It all makes me want to do more with my own humble, homely little blog, and fortunately a lot of the top bloggers are generous with explanations about how to incorporate some of these virtual gadgets. So visiting blogs to gain ideas is a good thing; I just need to keep Blog Envy and personal insecurities at bay. Overall, though, I’ve found that visiting new blogs is usually a helpful outing, like going out to coffee and enjoying a riveting conversation with somebody, then driving home and finding myself thinking all kinds of new thoughts.
4. Experience Something New: Trying something new is good for writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or blog posts. New experiences keep our mind active and fresh and call us to draw up new metaphors to describe sensations and feelings. It’s good for the mind and gives you fresh, raw writing material at the same time. Instead of staring at the screen and wishing for the words to come, go live a little!
5. Take a Walk: Years ago I read a book about writing by Brenda Ueland, and she recommended a daily walk not so much for exercise–though that’s obviously part of it–but for inspiration. Somebody copied out her quote online at this site: “I will tell you what I have learned myself. For me, a long five or six mile walk helps. And one must go alone and every day.” As much as I hate the winter weather, taking that walk outside in nature (instead of on a treadmill), breathing fresh air and watching squirrels scampering up trees, is a critical part of providing fresh inspiration. It’s hard to explain, so just bundle up and go try it. Report back on your findings.
6. Idle Time: Puttering is freeing for the mind, so declutter a closet or organize the kids’ shoes. Plan out this spring’s garden, or even clear out some of the dried up annuals in one of the flowerbeds outside. It’s during those “down” times that the mind is free to come up with ideas that may have been stuck just under the surface. Again, I noted another pertinent Brenda Ueland quote: “I learned… that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.”
7. Read a Book: Whether or not I like the writing style or agree with the author, reading a book engages the mind–it’s the opposite of the idle time–and gets me thinking. Ideas flow in response or reaction to the content I’ve taken in.
8. Link: Can’t think of anything to say? Point to somebody who said something you really like! Share that linky love and send your readers to some good stuff you’ve unearthed.
9. Enlist the Talents of a Guest Blogger: Let someone else do the writing for you. I haven’t done this yet, but what a great solution for slogging out of an idea quagmire.
10. Lists: Great idea, eh? Come up with a theme and generate some bullet points. Write a few thoughts, and presto! You’ve got a post!

As we head into the next couple of uninspiring, bleak, cold, gray winter months (at least that’s what they’ll be here in the American Midwest), may these ten suggestions help you trudge forward with hope that practical solutions for composing your posts are within reach.