As creators, we all go through times where our minds go blank and we’re fresh out of inspiration. Maybe you have the drive to create but no idea what that looks like for you right now. Maybe you’re coming back from a break with no next step in mind, or maybe your audience is asking for something new and you’re feeling the pressure to deliver. Or maybe you’re just starting out and want to make sure you can keep momentum going in the long term.
Regardless, this blog post is designed to help you get out of a creative rut and/or generate ideas for you so you can get right to creating. There are no right or wrong strategies here, take whatever works for you and create your own system!
Sourcing inspiration
A quick and easy way to get started with your brainstorming is to research what’s currently popular. This can also give your content a better chance of success as you know there’s already an interested audience, and platforms want similar related content to show after a video is finished.
As well as asking your preferred AI tool for ideas, there are a whole bunch of different tools you can search for and use to identify topics and ideas, such as:
- Google Trends (including YouTube search)
- YouTube Explore/Trending tab (and Research tab in YouTube Studio Analytics)
- VidIQ
- TubeBuddy
- TikTok Creative Center
- Instagram Reels Trends (from your professional dashboard)
- TrendTok Analytics & Tracker app
- TrendPulser
- ViralFindr
- ContentBuddy
- BuzzSumo
You can also use these tools to identify similar creators in your space and do some reverse engineering; have a look at the qualities of their most popular videos and see what elements you could adapt or adopt for your own work (bearing in mind that some may have been popular in the moment and don’t work for the current time).
How to use what’s trending
Once you’ve got some inspiration, the next step is deciding how to use it. There are a few different routes you can go down:
- Adapting the trend or idea to make it feel more like you and/or more relatable to your specific audience demographic. This could be something like recording your own version changing the wording, tone, style and/or messaging to be relatable to an older audience, or women, or whoever your target audience is. The look is just as important – rather than trying to recreate that, base it in your own space (or here at The Createry!)
- Doing the exact opposite, for example taking the same topic but having a different opinion, advice or angle.
- Commentate on something else you’ve seen or heard (you may need to consider copyright implications or avoid using actual footage of what you’re referring to).
- Taking the inspiration and content you already have and repurposing them together in a unique way (e.g. turning something you wrote about in your email newsletter into a different angled video with trending audio).
- Find a way to link it to existing content you have in some way, even if just the branding/colours are the same. This makes it easier for people to recognise it as one of your videos over time.
- Making a pastiche or parody version.
- Changing the setup so it’s an interview, group discussion, talking head, etc.
Things to avoid:
- Creating something for the sake of it that you’re not really into – this always comes across on video and your audience will have the same lack of enthusiasm watching it as you did creating it.
- Not having a clear “why” – your point or story in your video should be clear; don’t just jump on a bandwagon because other people have!
- Just outright copying something directly with no changes or differences.
Organising your thoughts
After many years of content creation as busy business owners, we’re firm believers that simple is best! If you thrive on scheduling every to do list task and sticking to specific dates and systems and that works for you, that’s great. But if not there’s nothing wrong with keeping things simple.
The easiest thing to do is to have an easily accessible note on your phone that you can access from the cloud (to make updating and organising it easier and more accessible from different devices, but also keeping it easily available if inspiration strikes while you’re on the go, or meeting people and want to remember their details for interviewing).
Don’t forget to include a link to the videos that originally inspired you, along with any relevant screenshots. Always annotate your thoughts or jot your comments alongside so it’s easier to remember in future what you saved the link for in the first place.
Another option is using a bookmarking app or browser extension, or a dedicated tool such as Notion, AirTable or Trello to keep your ideas organised. The most important factor is that it’s easily findable and accessible to you at any time.
One last thing…
If starting is your sticking point, just take the first step of picking one of the tools listed above and entering some keywords, then go from there at a pace that works for you. You’ve got this.