Mindful Monday – Where Oh Where Do All Those Ideas Come From?

People who have followed my career as a freelance article writer and now the author of the Klepto Cat Mysteries often ask, “Where do you get all those ideas?” It’s sometimes a mystery to me how I can finish one story (or article or blog post), sit at the computer, and come up with an idea for the next . How do I do it? Well, let’s start by discussing how I approach this blog.

As you know, I post at Catscapades Blog five times a week—Monday through Friday. It may surprise you to know that I don’t face Monday morning with a blank slate. I outline and sometimes fine-tune the week’s blog posts over the weekend. But I’m thinking about the blog and I’m gathering ideas all the time. How? I pay attention to things around me, mainly things related to my blog topic—cats!

I read news stories about cats in newsletters, Yahoo news, magazines, facebook, etc. I listen when others talk about their cats and pay attention to what my cats are doing. I also photograph my cats, friends’ cats and random cats and use the photos to inspire blog posts. I get ideas from the comments followers leave at my blog and on facebook. I revisit articles and former posts I’ve written. And I might chime in on an issue that’s hot on the Internet. I write about my experiences with cats and those of others.

My posts might cover health issues, cat care, rescue/adoption, special moments with cats, cat recognition days that occur throughout the year, cat history, cat breeds and personalities and behavior. As you know if you’ve hung around here long enough, I cover just about anything cat—even cat collections.

I report on cat activities and events—the Cat Writers Conference, CatCon, and cat cafés. In any week, I might cover how to choose a godparent for your cat, create a catio, plants poisonous to cats, crazy cat sleeping positions, and traveling with cats. But then, if you’ve been a subscriber to this blog, you know how versatile, frivolous, serious, inspirational, poignant, educational and interesting the posts here at the Catscapades Blog can be.