You never know what will spark a connection. An idle conversation. A magazine headline you see while in line at the grocery store. Running water.

Ideas are everywhere if you know where to look.

Well… it’s a bit of training too.

Frankly, a “new” idea is nothing more than two things put together in a new way.

Take the idea of salad in a bag, for example.

That didn’t happen until lettuce producers saw an opportunity to meet consumer desire for convenient healthy eating.

And, 30 years later, it’s a mainstay in the produce section.

When you train yourself to make unusual connections, then you’ll have more ideas than you can imagine.

In this segment of the Content Roadmap Series, I’ll share eight ways you can train yourself to be a fountain of useful ideas, but first, why are ideas so important for a writer?