3 Bad Ideas for More Creative Writing

Today’s post is by author and innovation speaker Jason Keath.

I’m ready—desk set, lemon water in hand, the morning light is perfect. And yet the empty Google doc sits there mocking me, and the words won’t come.

It reminds me of playing Zelda with my dad in the 1980s. We played the game so often that it refused to start half the time. The screen would flicker with static and settle into a chaotic jumble of glitchy colors.

So, like anyone who has ever owned a Nintendo, we would blow on the cartridge. A few quick bursts of air, a hopeful restart, and we crossed our fingers. Sometimes it worked; sometimes it didn’t.

Creativity can feel a lot like those unreliable game cartridges. You’ve got all the tools, the experience, and the energy, but some unknowable dust from the universe blocks the brilliant ideas.

Every successful writer develops creative habits to help them get their version of Zelda back on the screen. I’ve been helping people improve their creativity skills for over 15 years, and when I run into a writing block, I turn to bad ideas. Specifically, three main shortcuts help me start new projects or quickly break out of a creative slump.

Let’s look at each of these methods. The goal is to help you generate a wider variety of ideas more quickly. Test them out and choose the one that best fits your process.

1. The Bad Idea Method

Bad ideas are a shortcut to creative thinking.

The Bad Idea Method is simple. Give yourself 10 minutes to write down 25 bad ideas. Depending on the creative challenge you’re facing, these could be 25 bad opening lines for a novel, 25 bad character traits, or 25 bad article topics.

Writing down bad ideas can feel a little awkward at first. You may not make it to 25 every time, but that’s OK. Do what you can. One of the biggest barriers here is letting go of your quality filters. Have an idea that doesn’t seem bad enough? Write it down. Too embarrassing? Write it down. Too boring? You guessed it, pen to page.

The perfectionist inside all of us will try to be picky and come up with “the best” bad ideas (whatever that means) or the bad ideas that are secretly really good ideas.

Like most things the more you exercise this muscle, the more effective it will be. A helpful key is to define what makes an idea bad for you. Start with two categories: the obvious and the absurd. Both are valuable for brainstorming, though it can feel unnatural to write them down at first.

Great ideas exist between the obvious and the absurd.

Why does this work? How does the Bad Idea Method help?

It works because there are so many benefits:

• Bad ideas are easier to come up with, so you get started faster
• Bad ideas open your mind, giving us a larger variety of connections to work from
• Bad ideas lead to good ideas (absurd idea A leads to interesting idea B leads to great idea C)
• Bad ideas augment other ideas (obvious idea A + absurd idea B = great idea C)
• Sometimes a bad idea is actually a good idea (A=C)

2. Constraint Questions

Another way to jumpstart the sleeping artist in your brain is to question your assumptions. For this exercise, you will write down 10 constraints and question them one by one.

Write down the guidelines, requirements, and expectations that you think of when defining what you are trying to write. Use these questions to get started:

• Creative: What are the story, narrative, character, or plot constraints?
• Cultural: What are the social norms, practices, or expectation constraints?
• Market: What are the external trends, competition, or ecosystem constraints?
• Policies: Are there any constraints from internal guidelines or orders?
• Technical: Is there a constraint from a lack of tools or expertise?
• Resource: What are the budget, materials, bandwidth, or time constraints?
• Rules: What are the laws, regulations, or science constraints?

If you’re writing a fantasy book, your list might include a magic system or the word count deadline your publisher set. If you’re writing the opening hook for an article, the publication’s audience details and your article topics might provide many of the constraints you write down.

One by one, for each constraint, ask yourself what you would write if you ignored that constraint. Then combine multiple constraints from your list and ask the same question.

Creative people do versions of this in their heads all the time. Writing down constraints will help you work through these thought starters more quickly.

My favorite example of questioning constraints is the first iPhone. Steve Jobs not only wanted to build a new type of phone, he wanted a leap forward in design and function. Apple challenged assumptions about what makes a phone and instead prioritized user experience.

Before the first iPhone launched in 2007, every phone on the market included:

• Physical keypads/keyboards
• External antennas
• Removable batteries
• Small displays (<40% of phone)
• A focus on calling and texting
• Call-in voicemail
• Expandable storage (SD cards)
• 7–9 function buttons or more (call, end, speakerphone, mute, volume, directional pad)

Apple questioned and ignored all of these as false constraints.

Before 2007, manufacturers (and consumers) saw the list above as requirements. After the iPhone launched, this became a list of options. It’s remarkable how different the iPhone was compared to its competitors.

Apple changed the public context of how we think about phones by questioning almost every mobile phone constraint.

Listing assumptions is a quick way to gain creative momentum. Make a list of constraints, question them, and let that thought exercise guide your writing.

3. The Fast & Ugly Draft

Anne Lamott’s idea of an ugly “first draft” from Bird by Bird permitted writers to put bad words on the page without judgment. Starting with an imperfect draft gets ideas out faster than waiting for the perfect phrasing to appear.

This approach mirrors startup culture—building in public, launching beta products, and “failing fast.” Sharing imperfect work builds momentum. No matter how rough your draft is, you can always improve it, fixing smaller pieces here or there is easier than writing perfectly from the start.

Even though I embrace the ugly first draft, I still get stuck at times. So, I’ve added three rules to help me work faster—not just ugly, but fast and ugly.

1. Set challenging deadlines
When I start writing, I estimate how long it should take me and then I cut that time in half to set an unreasonable deadline. For instance, an average newsletter draft takes me about an hour, so instead I give myself 30 minutes. This forces me into an outline mode, reducing pressure and allowing me to view my writing from a broader perspective.

2. Restrict research time
Research can be a major rabbit hole for me. Once I recognized that, I began setting strict time limits—30 minutes for smaller tasks, 60 for larger projects. This helps me make my research more focused and directly useful for my writing.

3. Bracket unfocused work
Anything that slows down your ugly fast draft, like research, premature editing, or getting stuck on a word, should be set aside. Instead of switching tasks or losing momentum, [add a quick note for yourself in brackets]. I find brackets are faster and less disruptive than using the comment feature in Word or Google Docs.

The quicker you put something down on the page, the more momentum you create. Creative ideas and solutions become easier. Don’t get me wrong, it is important to slow down and take breaks at times. But an ugly, fast approach does wonders for helping me get over those moments of creative fatigue.

The faster you get ideas on the page, the more momentum you build. That momentum makes creative ideas appear more easily. While slow work and breaks have their place, an ugly, fast approach helps me push through creative fatigue.

Next time you’re staring at a blank page or feeling stuck, try bad ideas. Challenge yourself to list bad ideas, question a list of constraints, or start with a fast/ugly draft.

Set a timer and let me know how it goes!

Jason Keath

Jason Keath is an author, keynote speaker, award-winning designer, and entrepreneur. As co-founder of Social Fresh, a creative strategy agency, he helps businesses engage and captivate their perfect audience. His upcoming book, The Case for More Bad Ideas, champions his counterintuitive approaches to creative thinking.