an E2 user says heya. So you've been noding for 4.6 years, with 1200 nodes. That’s more than a node every 1.5 days?! Where do you get all your noding ideas from???? I'm very much stuck in a noding dry-spell of close to a year and need some insperation! :)
Are you caught in the clutches of Noder's Block too?
Here are some ideas that might be helpful. First remember you are writing for yourself as well as the reader. The most frequent advice I find myself suggesting is to include the basic elements of who, what, when, where and why. The second most often is attributing sources.
Node what you know.
Go back and do a brief survey of your write up titles and see if that jogs any related ideas. Look through those high school and college papers you did. Did you just finish a class or begin a new hobby?
If you have a number of interests that you want to study in school and never have time for this is an opportunity to find out. Are there other noders here whose work interests you? Go read through their write-ups for related ideas. Since the recent copyright changes there are thousands of subjects and songs that need a good write up.
Node what you don't know
To get started you can hit the local library and look around on the net with Google to see if there are several ideas that would make a good combination for a write up. It may take a while to come up with a method but once you get it down the rest is pretty simple. For instance, if I am writing about a poem, I will copy and paste a line from it in quotation marks, and then read through the first ten google pages to see what others have written about the poem and the poet or the history behind the poem.
Yep, that’s a hundred pages, but with experience one can tell which pages are worth skimming. Using Mozilla to block pop ups and run a spyware removal program once a week will keep things running smoothly. Many times there will be duplicate web pages so be sure to attribute all of your sources and use ones that are reliable like. edus, well known newspapers, dictionaries, encyclopedias etc. Including a quote from a credible expert on the subject is always worthwhile. Any personal web page articles cited should have several reliable sources cited. Adding trivia is great for reader's interest. If you would like to include the outlandish, which can be quite entertaining to some readers, make sure you make a note of that in the write up.
Keep writing
While you’re waiting for inspiration to strike. Try your hand at a quest! Find an old quest and see if the topic interests you. The CST group is closing in on 1000 write-ups processed. GrouchyOldMan says that the "Salvaged" writeups we've passed number about 840 thus far and failed around 70 as non-compliant. A large number of users have been more than willing to update theirs. Many times it’s just adding a few words. You can message the user account Content_Salvage if you would like yours reviewed. We’re always looking for people interested in helping. Feel free to message me or GrouchyOldMan if you’re interested.
I hope this helps get you started and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask. We can use all the data we can get in E2 especially from outstanding writers like you!