The Internet is a highly creative place. Every daypeople are launching new business solutions, writingnew software, creating new scripts that do things wecouldn't imagine just a few months ago. And in thepublishing world, a quiet revolution is taking place.People who never dreamt of being authors are writingand publishing their own eBooks.

A key to succeeding on the Internet is your ability tocome up with new ideas. But where do creative peopleget their ideas?

One day in the mid-1970's a young man stumbled into adiner somewhere in the United Sates. Slung over hisshoulder was a kit-bag that contained everything heowned. He was unshaven and needed a shower badly. Hehad very little money, but enough for a phone call.

He rang his bank and asked how much was in hisaccount. A woman's voice informed him, to hisamazement, that the balance in his account was fourmillion, three hundred thousand dollars. His name wasRichard Bach. Six months before, he had submitted ashort story, barely 10,000 words long, to a New Yorkpublisher. For the last three months he had beenliving the life of a nomadic 'barnstormer', sleepingin fields under the wing of his bi-plane. He had beencompletely unaware that his manuscript, titled'Jonathon Livingstone Seagull', had become a run-awaybest-seller.

Years later, Richard Bach talked about how he gotideas for his writing. He referred to what he calledhis 'Idea Fairies', silent intimations that came tohim and whispered in his ear.

To capture those ideas you have to be very alert,because they're often barely audible. They'll come toyou unexpectedly, early in the morning, when you're inthe shower, or late at night as you're drifting off tosleep. Or they may come to you after meditation.

Meditation is an excellent way of tapping into yourcreativity. Why? Because in meditation you go beneaththe surface level of thought, where most of us spendmost of our time. In meditation you dive down into amuch deeper current, a subterranean stream ofcreativity that runs through all of us.

As well as being alert and keeping an open mind,another key way to get new ideas is to read.

Ideas are living things, and like other living things,they meet and fertilize each other. When you read anarticle or a book, your ideas are coming into contactwith someone else's, and something new is born.Indeed, that's the very reason the Internet is socreative; millions of minds are coming into directcontact in a way that has never before been possiblein human history.

This process of cross-fertilization happensspontaneously and beneath the level of consciousthought. Suddenly you'll have a new idea and you won'teven know where it came from. So when you're feelingstuck or feeling that you've run out of ideas, read,read, and read some more.

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Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3
years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this
simple technique to build a successful online business. Click
here to find out more: http://ezine-writer.com/
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