Idea-Incubation Writing Loop
Capture sparks, think while moving, test quickly, and reuse strong scraps.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
The Idea-Incubation Writing Loop begins with an unforced spark encountered while reading, listening, walking, or living. Capture the nugget immediately with enough provenance to find it again, then use movement to develop the wording and connections before or during drafting. The draft functions as a test: a productive idea tends to generate related stories and paragraphs, while persistent blockage often means the idea itself is weak. When it fails, stop rather than forcing a finished article. Preserve any strong paragraphs in a dedicated scraps document because they may fit a future piece. Housel described a 50,000-word Google document of discarded passages and traced one article from a podcast timestamp, to an emailed note during a run, to exploratory drafting the next day.
Origin
Housel described the writing process he developed over roughly 15 years of publishing articles.
Core principles
- 01Strong ideas often emerge away from the desk.
- 02Movement can support thinking better than forced typing.
- 03Persistent blockage may signal a weak idea rather than weak discipline.
- 04Discarded passages can become future material.
How to run it
- 1
Capture the spark
Record the core idea immediately, along with the source or timestamp that triggered it.
Pro tip A short email to yourself is enough if it preserves the connection.
Watch out Do not trust an exciting idea to remain clear later.
- 2
Think in motion
Walk, run, or move while letting the argument, wording, and related stories develop.
Pro tip Leave the desk when a paragraph stops moving.
- 3
Draft to discover
Start writing without requiring a complete outline and follow the connections generated by the draft.
Pro tip Use each sentence to reveal the next useful association.
Watch out Exploration is not an excuse to publish an unstructured result.
- 4
Test the idea
Notice whether the concept produces clear language and forward momentum within an initial drafting period.
Pro tip Treat repeated difficulty as evidence about the idea, not only your effort.
Watch out Do not confuse one hard sentence with a failed concept.
- 5
Save the useful scraps
Move strong unused passages into a dedicated file and retrieve them when a later idea gives them a home.
Pro tip Keep the scraps searchable by subject or memorable phrase.
Watch out Saving everything without retrieval turns the archive into a graveyard.
In the wild
While running and listening to Tim Ferriss interview Steven Pressfield, Housel heard that people in a mental institution could not tolerate life's hassles. He stopped, emailed himself 'optimal amount of hassle' with the podcast timestamp, and began exploring the idea the next day.
→ The captured nugget became an article about the value of tolerating ordinary annoyance.
Housel stores paragraphs cut from failed or completed articles in a Google document called 'scrapped bits.' Over ten years it grew to about 50,000 words and supplied material for later articles.
→ Abandoned drafts continue to generate value instead of disappearing.
Common mistakes
Muscling through a bad idea
Writer's block can come from a concept that is wrong or uninteresting, not a shortage of effort.
Discarding every failed draft
A piece that fails as a whole may contain a story or paragraph that belongs in future work.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for independent writers who can publish when an idea is ready rather than on a fixed newsroom deadline.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for writers whose contractual deadlines require publication regardless of inspiration.
From the transcript
“the majority of the time that you have writers Block it's not that you have writers Block it's that your idea sucks”
“good ideas are very easy to write and bad ideas are are hard”
“saving all those scraps is really helpful”
From the episode
#576: Morgan Housel — The Psychology of Money, Picking the Right Game, and the $6 Million Janitor
Morgan Housel