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Grab a portable recorder and see if you can find inspiration in the real world.

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8. Ordinary world
Musicians through the ages have taken their seemingly ordinary surroundings and turned them into something extraordinary. Why not document the movements of your neighbours or all those customers in your local cafe? And that handful of receipts in your wallet contains all sorts of numbers ripe for interpretation.

9. Make something your heroes would hate
Try making a piece of music that your favourite artist would find utterly abhorrent. The chances are you'll dislike it just as much as they would, but by flying in the face of your own tastes, you could create something truly original.

10. Record yourself
Using a field recorder, document everything you do and see for ten or 20 minutes during an average day. As well as using the results as a lyrical launchpad, process your voice with reckless abandon. You'll get lots of new ideas, observations and a wealth of crazy vocal samples.

11. Hit the books
Go to your local library – it is, of course, a fantastic source of creative inspiration. There are endless books and magazines to plunder for lyrics, and to satiate your musical side, today's libraries also house plenty of audio material for sampling. And best of all, it's all free.

12. Dreamtime
Dreams have been inspiring artists of all kinds since the dawn of man, so don't ignore yours. And don't stop at merely relaying your own dreams sonically or lyrically – try writing down a dream and just taking the last few words as your theme, or creating a 'negative', nightmarish version of the whole thing.

13. Spam, spam, spam, spam…
Since we all get so many of them, why not get something useful out of spam emails? What does the 'usherx commune' sound like? Could there be some sort of encoded MIDI sequence hidden in 'hunderstand dmy smooch'? A wealth of titles, circumstances and characters are coming at you for free on a very, very frequent basis.

14. Be provocative
Bold or provocative statements can be loaded with lyrical and musical potential. Many artists have used their more controversial outpourings to bring something new to the socio-artistic table, NWA and the Sex Pistols being two of the most notable. Write down some direct, in-your-face phrases and use one as your theme. Don't be afraid to push some buttons (of both the literal and metaphorical variety).

15. A new identity
You've established a name for yourself on the dubcore scene but just aren't feeling inspired by that today. How about coming up with a new identity? Many artists work under multiple aliases, so why not you? Creating an alternative persona frees you from your own preconceptions of yourself. Already done that? Then have your two artists remix one another or become embroiled in a musical feud.

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