If you're excited to start your idea generation, check out the 7 ways below to brainstorm your first 7 topics!
1. Write about what youâre reading.
Do a quick audit of the books on your desk, in your backpack, or in your Kindle library. What are you reading these days? Or what topics do you find yourself Googling and âgoing down the rabbit hole?â
Whatever youâre reading, youâre most likely thinking about.
If youâre reading about personal development, you probably have some thoughts, ideas, and frameworks of your own related to personal development.
If youâre reading about cryptocurrencies or new technologies, you probably have some opinions on those topics.
If youâre reading about personal finance, or cooking, or even reading about writing, those topics are probably the most âtop of mindâ for you right now.
Use what youâre reading as inspiration.
2. Respond or expand on someone elseâs writing.
Building on the above, the easiest way to get the pen moving is to build or expand on what someone else wrote.
Maybe you just read a blog post or an article you found yourself thinking about long after the fact. Write about it. What have you been thinking about? What did you learn? What changed after you read itâwhat new beliefs or frameworks have you adopted since?
Or maybe you just read a book or listened to a podcast or watched a documentary that introduced you to a whole new world of information you hadnât even known about before. How did you come across that book or podcast in the first place? Why were you open to exploring this new and foreign topic? How are you different now after being exposed to it?
Or maybe you just came across something you totally disagreed with. Maybe you heard someone elseâs opinion on a topic you consider yourself fairly well educated on, and you really feel like this other person got it all wrong. Write about it. What did they get wrong? What nuances are you familiar with that they left out? How would you better explain the topic to the reader?
This is what makes online writing such a fun game: thereâs an infinite amount of content you can respond to.
3. Make a list of topics you donât know much about, but are curious to learn more.
Hereâs a way to kill two birds with one stone.
Instead of trying to write what you know, make a list of things you donât knowâand then go learn about them.
For example, say you know nothing about investing, but you really want to learn. Well, what are some of the questions you have?
âWhatâs the difference between a 401k and an IRA?â
âWhat are the best stocks to buy if youâre a beginner investor?â
âHow much money should you be investing each month if you earn less than six figures per year?â
Chances are, if you have these questions, a lot of other people probably do too.
Write these questions down, and then go on the journey of finding the answers. Read about them. Explore them. Google them. Do your own research, bring yourself up to speed, and then when you return from your journey, internalize the information by writing about what youâve just learned. Answer your own questions, and share your answers by publishing in public, so that others can learn from you as well.
4. Make listsâof anything.
âListiclesâ get a bad reputation (because of Buzzfeed articles like, â20 Ways Eating Mac And Cheese Can Actually Save Your Lifeâ), but the truth is, lists are a tried-and-true, highly effective writing technique for cramming a ton of information into a finite amount of space.
- Lists of books you read that changed your mind on a topic
- Lists of inspiring quotes, speeches, podcasts, TED Talks that remind you of what really matters in life
- Lists of morning routines, productivity hacks, rituals, or practices you have that make you more effective at performing a given task.
- Lists of other people/industry leaders you enjoy learning from, look up to, and believe other people (within a certain vertical) should follow as well.
The best way to approach creating a list is to think about what would be most valuable to the reader: is it the curation of people? Is it the wide assortment of suggestions all packed together? What would give the reader the most valueâand how can you put it into a skimmable list that would save them a bunch of time?
5. Curate âthe best ofâ any industry/topic.
Whatâs the fastest way to become an expert?
Curate all the expert advice within a specific industry/topic.
Now, youâre the expert of curating experts in <industry/topic>.
For example, maybe youâve been going down the rabbit hole on how to write online, and youâve come across a ton of helpful insight from other pro-level online writers. A great way of internalizing the information for yourself, but also creating valuable content for the next writer, is to curate all the expert advice youâve found into a jam-packed essay and/or Twitter thread.
Link to the expert advice. Share a bit about why you found it so valuable, or how it changed your own process. Repeat.
6. Explain, specifically, How To do something (to the reader).
One of the most popular formats of articles on the internet is the age-old âHow Toâ article.
Take anything youâve learned in your life (ideally with some sort of obstacle/nuance):
- How to bake a cake (without using eggs or milk)
- How to build a website (in 15 minutes or less)
- How to manage your finances (even if you failed math)
- How to speed-read a book a week (and still remember what you read)
- How to start a home workout routine (even if youâve never gone to the gym before)
How To articles are the perfect example of what it means to speak DIRECTLY to a target reader. You arenât aiming to reach âeveryone.â Your goal is to reach everyone with that specific interest.
7. Share a personal storyâand the life lesson you learned as a result.
Where online writers go wrong is they tell stories without giving a gift to the reader at the end.
When you tell a story about yourself, the reader doesnât really care. If you go on and on about your childhood, or your friends, or that one time you fought with your parents, none of it matters to the readerâuntil you explain what you learned as a result, and what the reader should learn from your story as well.
The great thing about this type of writing is that nearly any life experience is fair game. You could tell the story of the time you broke your arm in middle school. You could tell the story of that one time you ran away from home. You could tell the story of how you almost didnât get accepted into college, or the time you almost got arrested, or the time you moved to a new country and felt like a fish out of water. Tell the reader what happened. Share how you felt in the process, and what the world around you looked like.
Just donât forget to give the reader a gift at the end.
What did you learn? How are you different today as a result?
And most of all, what can the reader take away from your story and implement into their own life as well?