Summary

The author of the article, after a year of indecision on choosing a niche, advocates for new writers to focus on writing consistently across various subjects rather than limiting themselves to one specific topic.

Abstract

The author joined Medium in April 2022 with aspirations to become a writer but found himself struggling to select a niche, a decision that delayed his writing for almost a year. Despite the common advice that focusing on a niche is crucial for success, the author's diverse interests in topics ranging from movies to vintage toys made it impossible for him to narrow down his choices. Eventually, he decided to disregard the pressure to specialize and began publishing articles on a variety of subjects, including school shootings, Bill Clinton's vegan diet, and decluttering his home. The articles did not receive many reads initially, but the experience was invaluable for kickstarting his writing career. The author encourages other writers with eclectic interests to start writing without overthinking about finding a niche, emphasizing that consistent writing and improvement are more important for beginners.

Opinions

The author believes that the pressure to find a niche can hinder the writing process and delay the start of a writing career.
He suggests that having a broad range of interests should not prevent one from writing.
The author posits that consistent writing and the subsequent improvement are more beneficial for beginners than focusing on a specific subject.
He implies that the advice to choose a niche is not universally applicable and may not be necessary for all writers.
The author's personal experience suggests that writing about various topics can be more rewarding and fulfilling than confining oneself to a single niche.

Ditch the Niche and Just Write

I wasted a year trying to figure out what subject to focus on

I joined Medium in April of 2022, and after reading a few stories, I decided that this was the platform I wanted to use to help launch my writing career.

But it would take almost an entire year before I started publishing articles.

What took me so long?

One word: niche.

To provide you with a more detailed explanation, I couldn’t decide what subject to focus on.

I couldn’t narrow it down.

When I first found Medium, I read every article I could find on how to be a successful writer on this site, and each one of them said that having a niche was essential to success.

They reasoned that having a focused niche would attract a specific audience that would eventually become loyal and go on to read more of my articles. And after writing on that topic for a while, that author would be considered an expert in that field.

So I bought into that theory and wrote down a list of topics I was interested in, and this is what I came up with:

Movies
Books
History
Financial Investing
Recipes
Saving Money
Politics
Sports
Celebrity gossip
Self Improvement
Vintage Toys

As you can see, I’m interested in way too many topics.

So, I stayed on Medium and read about everything I found interesting. After a few months, I still hadn’t narrowed down a niche. But as December approached, I realized I had wasted the entire year trying to figure out the topic I wanted to write about.

I finally made a personal goal to publish something so I could get started.

So, in March of 2023, I finally hit the publish button on My First Article on Medium.

The first article had no specific subject, and the following articles after that were random pieces like an opinion about school shootings, Bill Clinton’s vegan diet, a short story on Faith Hill cooking up Tim McGraw’s favorite meal, and a few articles on decluttering my home.

These articles barely got any reads, but the experience I got was invaluable. It started my writing career, which was more critical in those early stages.

I’m sure many writers worldwide are passionate about one topic, whether sports or politics and choose to focus on that. I’m happy for them.

But many others like me are interested in multiple subjects and can’t decide what to focus on.

This advice is for them, and I suggest not to overthink it.

For beginners, getting in the habit of writing consistently and improving is more important than focusing on a specific subject.

So, if that’s you, I suggest you ditch the niche and start writing.