How I’d Tap Into My Uncommon Sense to Unearth Hidden Writing Possibilities
Because that is how we enjoy writing online
Come July, I would have written online for 3 brutal long years.
It is an arduous journey. There are many rejections and indirect saliva-spitting at my face moments.
There are glittering moments too.
What I mean is our ability to take punches and get back up. It is the same for you too. And along the way, we learned so much about ourselves.
- As a person.
- As a wannabe online writer.
- As someone who wants to share their ideas and experiences.
And, most importantly, how we can expand our possibilities to become the best writer we can ever be.
But first, let me start with a trap we are blind to.
The Writer’s Trap
Let us start by understanding ourselves.
If you have been writing online for years as I do — You know you are trapped in your own patterns. No surprise there.
These are patterns reflected in,
- The words we use.
- The sentences we write.
- The tempo of our writing.
- The evergreen ideas we subscribe to.
- The key message we express in different ways.
- The beliefs we subscribe to and ditch.
- The topics we write about non-stop.
Left to our own devices, we evolve to become a parrot.
And this is the funny thing. We don’t (actually) know it. We keep typing, day in and night out, thinking this is the new idea we are working on.
That is… Until we review our library of writing.
The draft today resembles closely to article # 510 published 8 months ago.
Annoyed? I bet.
Tapping Into Uncommon Sense
This is a million-dollar question for online writers.
“How do we think out of the box?”
I do think that is the wrong question. To get a breakthrough, we must destroy the box we are in. To do so requires us to go beyond infinite curiosity.
I recommend 3 ways to do so.
- Speak to people outside of your profession.
- Read topics that you never do.
- Ask paired questions.
These are activities that are designed to make life a l-i-t-t-l-e uneasy. But it grows our writer’s brains.
Firstly, think about the people you interact with daily. They tend to be the same folks or people with the same profile. For me, they are,
- Potential engagement prospects.
- Consulting clients.
- Colleagues.
- Friends.
- Family.
We share the same concerns. We have the same conflict of interests. We see the world using a shared pair of spectacles.
If this is you, I am sure your conversation topic recycles daily.
Fresh Writing Ideas Can Come from People You Never Know
Recently, I was recommended to patronize a Chinese restaurant. This is a restaurant with long queues and fresh seafood. My colleagues dragged me along.
I didn’t enjoy my time there. In short, the waiting staff shouted one after another, I could not hear what my colleagues are saying, and plates of food were thrown at my table.
It didn’t take long for me to complain to the floor manager.
This was her response.
“Sir, the waiting staff had to shout loud and fast because the kitchen needed to know what to prepare. And we are severely shorthanded. We needed to serve fast to serve the next one. If we appear rude to you, I apologize.”
I smiled back at her.
And I got lost in my own thoughts. Apparently, they appeared rude to me.
See the irony?
I think they are rude.
But they don’t. They think they appear rude.
As I dug deeper, I realized that,
- I expected a distinct type of service quality from restaurants (to treat me like a King).
- Not all restaurants had the luxury of time to mingle with their patrons.
- People do what they must to get their work done.
And we would not know what they must do until we ask. This thinking opened up a world of possibilities for me as an online writer.
It made me ask…
“What do I assume that I know?”
“And how wrong can I get?”
We soften up when we are willing to challenge our assumptions in life. Our minds become open. We listen without prejudice and read without preconceived notions.
Yes, It Applies to Reading Too
I belong to the world of business. I love finance, investing, entrepreneurship, business success, and money. These topics come naturally to me.
However, these books tend to be boring.
While I enjoy extracting information from them, they do not help me with my online writing. I suspect this is the reason no one reads my stuff.
I read boring stuff. I write about boring stuff. And I write in a boring manner.
Geez.
I know it. So, I arrest myself when I am at the bookstore. I try to gravitate towards,
- Self-improvement
- Social Psychology
- History
These genres use words I would never use. Unfamiliar words such as vitriolic, cantankerous, and uptight entered my vocabulary because I flipped books out of cursory interest.
It grows my knowledge and exposure to new words.
And I Learned to Ask Paired Questions
It is one thing to ask questions. It is another thing to ask paired questions.
Take, for instance, the following.
“Why? Why not?”
“What good things will happen if I say no?”
“Can success come to us tomorrow if we fail today?”
You can see where I am coming from.
It is not enough to be interested in the why. Because that does not build a complete picture of what could happen.
Instead, ask why and focus on the if-else statement.
If-else brings our attention from the present into the future. No, it is not just about the present and the future. It strings them together.
We get a timeline of events.
And when we do, our online articles come across as a complete representation of our ideas.
Compare this…
“Do not litter. You will be fined $100.”
… to this.
“Do not drink and drive. You may be jailed. Your kids will never see their father again.”
See the difference?
Parting Keynotes
Our common sense traps us.
Not in a bad way, of course. It builds efficiency in our thinking. C follows B follows A.
We save time.
But it might not be the best approach for online writers looking to grow their writing portfolio and profile. No readers pay to read the same time over and over.
I mean, look. Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, is a fascinating speaker. But you get bored when he repeats the same idea a gazillion times, right?
Right.
And that is why we need to tap into our uncommon sense.
It is that secret sauce allowing us to evolve. I offer 3 ways to tap into our potential.
- Speak to people outside of your profession.
- Read topics that you never read.
- Ask paired questions.
Happy writing!
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
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