Some Sure-Fire Ways To Develop Writing Topics
A handy-dandy list.
How many times have you banged your head against your desk trying to come up with a topic to write about?
Probably more than once.
This scenario is practically unavoidable no matter how long you’ve been in the content creation game. Sometimes it feels as if we’ve said everything there is to say about a subject. Of course, this isn’t true, although it can appear that way.
Finding the best subject and angle to start with, whether for an article, essay, or blog, may be difficult.
Don’t lose hope. A vast array of resources is within easy grasp. Some of these ideas may already be familiar to you. One or two of them might be brand new.
Give them a shot. You certainly don’t have anything to lose, right?
Scroll Through Your Social Media
This can be either intentional or casual.
By that, I mean you can either sit down with a social media account such as Twitter, Instagram, or even Facebook and just scroll through posts to see what sort of things people are talking about.
If there are a lot of people talking about a specific topic, that’s a good sign you may have found an issue that resonates with readers.
Mind you, this is just scrolling for topics. I don’t recommend lifting other people’s ideas verbatim. Find your own unique take and spin.
Make Google Trends Your Friend
Google Trends can tell you what search topics generate the most views. This is particularly handy if you’re researching issues within a particular specialty, such as music news or politics, where information quickly becomes outdated.
After looking at search trends, dive into different sub-groups to better understand what’s piquing people’s interests. You can tailor searches to scan blog entries, trending news, and individual keyword search activity to help narrow your exploration. With Google Trends, you can sort out what topics are gaining traction and which might be fading.
Read Industry News Sites
Maintain a familiarity with online news sources relevant to your expertise or industry. This is a terrific way to see what’s important to people in your community and where the debates are headed. Cybersecurity, cloud computing, gaming, real estate, and small-to-medium-sized business solutions are all topics that I write about frequently. There are plenty of websites with news and articles on these subjects.
I’ve never been short on related industry news to draw inspiration from. A word of caution: don’t copy or lift entire chunks of your sources. That’s just appalling. It’s also humiliating if you’re called out on it. You can, however, use industry articles as a launchpad for your own original take.
Recreate a Top Post From the Past
Some posts do better than others. It’s a good idea to remember which posts resulted in a lot of engagement and see if you can get lightning to strike twice — so to speak.
I’m not really suggesting you take an old, popular post and slightly rewrite it. You don’t really get anything from that as a developing writer, and if you do it too often, you may even get a reputation as someone short on original ideas.
Instead, take that old, popular post and think about how you could:
- Add further value
- Review your previous arguments and update them as appropriate
- Approach the same topic, but from another direction or perspective
- Apply that same topic, but to a different situation or applications (e.g., an article about fiction writing tips could later be turned into an essay on creative nonfiction or, perhaps, poetry)
Keep a List
I mean, why go through all of the above if you’re not going to write them down someplace so you don’t forget?
I’ve written in the past how I like to use Google Keep to list potential topics. You can also use Simplenote or any cloud-based app. The idea is that you want easy access to that list no matter what device you happen to be working on.
For instance, when I came up with this topic, I believe I was on my phone. I called up my Google Keep app and added it. Later, when I sat down to write, I was at my Chromebook. I fired up Google Keep from there and looked over all the topic ideas I’d collected over the week.
And here we are.
You can keep your list online as a simple text file on your computer, in a notebook, or, as I also occasionally do, on a dedicated page in a paper day planner.
The key is to record your ideas someplace, anyplace, before you forget them. You don’t have to use all of them, but you’d hate to not have a record of your ideas.
Easy Idea Acquisition
We’ve all needed new ideas at some point in our lives. You have various tools to choose from, whether you’re writing a blog, pitching an article, or attempting to figure out how to tackle a more significant topic.
Have a conversation with others. Scroll through social media. Scan the headlines. Use Google to your advantage. It’s all there, ready to be put to use.
You’ll never run out of creative ideas again.
About John Teehan
John lives in Rhode Island with his wife, son, and dog. He specializes in tech, health, business, parenting, pop culture, and gaming. Visit wordsbyjohn.net for more info and rates. Twitter: @WordsByJohn2.
Do you like poetry, short fiction, and general oddities? Check out my new book, Life Among Psychopaths: an unexpected potpourri, now available on Amazon.
