Guest Post: Writer’s Block: Curing the Affliction – Technique #6

Image by K. Sawyer Photography via Flickr

I hope you’ve all been enjoying the guest posts in this series written by Clair Schwan.  I know I have.  He offers a wealth of great ideas, and I am always excited to try each one out when I finish reading the latest edition.  If you haven’t yet read his first installments, be sure to do so.  You’ve missed out

In this sixth edition of the writer’s block series, let’s discuss how to make use of a technique I call get outside of the box you’ve built for yourself. This method encourages you to think and write about various topics, even when you have yourself typecast as a particular kind of writer.

We are our own worst enemy, there is no doubt in my mind. Whether you smoke, drink to excess, drive recklessly, skydive, ride motorcycles without a helmet or pigeon hole yourself as a particular kind of writer, the only one to blame is the person who watches you comb your hair in front of the mirror every day. Yes, it’s you, and you’re the only one who can save yourself from yourself.

Quite often, we limit ourselves by putting ourselves in a box and then we believe that we have to stay there. And, if we don’t build the box and place ourselves in it, we often allow others to tell us who we are and then eagerly hop inside the box that they’ve made for us. In either case, we’re believing in a particular image of ourselves.

The problem is simply that being in nearly any kind of “box” limits what we write about and how we write. That’s a form of writer’s block.

At the risk of embarrassing a friend of mine, let me use him as an example of someone who has firmly planted himself in a box of his own construction – at least he used to be that way. Let’ call him Stead because he’s steadfast in his belief that he’s only a personal finance writer. Here’s a bit of his story to illustrate how he’s boxed himself in and what he might do to get himself out of the box he’s placed himself in. We can probably all learn a little about breaking out of our own boxes based on his story.

Stead writes a personal finance website. There are many dozens of such sites, but Stead writes one that I especially like because he’s politely “in your face” about personal finance, with a particular passion for becoming free of debt. Now, I’d be the last person to tell you that following your passion is a poor way to get started with writing because it’s technique #4 in this series. Nevertheless, if you narrow your focus too much, you’ll risk running the well dry and experiencing persistent writer’s block. That’s what I’ve seen Stead do on more than a few occasions – he’s run up against a brick wall because often he can’t see beyond his passion to develop interest in writing about other things like his:

·         Interests

·         Experiences

·         Hobbies

·         Favorite sports

·         Conversations with friends

·         Employment

·         Family life

·         Interactions with the community

I find this odd because these are the very types of things that give me more material than I can possibly write about. I find my many passions and my unlimited observations, experiences and interests to fuel a never-ending supply of ideas for writing. There’s no reason why Stead can’t find the same wellspring of ideas. I’m not stopping him – he is.

When I think of Stead and what little I know about his private life, I’m certain he can provide a wealth of articles in many areas in which he has lots of experience. All he needs to do is convince himself that he’s qualified to write about a wide range of topics, and that will enable him to knock down the sides of his box and step right out of it. Here’s what I think Stead can write about, with conviction, authority and great insight:

·         Being a dad

·         Parenting

·         Marriage

·         Public speaking

·         Inspiration and motivation

·         Charitable giving

·         Community involvement

·         Multi-tasking

·         Networking

·         Employment alternatives

These are the very things that Stead is involved with on nearly a daily basis. We talk about them regularly. Why can’t he write about them? Well, he’s built himself a box that’s all about being a debt free specialist, he’s placed it on a personal finance shelf, and jumped right inside and closed the lid. Nonsense, if he can step inside that box, he can step outside of it as well. If can build one box, he can build others too.

There’s no reason why he can’t be stepping into and out of any number of boxes like a football player steps into and out of those old tires during training camp. Stead, start stepping, and step lively! There are other audiences out there eager to hear your good messages in other arenas besides personal finance and dueling with debt.

So, that brings me to you, my reader. Have you built a box for yourself? Have you painted yourself in a corner with respect to your writing? If so, then perhaps this is one of the reasons you have a difficult time writing. Don’t be a steady Stead. Don’t be a Jack-in-the-box. Be a writer first and foremost. If you think of yourself as a writer, then you automatically open up the horizons a bit and that allows you to start writing about various topics that could be quite refreshing for both you and your readers.

You know how to write. You know how to organize thoughts and express them clearly. You are competent when it comes to grammar, spelling, sentence structure, coherence of thought, and making the words on the page “sing.” Stay focused on that – your ability to write. If you focus on that, then the subject of your writing doesn’t really matter. The concept of being a writer first and foremost automatically broadens the scope of what you can put on paper – it’s almost limitless.

If you’re going to overcome writer’s block, but insist on putting yourself in a box and closing the lid, just make certain the box you build for yourself says “talented, versatile and fearless writer inside” and then I think you’ll do much better, even if you never get yourself out of that box.

Clair Schwan hosts Self Reliance Works.com where he and his team of writers meet the challenge of regularly writing about nearly everything under the sun that is oriented towards self-reliance, including written and oral communications.

 

Guest Post: Writer’s Block: Curing the Affliction – Technique #4

Image by K. Sawyer Photography via Flickr

In this fourth installment of the series, let me discuss a technique that I call identifying your passion and going for it. You’ll find this as item number four on the list of 24 techniques introduced in the first article is this series.

Nearly everything we do with enthusiasm and flair is fired by passion, so this approach should come natural to many of us. Best of all, harnessing our passion can be one of the most powerful techniques for creating lots of good written material that is filled with heart and the voice of experience. And we ought to be able to write with a degree of consistency simply because we have a passion for our topic.

It’s easy to write well and often about our passions because:

• We can write as if we’re sitting around a table talking with others about the subjects that we are so very excited about.
• Our interest and enthusiasm for the topics should be nearly inexhaustible.
• Chances are good that we have plenty of experience with matters associated with our passions.
• Our passions drive us to be more than casual observers, so we should be filled with insights, facts and anecdotes.
• We’ll be able to rise well above the level of small talk about our subject matters.
• It’s very likely that our passions have been with us for years, and that means we have years of discussions, experiences and thinking to draw from.

Let me give you an example from my playbook.

One of my passions is frugal living. It’s been a sure-fire way for me to save money, build wealth and give myself a fair degree of financial freedom. I created a website to help others understand more about how to live in a frugal manner, making good use of their hard-earned income. But before I launched even a single page, I had written about 120 full-length pages on various aspects of frugal living. My passion to save money, get more for my money, and be a good steward of financial resources had helped me write for several days straight, and that gave me the foundation to launch a website and build it into a robust source of information in a matter of a just a few weeks.

You can harness your passions, no matter what they are.

Let’s assume for a moment that you have several passions, but none of them are exactly aligned with what you need to write about – topics suitable for a home and garden magazine. Perhaps you have a passion for personal security, structural engineering and chemical engineering, but these aren’t exactly the type of skills and experience one might expect to find associated with a home and garden magazine writer. Is it possible to write for that magazine by harnessing the three unusual passions you have? I think so. Here’s what I’d consider writing about:

1. Personal security tips for around the home and out in the community.
2. Common home alarm system components and how they work.
3. Proper application of physical barriers and intrusion detection equipment.
4. Safe rooms as part of the initial design of a home.
5. Basic structural concepts and how they’re applied when building decks, car ports and tree houses.
6. Common structural mistakes homeowners make when building decks, gazebos and outbuildings.
7. Structural materials and their optimal application around the home.
8. Repair of home structural elements – concrete block, poured concrete, and pier and beam foundations.
9. Easy to make household cleaning solutions.
10. Household chemicals that are hazardous when mixed.
11. Proper storage locations, conditions and shelf life expectations for common household chemicals.
12. Multiple uses of and substitutions for common household chemicals.

So, there you have 12 ideas for articles that can be created from your passions that at first don’t seem to fit with your writing assignment. All you have to do now is understand your audience and please them. That’s technique #5, which I’ll be discussing in the next article in this series.

If you’re wondering how to harness your passions to create more copy, you just have to look at things from a different perspective. Find the common ground that you share with your potential audience, and when you do you can let fly with your passions and create interesting and informative articles that you’ll be enthusiastic about writing.

Clair Schwan hosts Frugal Living Freedom.com, a website powered by his tremendous passion for frugal living. He’s also the managing editor of Self Reliance Works.com where he and his team of writers meet the challenge of regularly writing about nearly everything under the sun that is oriented towards self-reliance, including many forms of communication.

Related articles

• Guest Post: Writer’s Block: Curing the Affliction – Technique #1
• Guest Post: Writer’s Block: Curing the Affliction – Technique #2
• Guest Post: Writer’s Block: Curing the Affliction – Technique #3

 

Guest Post: Writer’s Block: Curing the Affliction – Technique #3

Image by K. Sawyer Photography via Flickr

I hope you’ve all been enjoying the guest posts in this series written by Clair Schwan.  I know I have.  He offers a wealth of great ideas, and I am always excited to try each one out when I finish reading the latest edition.  If you haven’t yet read his first two installments, be sure to do so.  You’ve missed out!

In this third installment of the series, I’m going to discuss how to use the third technique that I introduced in my introductory article on curing the affliction of writer’s block. The third technique that I recommend is to start with a “hit list” and then re-hit the list to multiply it.

Let’s see how it’s done.

This approach is similar to the drill down technique discussed in the first article in this series, but this time we’re going to mix up the subjects and try to get similar good results.

To do this, pretend that you need to write 30 articles for a general interest magazine that will accept just about anything under the sun, as long as you can write well about it. As an example, you might have the following six titles on your list.

1. How to lose weight without dieting
2. Training your dog to perform tricks – it’s easy when you know how
3. Learning a foreign language using the immersion method
4. Driving on snow and ice: 10 things you should know
5. Personal relationships – things your family never taught you
6. How to grow vegetables from seed

Of course, you’ll have 30 titles in your list, so you’ll have much more to work with, but for the purposes of example, I’ll only speak to these six.

In each of these titles, you can discern a genre. Once you identify it, you can apply it to the others on the list. If you look at item #1, it’s a “without” type post, so let’s see if we can apply that genre to the other five to generate new ideas for article titles.

• Training your dog without frustration
• Learning a foreign language without a tutor
• Driving on snow and ice without fear and trepidation
• Personal relationships without the drama
• Growing vegetables from seed without soil

Let’s do something similar with item # 4 and see if we might apply this “number of things” genre to the other five articles on the list.

• Losing weight – the four most effective methods
• Training your dog – six tricks that every dog should know
• Learning a foreign language – the four most important languages to know
• Five things guys should never do when dating.
• The eight most popular vegetables to grow.

Notice that in the relationship title, I switched the theme from relationships to dating. It just naturally popped into my mind, so now I’ve introduced another theme to write about. That becomes another theme that I can re-hit with the eight genres to create additional articles.

So, what do we wind up with when we do this with our list of 30 titles? Let’s suppose that we have eight genres in our list of 30 articles. You’ll recognize the first two as we’ve already discussed them. The complete list might be:

1. Something without something else
2. Number of things
3. How to
4. Most popular
5. Things you never learned in school
6. Secrets revealed (I personally dislike this genre, but it’s popular and it gets attention)
7. Things to avoid
8. Places to visit

Now comes the hard part – it’s called math. If we started with 30 articles and we could only discern eight different genres among all 30 article themes, then that means for each of the eight genres, there are 30 applications for it; one in the original title, and 29 additional applications (assuming that you can take each genre and dream up how it might apply to the other titles on the list). So, that gives us 240 articles to write about from a list of 30.

When I rewrote the “relationship” title to make it “dating,” I was introducing another theme. If we could simply introduce one more theme for each of our original article titles (which would be a breeze), then we’ve provided another 30 themes to which we can apply the eight genres, thus adding another 240 article titles to make our total come to 480 articles.

Okay, so what started out as a simple assignment to think of 30 article titles has quickly expanded into a list of 240 different articles, simply because we created a hit list and then re-hit the list with the unique genres we discovered. By finding an additional theme in each of the article titles, and then reapplying the genres, we doubled that number to 480.

Even if you applied this technique in a much less structured way, you’d probably still end up at least tripling the number of articles on your original list. And you can’t think of anything to write about? I don’t believe it.

Clair Schwan is the managing editor of Self Reliance Works.com where he and his team of writers meet the challenge of regularly writing about nearly everything under the sun that is oriented towards self-reliance, including the many forms of human communication.

Related Article:  Guest Post: Writer’s Block: Curing the Affliction – Technique #2

 

Guest Post: Writer’s Block: Curing the Affliction – Technique #2

Image by K. Sawyer Photography via Flickr

In this second installment of the series, I’m going to discuss how to use the second technique that I listed in “Writer’s Block: Curing the Affliction.”  The second technique that I recommend is to turn your gab into written words.

Okay, it’s easier said than done, so let’s see how it’s done.

As much as I hate to admit it, I’m garrulous, voluble, talkative, verbose. Get the picture? I’m bumping my gums about something nearly all the time. I have passion and opinion and interests that I want to share, and sometimes I don’t care if others are interested in being on the receiving end of my excitement. So, I harness that energy and put it into words on paper (or the screen) and that’s one of many ways I get down to the business of writing. I harness my excitement about oral communication, and convert it into a different form of communication.

Essentially, it’s a translation from one interest to another. I like to talk, but I can’t sit at my computer and talk all day, so I write instead. It satisfies my interest in teaching, explaining, discussing, lecturing, admonishing or whatever I feel like I need to do that day or at that moment. Instead of flapping my mouth, I’m tapping on the keyword. I simply funnel my desire to speak through my fingers and what I’d like to discuss comes out on the screen in front of me instead of being heard in the room.

Simple enough. But quite troubling for those who are reticent or even taciturn by nature. There must be another solution. There is.

For those who find it hard to speak out loud, start finding a way to be more vocal in your daily life. Try the following:

• Teach someone a skill.
• Preach about the virtues of an activity.
• Tell a joke to amuse others.
• Take an interest in the life of another by asking questions.
• Talk to yourself or your pet about a problem or idea.
• Read a book aloud.
• Talk to a child.
• Converse with someone who is even less comfortable with conversation, so you’ll need to carry the conversation.

Do something to fire up your ability to converse with yourself or others, then turn that energy, those ideas and that experience into a piece of writing.

If you’re not big on talking, then that’s okay. It’s not for everyone. Like one of my acquaintances from Thailand said to me when I asked him why he wasn’t going to go up on stage, like me, and sing a song with the band, “Someone has to listen.”

So, if you’re a talker, use this technique. If you’re a listener, then wait for technique #20 and I’ll tell you how I use that to create great opportunities to write about what others talk about while you simply listen.

Clair Schwan is the managing editor of Self-Reliance-Works.com where he and his team of writers meet the challenge of regularly writing about nearly everything under the sun that is oriented towards self-reliance, including the many forms of human communication.

 

Monday Morning Writing Challenge

Image via Wikipedia

I am working on getting my family to the dinner table at the same time each night.  Note that I said “dinner table” and not “couch, in front of the TV.”  Most nights it’s just the kids and I, whichever ones are here since some nights one or the other, or both, of the older ones are at their dad’s house.  Chris works late most nights, so he only gets to join us occasionally.

This inspired this week’s prompt:

Write a story about dinner with your family.

Write about any part of your family:  parents, children, spouse, holiday meals, a barbecue, dinner out — anything that comes to mind.  Whether it’s quirky, funny, sad or anything else, I’d love to see what you come up with so feel free to comment or send it to me by email.

Have a great week!

Related articles

• Monday Morning Challenge (famelessramblings.wordpress.com)

 

Guest Post: How I Wrote My Book — With a Little Push From My Wife

I remembered it was in March 2010 that I decided to write a book. It would be the definitive leadership guide for business owners, managers and students. I then declared my goal to my fellow participants in a week-long Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) seminar that taught us to plan and execute our life goals. In my mind’s eye, I could envision the finished book, and smell the paper scent as I flipped the pages. I felt good.

So, I rushed home to my wife to share my dreams with her. Being the practical person that she was, she started to roll her eyes. She was noticeably angry. I had been talking about abstract concepts such as achieving dreams and financial freedom all week after attending the course, and she couldn’t understand it.

She looked at me and screamed, “Mark! If you think it’s going to be easy writing a book, many people would have done it. And why would they read yours!” Incidentally, writing a book was one of the top three most popular goals in the world.

My face flushed with a strange warm feeling of embarrassment. Nobody knew me, so how would my book reach out to others. But a tiny voice in my head added, “Really? Nobody knew who Mitch Albom was either . . .”

I answered boldly, “Because I have what it takes to write a book on leadership.” After all, I had spent close to two decades honing my leadership and management skills in school, sports and in the military.

My wife looked at me and proceeded to fill the entire piece of paper she was holding, with what I thought were cartoon drawings of lips.

She added, “Then, don’t give me lip service. Just do it.”

I smiled. That was her sign of approval. I kissed her and told her I would never let her down.

The next day I planned the content page. I decided to push my writing capabilities so I decided to pen both fiction and non-fiction stories. It was tentatively called “What F are You?” since it revolved around discovering one’s leadership styles from four attributes, namely being “Firm, Fair, Friendly and Flexible”. I wrote a short story back in October 2009, but because of my consultancy work, I had to fly to Delhi and Hyderabad, India, monthly for two weeks. So, I never continued. However, this time was different. I had found my motivation which was to create a legacy for my baby Alyssa, and not to let my wife down with mere lip service.

For the next four months, I dedicated a fortnight to write each chapter, breaking down the chapters to bullet points and pushed myself to complete each point daily. When I was in Singapore, I would first rock my baby girl to sleep at night, and chat with my wife till she too fell asleep, then work would start. When I was in Delhi, I would work from my hotel room after I returned from the client’s office. At times I turned down my colleagues’ request for dinner, and their invitation to tour the sights of Delhi. I had a mission to complete.

When I wrote my fictional story, I had to get into character so that I could feel whatever I visualised. When I fleshed out the content on the characteristics of being a leader, I searched through my physical memory bank and on the internet. Information was literally at my fingertips, and I had to convert them into knowledge.

And there were distractions. World Cup Fever was around the corner, and it didn’t help that Delhi had the perfect timing to telecast these games live! But I typed on . . .

Essentially, I used an excel sheet to monitor my progress and after completing a chapter, I would mark it green and add “Completed”. When I went back to meet my NLP friends, we would share our updates on our goals. On7^th July, I looked through my action plan excel sheet and realised that it was all green. Then, I realised with a sense of pride that I may have actually completed my manuscript. My wife was my first reviewer.

On 9^th July, I sent my manuscript to my buddy Sean, via e-mail. Sean had by then published his book, “Winning the Money Game”, which was about his money experiences, and how he formulated a simple step-by-step game plan that was practical and powerful. Sean immediately called me and said, “Bro, let me forward your manuscript to my publisher, Armour Publishing.”

On 12^th July, as I was boarding the plane to Delhi again, I looked at my phone to switch it off, but stopped in my tracks when I saw the mail icon flashing on my phone. I opened it and my heart skipped a beat when I saw the words, “Dear Mark, see review of your script. The reviewer felt it was quite good . . .”

Over the next two months, I would spend countless nights polishing the manuscript because the publisher said, “Take your time. Don’t get distracted with coming up with a best-seller. Just make sure it’s something that your grandchildren would be proud of when they read it.”

I badly wanted the book to be published in time for Alyssa’s first birthday in November, but there were some delays and it was only in mid December that the publisher told me that they would deliver the first 200 books I ordered to my house. The others would be distributed to the major bookstores.

I pressed on with marketing efforts as I went on air with Singapore’s 938FM Live, The Living Room on 13^th December to share my leadership insights. My wife told me that when she heard my voice on air, she shed tears of joy.

*Hear the radio interview at http://chewmark.com/discover-your-leadership-style/radio/

As for me, I felt my eyes water, as I held my freshly printed book, “Discover Your Leadership Style” in my hands on 16^th December, and handed it over to my baby girl, Alyssa, and my wife.

I had achieved my goal.

Mark Chew is a business developer and leadership coach, specialising in leadership management and wealth management. He is the author of “Discover Your Leadership Style“, and may be contacted at
http://chewmark.com
.

 

June Goals

1. Add other section to book.

2. Increase my use of social media to expand my network. I’m going to attempt to do this again since I didn’t do very well in May.

3. Actually start using the work schedule I created so that I’m more organized and have more time for M. and the other kids.

4. Publish one guest post on another blog.

5. Submit 1 new story/poem to one to three magazines/markets.  I want to try this again too, but on a smaller scale since I want to keep focusing on the book.

My kids get out of school at the end of June, and with the house on the market now this could shape up to be a very busy month.  I realize one of my continual goals, which I thus far haven’t seemed to reach, has been to get better organized and on some sort of schedule.  Frankly, I’m sick of hearing myself say it and wouldn’t be surprised if you are too.  It has always been a weakness for me (time management), but I plan to change that.  I’m always open to tips, but I know some things that work (or definitely don’t work) for me already, I just need to stick to it.

Do you have June goals planned out?  Is summer your “break” time, or is it when you have more energy for both work and play?

 

May Goal Wrap-up and Review

Image via Wikipedia

Here it is, the end of May already.  I feel like every month just goes by faster and faster.  It can be overwhelming, but in a lot of ways I’m grateful for that.  It means I have a lot going on, and I’m not stagnating.

So let’s get to it.  Here are my May goals, and how they panned out:

1. Finish 1st revision of book – I finished this, as many of you may have seen in an earlier post or on Twitter.  I’m currently reading it through completely, in as few sittings as possible, to help catch any continuity errors.  I also have a whole new section I want to add, which is good because the wordcount is still too low for a novel.

2. Increase my use of social media to expand my network. Meaning: Tweet more, update more, and have something to say! Spamming is so uncool. – I’m still working on this.  I need to figure out how to balance my use of social media.  I’m either on it, and feel like I’m wasting my day (and I frequently am) or I’m not on it at all, which doesn’t broaden my network at all.  I consider this a work in progress.

3. Publish 3 new articles/reviews on pay-per-click or other sites. – I published a Memorial Day poem on Associated Content, which I linked to on my “Published” page, and I have one article each processing in AC and Helium.  So I guess if both get published I’ve reached my goal, and if one or both don’t, then I really haven’t.  I’ll let you know.

4. Find 2 new freelance jobs. – I have not found two new ones, but one of my ongoing clients, who generally asks me for two reviews a month, asked for the usual two reviews, plus three articles.

5. Submit 2 new stories/poems to three magazines/markets each. – Not even a little.  Not one.  Maybe next month, if I’m not too wrapped up in everything else to do more writing.

So there you have it.  Mostly successful, some not very, but I’m satisfied overall.  How did you do on your goals?

Related articles

• May Goals (or Oh My God, another month is gone!) (famelessramblings.wordpress.com)

 

Guest Post: Writer’s Block: Curing the Affliction – Technique #1

Image via Wikipedia

I hear a lot of people talk about having writers block. It’s funny, but I never have it – never! I have just the opposite problem, I have way too many things to write about, and not nearly enough time to get it all done. For a writer, that’s an odd and wonderful problem to have.

With this article, I’m kicking off a series of 24 posts to help all of you acquire this same odd and wonderful problem – too many ideas and not enough time to write about them all. I won’t say my 24 ideas will cure your ills, but they certainly will give you something to think about. And, for me, thinking about something leads to writing about it (see item # 9 on the list).

There are probably many more ways to address writers block, but if it can’t be addressed to some meaningful degree with 24 solid suggestions and examples, then you have something that most likely can’t be cured on your own. Let me overview these “self help” approaches before you run out to seek professional assistance. You might find that this series has just what you need.

1. Use a list about a subject to drill down to find more ideas and catalysts.
2. Turn your gab into written words.
3. Start with a “hit list” of articles and then re-hit the list and multiply it.
4. Identify your passion and go for it.
5. Understand your audience and please them.
6. Get outside the box you’ve built for yourself.
7. Think conversationally and find the market for your thoughts.
8. Allow degrees of freedom – be different to be a writer.
9. If you think about it, then write about it.
10. Take notes constantly – make time for that kind of writing.
11. Use different techniques for writing – pen/pencil, keyboard, recorder and microphone.
12. Never shut off your brain.
13. Use real examples – they’re really more interesting.
14. Shift words and that will shift your thoughts.
15. Make each paragraph compel the reader to the next – organization, coherence and glue.
16. Talk about yourself, your friends and your family – that’s an endless wellspring of material.
17. Solve a problem or form an opinion while you write.
18. Wait until the timing is right.
19. Comb through as you write – obtain better focus and harvest additional articles.
20. Listen to others – maybe they can’t write, but you can.
21. Role play as casual reader, careful listener, and seeker of solutions.
22. Imitate others who you enjoy reading.
23. Create your own style and let it fly.
24. Train your brain – become a human writer’s template.

Any one of these ideas can be effective, but I use them in combination because they tend to be related, and each one helps enhance the effectiveness of others. Besides, some of these ideas are meant to generate topics and headlines, and other are meant to help you craft the headline into an article.

Let’s dive in with an example of Technique #1 – Use a List About a Subject to Drill Down. The technique involves making a list of what you want to write about, but creating the list with greater detail and breadth than what you might normally. Think elements, sub-elements, varying perspectives and related matters.

For example, if I wanted to write an article about washing a car, that seems to be a relatively simple and straightforward piece, perhaps a bit boring as well, right? Perhaps. It also seems to be quite limiting; wet it down, soap it up, rinse it off, and drag a towel across it. Yawn!

Okay, big deal, let’s move on and think about something else to write about.

Not so fast. There are many articles waiting to be written inside what appears to be a simple article about washing a car. If we only sit down for a moment and make a list, and then drill down a bit, we’ll likely discover more material, more interesting material, and many more articles than what appears when we first consider the subject.

Here is my list with notes on the sub-elements associative with each.

• Exterior (power washing, hand washing, using the car wash)
• Interior (vacuuming, blowing it out, dash and instrument cluster, clearing and cleaning the console and glove compartment, spills and stains, chewing gum on the carpet, cleaning between and under the seats)
• Detailing (door jams, mirrors, headliner and steering wheel)
• Windows and Mirrors
• Engine compartment (degreasing, steam cleaning and power washing)
• Tires, wheels and sidewalls (cleaning and dressing)
• Seating (leather and cloth)

Okay, so you can see that a simple article about washing a vehicle can propagate many more articles if we allow ourselves time to drill down and make a list of some of the elements that come to mind. In this car wash example, what started out to be a single article has blossomed into nearly 20 distinctly different, yet related articles. All of this happened because we drilled down below the surface to see what else might be waiting for us to discover beyond that bucket of soapy water and a garden hose.

As you can see in this example, simply making a list of some of the things we’d like to talk about can lead us to a wellspring of ideas. To be sure, some of these ideas are too detailed or mundane to write about, but they can serve as a catalyst for other ideas. Does the list above scream out to you? It does to me. It’s screaming, “Write a series of articles about vehicle detailing. If people can make a living doing just that, you can certainly write a few articles about it.”

Are there other ideas that this “drill down” has presented to us? There is in my mind. What about the things that aren’t mentioned in our list, but are related to maintenance and upkeep of appearance? Have you considered touch up, buffing, waxing, rust removal, and applying a dressing to leather seats? You see? If you let the wellspring flow, you’ll need pen and pencil to keep track of it all (that’s technique #10).

One of the keys to understanding when an element is an article unto itself is to understand at what level your reader might want to explore the topic (that’s technique #5), but to start with, you must have ideas to consider, so don’t be shy, start drilling down to tap into ideas that are below the surface. Only after you have a nice pile of ideas on the table in front of you can you start sorting, organizing and blending them to create multiple articles that might please your audience.

So there you have an example of our first technique – drilling down to discover more content – and using this technique, we clearly showed ourselves that washing a car can be much more than a bucket of soapy water and a garden hose. It can be quite a pocket full of ideas to write about. As we move through this series, let’s keep filling our pockets with more ideas and learn how to turn them into useful articles.

Clair Schwan is the managing editor at www.Self-Reliance-Works.com where he and his team of writers help others understand how to live life focused on greater self-sufficiency and self-direction. He also hosts www.Sensible-Small-Business-Ideas.com where he encourages others to start an enterprise of their own, including online businesses where writing is a key to success.

 

Monday Morning Writing Challenge

Image by Per Ola Wiberg ~ Powi via Flickr

Write a story/poem to go along with this photo.