Do you find them to be inviting? Not open enough? Not raw enough? Not real?
Hopefully, this post will give you some ideas to help you write or change your fictional characters to make them more in-depth for your reader to gobble up.
#1 Be a constant learner
This can’t be stressed enough in any genre of writing.
Learning the art of learning is a skill that every writer and author MUST add to their arsenal of tricks.
Learning is not an innate born talent.
We have to teach ourselves how to learn and how each of us learns best.
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We hear beautiful music and we know how to play it. Or we hear our teacher talking and we retain that information well.
Our friend tells us a story and we can instantly repeat it without missing any details.
#3 Visual
Some of us learn visually by seeing someone do something even if it’s just watching a video.
We see a basketball being dribbled and we know how to start dribbling or we see someone making a meal and we see the ingredients used and we remember how to cook that meal.
For visual learners, watching is a key trick for learning something new.
Visual learners may not be best at first try but by watching a professional they can increase in skill quickly compared to not watching an expert do something.
#4 Be a Characters Reader
Readers learn from reading the instruction manual.
Give me that manual and leave me alone for a couple of hours. I’ll show you how to do it once I’m done.
Read about characters and character development.
Read about not just characters you love, but also ones that you find boring and despise so that you know what kind of characters you don’t want to write about.
#5 Use Real-Life Experience
Some of us learn best from hands-on experience.
“Don’t tell me how to do it. Give me the tools and let me do it already!” we might say.
Use real-life experience to write from and if you don’t have it, interview someone that does and write from their experiences.
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Even though these are some of the major ways people learn we as humans all learn by using each tool for learning and the more you use to learn the more you’ll learn that skill or ability.
So what does this have to do with writing fictional characters?
Fictional characters are the most in-depth amazing when the writer writes from what they know and the better they know it the better the fictional character will be. They jump right off the page.
Your reader will more readily accept the writing and the reader will enjoy reading about how the characters act and think and respond to situations based on the area of expertise we give them.
So if we are writing about a carpenter and we are a visual learner we can watch movies and documentaries and TV about carpentry and carpenters.
If we are a reader we can learn from reading about carpentry.
If by experience then grab some tools and some wood and give it a go.
Anything to be able to write about the actual experiences and decisions that go into the daily life of a carpenter.
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#7 Write about what they experience with their 5 senses.
Write about what they smell as they craft the wood. Does their tool get dull and they smell wood burning?
Write about what the wood feels like. It starts off coarse but gets more smooth as they sand it to a finish.
Do they get a splinter? Do they leave it or do they walk away to get tweezers to pull it out?
Do they experience an accident and need to go to the E.R. to get stitches? Are they in the past and have to use past remedies to deal with the injury?
What sounds do they hear?
What does sawdust taste like when they accidentally get some in their mouths?
P.S.
Whatever it is that your character does, the more you have experienced it the better you will be able to write about it in a way that makes your character more in-depth for your reader.
Use the 5 senses to bring your character to life for your reader.
Try to get the hands-on experience yourself or as close to it.
Talk with people that have done it.
Learn the skill of learning and use that to write amazing in-depth characters
With this type of learning and writing, inspiration will be easy for you and writer’s block won’t be an issue.
Hope this helps!
Other Popular posts that might fancy your interest:
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Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
If you enjoy a certain topic and learning, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
I love fiction writing especially and being creative with writing ideas.
Many people nowadays think that in order to make money blogging you have to blog about blogging…boring and nope, you don’t.
Let me tell you why writing on a blog can be much more than that.
Advertisers will pay you for the people that look at your posts.
So if say your passion is music and you want to create a blog around everything music, you can make all your blog post about artists, songs, genres, instruments, throw up some writing and videos.
Writing about the artists’ lives, whatever you want and more than likely others who love music will find your blog interesting and will show up to see what it says and the videos and images you put up.
Then advertisers will pay you because people saw their ads on your site.
It can be fun side hustle money or you can go head first, dive in, and do it full-time. The amount of traffic you can draw is really the limit.
I used music as an example, but anything people are passionate about you can make a blog about and draw traffic to.
Some passion project ideas for you:
Music
Movies
T.V.
Clothes
Cars
Instruments
Viral videos
Video games
Planting
Anything food
Diet
Exercise
Art
Makeup
Costumes
Comics
Womanly Stuff
Manly Stuff
Politics
Money
Marketing
Finance
Stocks
Trade
Travel
Fun activities
Teaching
Photography
Academics
Sports
Antiques
What somethings really worth
Collectibles
Flowers
Gardening
Survival kits
Cleaning
Crafts
Tech Stuff
Nutrition
Etc
You can see even from this non-extensive list that there are many things that people are interested in and as long as you enjoy it and have the desire to learn more about it, then you can write and create blog material about it.
If you enjoy a certain topic and learning, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
I write a lot because I enjoy writing, but bloggers can also make videos and do graphics.
People love graphics and videos about topics.
I mostly speak to writers because I’m a writer and it’s what I enjoy and know and enjoy learning more about.
And the other cool thing is you don’t just have to make one blog. If you’re passionate about many topics you can make more blogs about other things you are passionate about and blog about them as well.
Don’t be afraid to experiment
Try many different things as a blogger. The name of the game isn’t just creating great materials. The name of the game is creating and finding out what people like and what they don’t like.
Find out what’s helpful and what is not helpful and give them more material that is helpful for those that are looking for it.
The only way to find out what is helpful is to research and create and see how people react.
Do your best.
The biggest hurdle for success is the fear of failure.
Most people won’t try because they are afraid to fail on the first try. What will people think of them?
Those that move past failures and keep going are often the ones that end up succeeding past the “bumps” in the road. There are tons of stories written like this and we as an audience love them because we love a good story. Good stories aren’t boring and have problems to overcome.
P.S.
If you are passionate about something, you can get paid to be passionate about it as a blogger.
Make videos
Make graphics
Write
Take pictures
Just don’t be afraid to create
Don’t be afraid to experiment
The biggest hurdle for success is not starting because of the fear of failure
Hope this helps!
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So you dream of being a writer now what? 5 Practical Thoughts If You Want To Get Paid To Write
If you don’t treat writing like it’s your job now, then it never will be.
In order to get paid to write we need to be disciplined and passionate.
Get paid to write:
#1 To get paid to write we have to finish what we start
Hard truth: Writers get paid to write because they finish their writing projects.
I dare say we creatives are all guilty of starting an amazing project only to get bored with it when it becomes REAL WORK and run off to get started on the next fun, shiny item (at least most of us are willing to admit that).
The thing is if we never finish a book we will never be published writers and never get paid to write.
If we never finish a project we will never be freelance writers and if we never finish a blog post and actually hit that beautiful publish button we will never be bloggers.
Sad but true.
Push through, finish the writing project, and get paid to write.
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Doesn’t matter what it is, if we don’t start making a daily goal for ourselves then we may never get paid to write or become proficient and finish any projects and that’s where the dream dies.
Don’t let the dream die.
When you make your daily goals, start small.
Write for 10 minutes a day, not an hour
100 words a day vs 1000 words a day
Read a page for inspiration, not a whole chapter
Create one post today, not 10
Work on the project for an hour before lunch, not 8 hours before lunch.
Etc
You know yourself so don’t let us stop you from trying to do more, but as a general rule starting small means getting more done in the long run.
If you don’t start somewhere, you’ll never start and you’ll never get paid to write.
If you try to take on more than you can handle then you’ll dread doing it and nothing will get started.
100 words a day may seem small, but 100 is better than 0 words a day.
And more often than not if you start with such a small goal in mind then when you actually sit down to write you’ll quickly find yourself writing more than 100 words at a time.
Sometimes just sitting down and actually starting is the hardest part.
It’s like jumping off a ledge. There’s nothing to do but do it.
Also, create LONG TERM goals. Above ^ are just examples of daily goals and starting small. But long term goals make a big difference too.
This year I want to create a blog (See here if that’s you)
This year I want to start freelance writing
This year I want to finish my book
This year I want to quit my job so I can get paid to write full time
These are all good writing goals for people that love to write, but they must be broken down into smaller daily goals or they might never happen.
Create your daily small goals with your long term End Game? goals in mind.
#3 Let the process change you
We either build good habits or bad habits. There’s little in between. But it can be subjective
Writing for some is a good habit.
For humans dreaming of being writers, paid writers it’s a MUST habit.
But don’t just do it to write, enjoy the process.
Don’t ever lose the enjoyment of letting words roll onto the page.
It helps with focus.
It helps with clarity.
Thinking is one thing, but seeing our words on a page and then being able to shape the sentences in revision into one entity helps us map out deep concepts that can translate well into other areas of our lives.
If you can take a character through a trauma maybe you can figure out how to help yourself and others deal with some trauma as well.
Being able to see things from the bigger picture vantage point helps bring clarity to the smaller scenes.
#4 Being published is much harder than just writing for fun
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If your dream is to be a published writer we think that’s great, but we want it to be known that being published isn’t some sitting on the beach sipping pina colada’s job. It is a job. And it is work.
For some, it is a more enjoyable work, but for the unexpecting, it could be quite stressful.
And we don’t want you to be stressed. We want you to be prepared and educated 🙂 ready to dive into any challenge that may come your way being a published writer.
Being published means serious deadlines.
And serious deadlines mean elbow grease and sweat.
To get paid to write books as a published writer means seriously writing and revising every day.
A writer has all the time in the world to work on a story…until they are published.
After being published, professional writers are expected to meet strict deadlines and they are expected to create additional books in less time than they did create their first books when they were not yet published.
When you’re not published, nobody is waiting for you to finish anything.
When you’re publishing an entire company is waiting for you to hand them a completely finished and polished book ready to be sent out to market.
Thankfully in today’s publishing world, you can be self-published through market places like Amazon.
This doesn’t mean your book would be advertised like a publisher does, but it does mean you have more time to work on it and potentially earn more from it if you publish it yourself and the publishing company isn’t taking out a big chunk.
If you enjoy 5 Practical Thoughts If You Want To Get Paid To Write and writing fiction, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
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One of the greatest and hardest skills in life is learning how and what to say no to.
Not just in writing but in all areas and seasons of life.
None of us enjoy disappointing other humans, especially humans that we care about. So learning what to say no to so you actually have time to write and do things that are important is a tough daily challenge.
Learning how to chunk out time out of our busy day, every day, to say no to everything else is tough to do.
Being able to take time to write, can be a daunting task depending on what prior commitments we already have.
Spouse
Kids
Job
School
Pets
Family
Friends
Etc
You name it, everyone has commitments.
And we’re not saying to give any of them up, but it’s time to cut 10 minutes out of the day to write and more than likely that 10 minutes may have to be taken out of movies, video games, T.V., and Netflix time (Say it ain’t so!)
Tis true. A fair amount of us wouldn’t want to admit, but our leisure time, whatever that may be personally, might be taking up too much of our time if we seriously want to get paid to write.
If you can’t find just 10 minutes in your day to write or at least put down 100 words on the page a day, maybe writing isn’t actually what you want to be doing anyway 🙂
If you enjoy 5 Practical Thoughts If You Want To Get Paid To Write and writing fiction, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
If you enjoy 5 Practical Thoughts If You Want To Get Paid To Write and writing fiction, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
10 Great Fantasy Writing Prompts To Help Inspire your Writing Today
Write about a family that is magical but after 400 generations of magic, they birth one unmagical child.
Write a character who is a kleptomaniac (compulsive thief). One day they wake up to realize every object they’ve ever stolen has come to life.
Write about a child who has always blamed their mistakes on an imaginary person. On the child’s 30th birthday, they awake to find this imaginary person they blamed everything on has come to life.
Write about a character who picks up a book written in a language they’ve never heard of before. Strangely, they can read and understand every word.
Write about a country that hasn’t been discovered yet.
Write about a species of bugs that only come above ground once every 1,200 years. Their arrival is completely unexpected, and their intentions are truly sinister.
Your character’s sister mysteriously vanishes. The quest to find her is one that reveals many secrets about the family’s dark past.
The country is in a panic. The reason? Magic, an art lost over 600 years ago, has been discovered in the slums.
While walking in an unknown part of the forest, your character discovers a cave with a strange egg inside. When they visit the egg again, they instead find a baby beast they never knew existed. Now it’s up to them to raise it.
Write about a character that makes a wish on a star. The next day they realize their wish has come true. The bad part? They worded their wish wrong… very, very wrong.
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Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.
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Great fantasy writing prompts can help you flex your creative skills and improve your writing style. By stepping out of your comfort zone, you may discover that you have found your new passion! You can expand your wheelhouse of imagination by starting with a simple idea and expanding on it. You are the captain AND the navigator and can steer your story in any way you please 🙂
Fantasy writing gives you the freedom to make the story as wild as you want. There are no rules and no limitations. You can create the perfect world, or take the opposite approach and build a world no human could ever survive.
Finding daily writing prompts like these can help overcome writer’s block and get the creative juices flowing!
As long as you can follow your imagination and let your words flow then there is no telling where you and your characters might end up. Half the fun is going on the journey with your characters and no one will help them get there without you. So grab your pencil or laptop and take that first step out their front door that ends with a world of possibilities.
Whether it’s non-fiction or fiction writing prompts, either can work to help a writer break out of the same toolbox they may be working in. Sometimes it can be helpful to find a good writing prompts generator but google and Pinterest work just as well, and Reddit writing prompts too.
Take your time, look up some fun writing prompts, and take the leap. Start writing your own fantasy story today. You can start with one of these prompts, or combine a few. Who knows? You just might be surprised with where you land.
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Sociopaths are hiding everywhere in our society. They are lying through their teeth. They are scamming people daily and feel little to no remorse about it.
If you are writing a story and you want your protagonist or antagonist to be a sociopath you will need to think through some key ideas to make sure they come to life on your page and are interesting and believable to your readers.
# 1. 8 Tips How to Write the Perfect Sociopath: They are willing to violate the rights of others.
If we want to write a sociopath well, we need to understand their motives.
They enjoy being able to dominate others. They use this desire to justify getting whatever they want from an individual or individuals.
They want their possessions, jobs, businesses, money, fame, family, friends, cars, homes, investments, reputations and more.
Anything of value someone else owns that they don’t have they are willing and will try to dominate someone else for.
They do not see the value in working or taking time to earn these things for themselves. They would much rather take it from someone else and avoid the work if at all possible.
Any rights someone has the sociopath is more than willing to violate to take these things from someone else and they may even feel as though they deserve it and the possessor does not, because they believe they are smarter than anyone else. They are extreme Narcissists.
They may have the knowledge that such behavior is wrong, but they will not empathize with anyone so they will not think about what it is like to have things taken from them. They are just thinking of getting what they can get out of the relationship.
Example: A sociopath is extremely likely to use blackmail as a mode to take from others what they want from them. Blackmail is an easy way to hold power over someone else and get them to do what your sociopath wants, “or else.”
# 2.8 Tips How to Write the Perfect Sociopath: They love the feeling of dominating others just to feel powerful.
While some sociopaths want something from you and are willing to violate your rights to get it, the worst sociopaths want something even more sinister.
They want you just so they can feel the power of dominating you.
This type of sinister sociopath can be hiding in a cheerleader outfit giving commands to the cheer troop and bullying girls they feel threatened by.
The sociopath that loves the feeling of dominating people can be hiding in any authoritative role.
They could be a teacher enjoying commanding students to do whatever project they throw at them or a police officer pulling unsuspecting victims over just to show them how powerless they are.
They may be your boss at work. Any time you have an idea that could threaten their dominance they will consider you a threat and make sure your idea never makes it anywhere or they will find a way to steal your idea and rub it in your face when the opportunity comes.
# 3. 8 Tips How to Write the Perfect Sociopath: Sociopaths lack a conscience.
Sociopaths have no little to absolutely no conscience.
Don’t expect them to feel bad for anything they are doing to get ahead. If you start to feel like one may like you or is helping you think again, they are only doing completely selfish things.
In fact, if your character has a sociopath helping them they better watch out.
Any favors your sociopath does for anyone else they are tallying it all up. “You owe me.” is their life mantra.
Example: Your sociopath comes to their manager and notifies the manager that an employee is stealing. The manager fires the employee and praises and awards the sociopath with a small raise and more hours around their schedule.
The sociopath feels as though they earned the raise and helped the manager at the same time, therefore the manager “still owes” the sociopath something.
The Sociopath asks the manager to be paid to take off Friday so they can hang out with a friend. The manager thinks this is ridiculous and politely says “that won’t work.”
The sociopath is confused and says “but I helped you with the thief, you owe me.”
The manager thinks this is also a strange notion. It is way outside the social norms of the professional workplace. “I don’t owe you anything. You did your job. I didn’t even have to get you that raise and more hours.”
This will inevitably infuriate the greedy sociopath and they will be out for revenge as they have been “slighted” by the manager. The sociopath would be fuming, “how dare they treat me this way, after all I’ve done for them.”
That manager will soon be finding some problems in the workplace or even more sinister, at home because they unwittingly slighted the sociopath hiding in their office.
# 4. 8 Tips How to Write the Perfect Sociopath: They are fast talkers.
They are schemers and along with that scheming, they will be plotting and practicing self-made scripts for the people that they have to “deal” with on a daily basis to get what they want.
This type of methodically planning and plotting can make them fast talkers.
They will be thinking about how to get away with their mission and goals.
They are quick to opt-out for fabricating rather than earning the truth and what it brings them.
Watch out for fast stories with big plans and big moves. If your sociopath is talking fast your character can look a little into their real life and see that there are no real plans, just a lot of fast talk.
They LOVE to use powerful phrases that are COMPLETELY EMPTY on their end: “I love you. I will never hurt you. If you do this for me I will pay you back tomorrow. Believe me. I’ll give you the world, just do as I say.”
They also will use negative words to control you and manipulate your characters: “I never thought you would hurt me so badly, you can make it up to me by buying me lunch. You’ve been a terrible employee, mop the floors tonight and I’ll think about letting it slide. I would never lie to you, but here you are deceiving me.”
They find a way to turn everything around on your other characters and they are never wrong in their own minds.
# 5. 8 Tips How to Write the Perfect Sociopath: They will say and do whatever they need to for the moment.
They will do and say whatever they need to, this will make them a bit of a chameleon, changing their colors and stripes for the “needed” situation.
They know that one of your characters is easily manipulated by flattery so they will flatter that one when they are around them.
But at the drop of a hat when they encounter a cowardly character that they know they can manipulate with threats they will instantly become mean and threatening, threatening to not be that character’s friend anymore if they don’t do what they say.
# 6. 8 Tips How to Write the Perfect Sociopath: A sociopath will make your other characters feel certain emotions.
Your character may see some red flags about the sociopath. It could be a school mate that at first seems extremely friendly, but then in a moment, the character feels oddly threatened by them.
To write an interesting sociopath they have an extreme energy and are able to charm people quickly.
They can easily sweep your character off their feet, only to find out they are in a grave situation just a little too late.
They can make an amazing impression at a job interview only get the job and later cause a giant mess.
They take advantage of people’s sympathy. Your character could be well-meaning and be duped by the sociopath into given them too much too quickly.
Your sociopath will find a way to blame anyone and anything above their own willful choices if your character confronts them, and don’t forget they are chronic liars. And they will always look for a way to make you feel bad in the process.
Example: “I would have paid you back but my mom needed the money to pay for her groceries. I’ll pay you back next week.” “I was going to pick you up from school but the dog used the bathroom on the carpet. That dog that you just had to have, now get in there and clean it up.” “I would have come to your recital but traffic was so bad that it made me so late that I came back home instead.”
# 8. 8 Tips How to Write the Perfect Sociopath: They like to target certain people.
Sociopaths either target people they know they can get things from or people that engage with them.
If your character fights back the sociopath will feed off this and will continue to act cruelly toward them.
Your sociopath will also go after characters that they can get an emotional reaction from. They will be disinterested in characters that don’t seem to be affected by them, but they will hone in on those that they can make angry or afraid. Both emotional reaction they are stimulated by.
If you enjoy Writing Prompts, Storytelling and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
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Common! I don’t have all day! Pick up your weapon and face me!
He hates me! I knew it!
I didn’t know what to do so I hid in the bathroom and prayed!
I had never seen anything so beautiful!
The treasure glimmered in the firelight and reflected in her eyes.
Where were you last night?
Why am I the only one that thinks this is insane?
Tell me again, were there two of you or four of you?
I told him I could only give him a ride a couple of miles down the road, but when he pulled a gun on me I said, where do you need to go? He was pretty polite after that.
If you enjoy Writing Prompts, Storytelling and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
If you enjoy Writing Prompts, Storytelling and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
You might be wondering, “Why aren’t my emails getting opened and read?”
Hopefully, with this list, you will get better open rates and more people reading and clicking your emails in no time.
You can’t just send your list anything.
You have to know your list and know their problems so you can send them something they are interested in reading.
If you are trying to tell your list about great kitchen products, don’t just tell them about how great the item is.
Make sure to say what PROBLEMS the item solves.
Things to think about when creating emails that will get open and read:
Put your best foot forward.
Who are you writing to?
What will make them open the email?
Tell me about my problem, not your product
Make your text easy to skim through
#1 Put Your Best Foot Forward
First impressions are extremely powerful.
In all aspects of life if you give a bad first impression it is unlikely the person will give you a second chance.
This is escalated with email. If you land in their inbox with junky info or annoying them…unsubscribe, delete, done, bye.
The same goes for a good first impression.
If you give a great first impression, but mess up later on down the road, they are likely to give you a 2nd and maybe even a third or fourth chance before they hit the DREADED unsubscribe!
Use this knowledge to your advantage.
When you have 1st-time subscribers, make sure to welcome them and give them something SO AMAZING that they’ll be looking forward to your next email with excitement.
Give them a reason to want to open every email and keep you in their inbox for years to come. But the first opened email is one of the most important.
If you want your list to look forward to seeing your emails in their inbox then you need to know them.
What are their doubts, worries, and fears?
Go to forums, FaceBook groups, and places like Amazon reviews to see what your audience has to say and think about products like yours and the problems they are facing right now.
Try to notice patterns in what they say and do your best to use wording and phrasing the same way the majority does.
This will help you resonate with most of your audience and they will be thinking “It’s like you read my mind!” “You must have the answer to my problems!”
If you can resonate with them, they will likely try your product or listen to you and if you solve their problem the first time, they will very likely come back for more.
#3 What will make more people open the email?
How do you get potential readers to open your emails?
Make sure you are capturing the RIGHT audience. If your lead magnet is drawing in people that care about blogging and you’re trying to tell them about cars, you aren’t going to get many openings.
Focus on your headline. Create email headlines that make people curious and have a promise to make their life better if they open it.
Use stories. As humans, we are obsessed with stories. If you can promise a good story with an open, you are much more likely to get it.
Think about what questions you can answer for them.
VERY IMPORTANT: IF you make a promise to deliver an answer to a problem, MAKE SURE YOU DELIVER. Clickbait will get good openings once, but after that, you are the boy who cried wolf, no one will listen to you.
If you want to get your emails read you need to make sure that you know what your subscribers’ problems are.
Once you know their problems, you can talk about their problem and tell them about the solution to their problem.
If you talk to them about their problem and you are spot on they will read on or skim through to find an answer.
Only highlight the benefits of your product after you’ve covered all their potential problems.
Change your mindset. Right now you are thinking, “how can I get them to buy this product?”
That’s the wrong question.
You should be asking, “What are the problems this product solves for my reader?”
Spend most of your time writing to them about their problemsand then you can tell them about how your item, service, or product solves their problems and they are going to read and be curious.
It is great at this point if you can tell them how the product solved your problems or if you have customer testimonies to talk about how it solved their problems.
If you are able to do this effectively and they don’t seem to be interested, maybe it’s time to upgrade the product or make sure you have captured the right email audience.
#5 Make your email text simple and readable.
This should be obvious, but you’d be surprised how many emails get opened and skipped because the content was too much and too “blocky” for the recipient to even want to try to read, let alone get any enjoyment out of.
Make your email text readable by creating 1 to 2 sentences per paragraph, instead of creating a BIG BLOCK of text.
Which is easier to read?:
I went for a walk. It was nice. I saw a dog and a cat and my next door neighbor. I said hi and they said hi. It was a nice walk on a sunny day. The temperature wasn’t too hot or too cold. While I was walking I saw a snail. The snail said hi, I said hi back. It was clear that he didn’t want to see me, so I quickly walked on. I almost stepped on him, but I didn’t, I’m glad I didn’t as his mother might have sued. I’m glad I didn’t get sued on my morning walk on the nice warm sun shiny day in October.
Or this:
I went for a walk. It was nice. I saw a dog and a cat and my next door neighbor. I said hi and they said hi.
It was a nice walk on a sunny day. The temperature wasn’t too hot or too cold.
While I was walking, I saw a snail. The snail said hi, I said hi back. It was clear that he didn’t want to see me, so I quickly walked on.
I almost stepped on him, but I didn’t, I’m glad I didn’t as his mother might have sued.
I’m glad I didn’t get sued on my morning walk on the nice warm sun shiny day in October.
Use this technique and pla around with it to create emails that are easy on their eyes, easy to skim, and easy to read.
You should make your writing easy to skim and lead them to what you want by using Bold, Italics, underlining and colored text.
By making certain text pop out you can draw their eyes to the main things you want them to read.
Take and use these 5 email marketing tips and get more opens and reads with your emails.
If you enjoy exciting effective Writing Prompts, Storytelling and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
What “Detective Pikachu” Can Teach Us About Exciting Effective Writing Prompts: Spoiler Alert!
What’s ahead in exciting effective writing prompts:
Begin your story with a good hook.
Make every second count
Don’t try to catch them all
Keep them guessing
Don’t push the twist
If you haven’t seen Detective Pikachu yet, I recommend it. It was family friendly and one of the best gaming movies made yet.
The writers of the movie did a good job using exciting effective writing prompts in the screenwriting.
How can writing in a movie help with your writing overall?
The simple answer is stories.
Good stories make for great exciting effective writing prompts, blogging, and copywriting.
If you learn how to use storytelling in all of your writing niches you will immediately be a better writer and see better results.
Begin Your Story With a Good Hook
At the very beginning of the movie we see Mewtwo bust out of science facility and shoot energy at a car and explode it.
At this point, we as an audience are waiting with curiosity to see why he did this.
Here’s where good writing comes in.
Instead of revealing anything right then the movie changes scenes and we are left curious to find out what happens.
You can call this is a hook.
If you can add a good hook to your blog post or writing prompt (especially marketing material), this will help your readers stay curious and want to know more about what you are saying.
This will keep them curious and engaged in your writing instead of zoning out while reading your material.
Make Every Second Count in Your Writing Prompt
In the movie, they don’t waste time with meaningless scenes or time to just roll the film.
In the same way, you shouldn’t waste words or sentences that don’t carry your reader to the next sentence of your writing prompt.
Write a sentence and make it count.
If it doesn’t make the reader curious about what is coming after it, consider revising it or cutting it out altogether.
Lead them to your next scene or idea.
Don’t Try To Catch Them All
Something I found humorous and entertaining about the main character of the movie is that he didn’t like pokemon.
People in his society considered him to be an oddball because he didn’t have his own pokemon companion and didn’t bother with trying to catch them all.
In like manner, with your writing prompt, you shouldn’t try to catch every person that could come across your writing or blog.
You should aim for the right people for your niche.
Try to resonate with your specific audience and don’t worry about pleasing everyone.
Just be sure to entertain the right people and your following will grow.
Throw out too many pokeballs and you might just lose followers in the process.
If you enjoy exciting effective Writing Prompts, Storytelling and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
Detective Pikachu does a good job of keeping you guessing.
You’re not sure if the main bad guy is the father or the son.
There’s even a moment when you think Pikachu may have betrayed his owner.
This is great writing.
If you are able to keep your audience guessing in a good way then you can make your writing prompts much better.
Keep them in suspense. Keep them on their toes. Keep them on the edge of their seats waiting for your big reveal.
BEWARE: when you are writing in a way to create curiosity don’t overdo it.
Any questions you create for your readers you must answer them and deliver on the questions you make.
If you make too many questions and don’t answer enough of them you leave your readers feeling tricked or duped. This is a bad strategy.
They did all that work reading through your material and then never found out what they were looking for.
Don’t to that to them. Just don’t!
Don’t Push the Twist in Your Writing Prompts
A good twist is never forced.
Do your best to make it natural.
In Detective Pikachu, the twist would have been more predictable but at the last minute they tricked you with a Ditto pokemon clone of the son which made you think, “well I guess he really is the bad guy.”
But they kept the Ditto a secret until the big reveal.
That was their big trick and they did a good job keeping it from the audience.
They didn’t tell you there was a Ditto and they didn’t let you know that it could turn into humans and this made for the perfect way to hide the twist and the true villain.
You also need to figure out ways to create a good twist and don’t force it in your writing prompts.
Find new and innovative ways to hide the BIG SECRET that is the key to unlocking your suspenseful BIG REVEAL.
Look for great writing prompts in all the content you see, read, review, and take in every day.
It may be lunch with a friend, or something your child says to you.
Creativity is in abundance all around us, we just have to train ourselves to be looking for it and grab it when it comes.
Be sure to keep an eye out for great material and inspiring ideas whether you are watching a movie or reading a great writing prompt.
Did you get exciting effective writing prompts idea while reading this post?
Have you seen Detective Pikachu, how did you react? How did your kids react?
What movie have you seen lately that made you think of great exciting effective writing prompts?
What exciting effective Writing Prompts can you come up with?
5 Exciting Effective Writing Prompts From the movie “Detective Pikachu”
If you enjoy exciting effective Writing Prompts, here are some Other Post You Might Love:
If you enjoy exciting effective Writing Prompts, Storytelling and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
If you enjoy exciting effective Writing Prompts, Storytelling and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
How to make money blogging: 11 simple steps to start blogging for money
How to make money blogging:
Through affiliate links
Sponsorships
How to make money blogging through ads
Make money blogging through digital products
Through a membership subscription site
Use your blog to make money through clients
How to make money blogging through reviews
Drive traffic to your site
Choose a blog host
Choose a blog domain name
Choose your blogging platform
1. Make money blogging with affiliate links
Many bloggers make a decent living by using affiliate links on their blog sites.
An affiliate link is a website link in their post that when clicked on and used pays out money.
Affiliate links can pay out for several reasons:
Payout for a purchase through the link (most common)
Payout for signing up for something
Payout for clicks (uncommon)
Payout for taking certain action through the link
A good example of a company that pays out for a purchase would be Bluehost. They have an affiliate program that pays out a decent commission when someone uses your link to buy their web hosting service.
A sponsorship is basically when a company hires you to do a specific post or campaign for them on your blog. They pay you an agreed amount to make the post and promote it. It is another way for companies to use your blog to advertise to their ideal customers.
Expect to get sponsorships after creating heavy traffic to your blog consistently.
Getting sponsorships is closely related to getting freelance work, but you’re not gonna get a sponsorship without a blog or a large social following.
If you want to look for sponsorships to monetize your blog you are going to need to create more traffic to your blog through social media and SEO.
3. Make money blogging with ads
Ads is an easy simple no brainer way of making money with your blog.
If you generate traffic daily, there is no reason for you not to have a few ads making you extra money.
Ads work when you get views and clicks. The amount of money you make per view or per click is completely up to the program you sign up with.
There are program stipulations you need to be aware of for each program. Some are more lenient than others, but some won’t accept your application if you don’t have enough site views.
It might not be a good money maker starting out, but if you have a decent flow of traffic it can be a very passive income as you just set the ads on your page and that’s all you really have to do. After that, the amount you make really depends on your traffic.
Be aware that having ads on your page can slow your page down and some readers will not stay as long based on the ads getting in the way of your good content.
Also, be sure to communicate with your ad program and know how many ads they are going to add to your pages and how that will affect your traffic.
4. Sell digital products on your blog
At some point along your blogging journey you may decide it’s time to make your own informational products and promote them on your site.
You can make:
Ebooks
Online Courses
Books
Guides
PDFs
Subscription memberships
Online Courses are doing very well right now and if you want to make more as a blogger than this might be a great route to head next.
With an Online Course your skills in blogging, writing, and communication can transfer very well.
I’ve taken online courses that are mostly videos, some that are mostly writing, and some that are a great mixture of the two.
It doesn’t really matter what medium you choose to focus on as long as you deliver AMAZING content that changes people’s lives when they purchase it and learn from it. That’s at least how I feel as someone that purchases online courses.
5. How to make money blogging through a membership subscription site
Membership sites are like FB groups on steroids. Some are FB groups that are made private until you subscribe. Or you can include private FB groups in your online courses as well.
Either way you want to have continual posts in your membership community that daily move the group forward and creates TONS of worthwhile information for your memberships to want to be a part of.
The key to making great consistent money through a membership subscription is that once someone tries it they have the feeling that there is valuable information they’ll be missing out on if they lose access to it.
At that point, you can grow a consistent monthly income from the members only site alone.
Any membership site can have churn out, but the more you are able to have a consistent valuable discussion going on and add value to the group weekly and monthly the less churn out should be.
6. Use your blog to get paying clients
If you like working with people more than just writing than you will absolutely love finding clients to work for.
Client work is challenging. You have to know how to get what is in their minds onto your page.
Some great tips for landing clients on the first try:
Decide beforehand to ask good quality questions
Know which questions you are going to ask before the interview
Treat the client like a friend you are having coffee with
Listen intently
Repeat Important information back to the client and they will feel understood and that you care
Listen more than you talk
When you hear them state their problem, be sure to address how you are going to solve it
Doing well with clients means being a good communicator and serving the client.
If you don’t like that idea then client work might not be for you.
Freelance writing is 50% working on communication with clients and 50% writing.
That ebbs and flows given the client and the freelance writing you are doing for them, but just know that writing for clients is not purely writing like blogging for yourself, it takes a lot of communication skills.
Reviews are a great way to share with your readers what you think about a product or service.
What’s better than getting to try amazing new products and then getting to tell people about them?!
It’s nice because you can be honest in a review and just say what you like and what you don’t and you don’t really feel like you’re selling anything to anyone.
After you share your honest thoughts on it, you leave it up to your readers to make a good choice and get the product or not.
Reviews are an easy way to make money as a blogger.
8. Drive traffic to your site
Blogging isn’t ALL writing.
A good amount of the work you will put into any successful blog will be promotion and figuring out ways to get eyeballs looking at your site.
You have to drive traffic and keep traffic. Both can be difficult and have different but key strategies.
Driving traffic is a mixture of using social media to spread the word about valuable information and products on your site and using SEO best practices.
Keeping traffic is about setting up promotions to your blog that turn into LONG LASTING sources of traffic.
Long lasting traffic comes from strategic guest posts and automated or manual social media systems you set up.
9. Choose a blog host
If you want to make money blogging you will have to get blog hosting and own your own domain.
Ad networks and affiliate programs won’t work with you unless you own your website and clients most likely won’t take you seriously if you send them to a free blog page.
Kinsta is more expensive, but you pay for what you get. Their hosting creates faster site speeds which leads to better SEO and is better for sites that have high amounts of traffic.
Choose your blogging platform. You should take a few moments to understand the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org.
Understand that they are not the same and they are vastly different in user friendliness depending on how you want to make your site and the versatility of what you might be looking to monetize with it.
Just a couple things, wordpress.com doesn’t allow you to use free plugins but wordpress.org has a massive amount of free plugins to help you make your blog everything you want it to be.
I personally use WordPress.org. So far I like it and I REALLY enjoy the resources and the free plugins I can use.
Overall, there are many strategies to making money with your blog and I would definitely recommend doing a little bit of everything.
You should definitely do your best to diversify your blogging income then if one doesn’t work out you have more to rely on.
I would also suggest working on one or two at a time. Focus in on one form of income and make it work really well. After you nail down one or two forms of blogging income you will feel ready to get another one working for you.
Did I miss any blogging forms of income?
What income do you like best?
What income works the best for you?
What is the easiest way you have made money blogging?
What should I ask myself when I’m wondering, “what should I write about?”
It is that fateful moment again.
You have gotten out of bed. Brushed your teeth and showered.
The aroma of coffee (or tea, I’m drinking more tea these days personally) fills your kitchen. You pour that beautiful hot steamy comforting liquid into your #1 Boss Mug that you unashamedly bought for yourself since you work from home.
You make your way to your favorite nook to write and you get into your brain stimulating position.
You stare at your computer screen and here it comes…”What should I write about?”
You sit for a moment staring at the screen. Then out the window. And think again, “What should I write about today?”
You wait and wait for inspiration to WOOSH through your door and slap your brain and the words to start flowing masterfully and…nothing.
The dreaded question we ask ourselves every morning doesn’t seem to help much when we are stuck in the vaccuum of our own head. But not you.
If you are reading this you are one of the smart ones that knows in order to get the words flowing ideas must come from elsewhere and you are here to find them.
I hope that this post helps you find that spark to get started today and many days from here on out 🙂
22 Things to help you think through the question, “What should I write about?”
What you can look forward to in this post:
Start with simple writing prompts: What are you passionate about?
What do you already know a lot about?
What relevant events are going on?
What do you have strong opinions about?
Is there a controversial topic that’s ‘hot’ right now?
What do you want readers to take away from your writing?
What do you want readers to do with your writing?
Do you want to write fiction?
Look at your other posts to see if you can go into details about something you previously covered broadly
If you already have a following, have you asked them what they want to hear about?
Have you used Quora?
Have you checked Twitter?
Have you written about a time you failed?
Take one of your popular posts and write about it from a different angle.
Check the comment sections of other bloggers and influencers in your niche.
Can you write about a mentor and how they helped your business succeed?
Have you written an income report to let your readers in on what’s really working and what’s not for your business?
Have you written about your readers’ problems and how to solve them?
Have you shared with your readers your writing routine and detailed the different aspects of how you work through a blog post from start to finish?
Have you written about a problem you are in the middle of discovering for yourself?
Have you shared about a negative comment you received and how you turned it into a good thing?
Have you shared with your readers a recent time you were personally refreshed by a blog post you recently read?
Enjoying What Should I Write About: 22 Writing Prompts to Give You BIG IDEAS? Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂
What Should I Write About: 22 Writing Prompts to Give You BIG IDEAS
1. Start Simple. What are you passionate about?
When you are asking yourself the question, “What should I write about?” the easiest writing prompts to write about is to share about things that you are most passionate about.
Something that you are either very knowledgeable because of experience is easier to write about than something you have to spend hours and hours researching.
On the flip side, you can choose a topic or subject that you know little about but may find interesting to write about and do the research knowing that you are going to enjoy it compared to looking into a subject you care little about.
Another convenience of writing about what you are passionate about is that it’s easier to write about things you care a lot about and have enjoyed thinking about.
Try this little writing exercise:
Focus on: describing your passion.
Try to write this: I love [your passion]. I love doing this because [talk about what excites you and what you find rewarding about it]. Or I love thinking about [your passion] because [talk about why you like it.]
Example: I love writing because the English language and the art of storytelling is fascinating.
Now go deeper.
Google: [your passion]
Read an article or 3 that pop out to you.
As you are reading pause and write down facts, opinions, quotes, etc, that stick out to you as things that will be important to others as you read them.
If you do just this one exercise you will have enough information and inspiration to write a blog, journal, essay, project, etc.
Just this one writing exercise can take you far if you use it well when you are wondering, “What should I write about?”
2. What should I write about: What do you already know a lot about?
Going back to the first point, it’s easiest to start with something you already know a lot about. Choosing a topic that you already have a great knowledge base on is simpler to share than something you have to go out of your way to find out about. So, when you are having trouble knowing what to write about start with topics you already have a large base knowledge with.
It will take less time, to begin with. You won’t have to take long research breaks and you’ll enjoy writing about something you know very well and have put a good amount of personal time into.
When you’re thinking, “what should I write about?” try this simple exercise:
What do I know about already that I have spent hours learning how to do?
Make a list:
Exercise
Health
Fitness
Music
Art
Your profession
Supplements
Finance
Tech
Gluten free
writing
Research
At home recipes
How to get your kids to sleep
How to get your kids to eat strange foods
How to get more readers to your blog
How to potty train your pet
How to get stains out of shirts
Etc
You can see in this list that nothing is off limits when it comes to knowing a lot about something.
No matter who you are, you may know something more than someone else about a given subject
How to get my little brother to stop sneaking in my room
How to get my kids to get along on a car ride
What movies are family friendly
What are star constelation names
What are some ways I can save money grocery shopping
How can I save time grocery shopping
How do I relieve back pain
If you have done something and figured out how to do it its worth writing about because someone else is going to be looking to do that same thing eventually.
How do I level up faster in this game
How do I get my boss to treat me with respect
How do I make friends
How can I get my brother in law to think I’m cool
How do I learn to type faster
How do I sleep better
I hope the point 🙂
Any topic is up for grabs and you might just be surprised to find out what you know how to do very well that others are looking to read about 🙂
So the next time you are thinking, “what should I write about?” think about anything in your life that you know how to do or know a lot about. And write as if you were telling someone else how to do that thing.
3. What relevant events are going on?
Another great thing that can be very interesting to write about depending on the day would be an event that is relevant.
This could be carried out in three ways.
You can write about a worldwide event that everyone is thinking about and talking about.
2. The other path to carrying this out is to find a relevant event in your specific niche.
Maybe you want to write about fashion and it’s fashion week.
Maybe you want to write about marine life and it’s shark week.
Whatever your niche may be there are almost always big events going on that have to do with your main ideas or relevant ideas.
3. You could write about a specific event in your life that is relevant to your subject.
If you write about fashion you can write about what got you started in your love of fashion.
Or you could write about a controversial situation that happened to you and your fashion. Maybe your friend said your outfit was ugly behind your back and you found out about it?
If you are going to write about an event try to include these tips:
Make the title short and powerful
2 title examples:
Bad- This week is fashion week and we are so excited to see all the different colorful items that the designers will be showing us.
Good- 7 Outfits From Fashion Week That You Will 100% Regret Not Seeing
Or
9 Outfits From Fashion Week that Will Shock Your Socks Off
A little over the top, but it tends to work and I think you can see the difference.
Give tasty info at the start but don’t give away everything
If you are going to write about the event give a few exciting details away at the start but don’t give away the entire cake in the first 3 paragraphs.
Give them something enjoyable to latch onto but save something delicious for the end.
Stick to the facts Jack
Make sure to give your reader really good information and facts not JUST opinions.
We can most certainly include our opinions about the event but make it in small fun doses that give extra personality to your writing.
Name drop
If you can drop important famous heavy hitting names into the writing, don’t be afraid to do so and if it happens to have fun information about the person feel free to add that as well. Personally I would say stick to the facts and don’t let it turn into gossip or slander.
You most certainly don’t have to use all these tips, but use the ones that you think are relevant to the type of event you are writing about.
If you are trying to figure out, “what should I write about?” a great angle to go from would be to consider what relevant events are occurring.
4. What do you have strong opinions about?
If you are still wondering, “what should I write about?” it is easy to find many words when you think of ideas you have strong opinions about.
Sometimes it is easy to punch out a quick article when you have a strong opinion compared to trying to write about things you have no opinion about or haven’t thought about at all.
The stronger your opinion the better and if it is about controversial topics, that’s okay!
It’s okay to have a strong opinion about something and share that opinion knowing that in the comment section you might have people agreeing and disagreeing with you.
The fact that it’s controversial might make your writing have more reaction.
Here’s an exercise to try:
Make a list of topics you would rant about with a close friend or at the dinner table
Religion
Politics
Healthcare
Equality and inequality
Things at work
Things at home
Dating habits and practices
Movies
TV Shows
I’m sure that even in this list you may have seen a topic that you feel like it would be easy to rant and rave about.
Go ahead and write about it in your journal. On your blog. Maybe you have a story you could share with your readers about any of these topics.
If you are looking for something to write about today consider writing about a topic that you have strong opinions about.
5. Is there a controversial topic that’s ‘hot’ right now?
If you are wondering, “what should I write about?” controversy is great for storytelling and marketing.
If you have an opinion about a topic that is a hot button for a lot of people, write about it.
If you have a blog, make a post. It’ll be a great way to get some good comments and conversations rolling.
If you have an essay due and you think that something controversial going on in the world today could be an interesting topic for you to dive into then write about it.
Don’t wait for inspiration to come smack you upside the head if you are thinking, “what should I write about?” go find that inspiration and write about it.
6. What do you want readers to take away from your writing?
When you’re thinking, “what should I write about?” a great and effective tool is to put yourself in your potential reader’s shoes for a moment.
How often do you ask yourself questions like these before writing:,
What do I want my readers to learn from this?
What do I want my audience to run away with?
Did I do a good job of delivering great information that helps them?
What will they say to others about what I wrote for them?
Writing is a great way to give back to people. If you have figured something out or had some great success with a particular field, a good place to share with people how they can better their lives is in your writing.
Did you write a personal note to someone to say thank you?
Will your professor appreciate what you put into your writing?
Will your blog readers really enjoy the way you put together your post?
When you are wondering, “what should I write about?” think about the end person who will be reading it?
7. What do you want readers to do with your writing?
When you are pondering, “what should I write about?” thinking about what you want your reader to do (if anything) will really help start you writing on the right track.
Figuring out what you want to say in your writing is paramount, but figuring out what you want your readers ‘to do’ is a key piece of the puzzle.
If on another hand you want your friend to mention your wedding card you sent them, be sure to include a meaningful quote and some personal thoughtful sentiments in it.
Depending on what your medium is will determine how you go about getting the person reading to action.
When the question pops up, “what should I write about?” decide on what you want your reader to do when they are done reading.
8. Do you want to write fiction?
When you are wondering, “what should I write about?” it’s important to note what style of writing you are doing.
It is good to know if you want fiction or nonfiction. Do you want your writing to be about inspiring poems? Or do you want it to be factual information?
Do you like teaching? Or do you like creating?
If you enjoy teaching than it might be a good idea to write blog postsabout stuff you’re learning and enjoying yourself, whereas if you like creating characters and a story you might enjoy creating a blog that is a bunch of riveting short stories or poems or whatever writing style you’re passionate about.
If you are thinking, “what should I write about?” know what your writing style is that you are getting into.
9. Look at your other writing to see if you can go into specific detail about something you previously covered broadly.
When you are wondering, “what should I write about?” you can sometimes look no further than your own writing.
You can find a good amount of writing prompts directly in posts you have already written.
If you have a blog or social presence you can even look in your comments to see if commentators have left you details you can write about. Whether it is in the comment section where you have answered some questions that could be turned into blogs or you can scan your major points of a broader post topic to see if there is a major point that you can write another 600 to 1,000 words on.
If you are thinking, “what should I write about?” look at your past writing and see if inspiration has been staring you right in the face.
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10. If you already have a following, have you asked them what they want to hear about?
When you’re thinking, “what should I write about?” have you ever considered straight asking your followers, “Hey! What should I write about?”
Have you made your readers feel comfortable enough that they know they can ask questions and receive answers from you?
Have you asked them directly in the posts or in the comments what your followers are interested in hearing about next?
When you are thinking, “what should I write about?” look no further than your peeps.
11. Have you used Quora?
Thinking, “what should I write about?” consider looking at the questions people are asking on Quora and how many answers they’ve received.
Quora is a great site to be a part of the conversation.
What makes Quora great about getting superb writing prompts is that people are literally just asking questions there.
They go to this site to find answers. So make sure you are there and ready to help out and answer their questions.
All you have to do is just browse through the most popular questions related to your niche and presto! You’ve got great material that you know people all over the world are interested in.
When you are thinking, “what should I write about?” download the Quora app and start scrolling not trolling.
12. Have you checked Twitter?
“What should I write about?”
“Have you checked twitter?”
Check out the most popular tweets going on in your subject matter and run with it.
For any social site these things ebb and flow in popularity, so be sure to stay up to date and take advantage of when certain topics are going viral.
If you are trying to promote your blog, do your best to get into the conversation and be helpful and relevant so that when the right time comes you can drop your post into the conversation naturally to get more viewers on your page.
Thinking, “what should I write about?” a little birdie told me to check Twitter.
13. Have you written about a time you failed?
People love a great story.
And if you’re still thinking, “what should I write about?” they love a great comeback story.
We as humans eat that stuff up because we all fail and we all want to know that it is possible to succeed even though we fail. We resonate with each other and learn through others’ failures and successes.
Don’t be shy to write about a time you biffed it majorly and then how that turned into a reason for you to get back up, try again, and crush it the next time around.
When you are wondering, “what should I write about?” try writing about a failure in your life.
14. Take one of your writings and write about it from a different angle.
Wondering, “what should I write about?” try writing about something you already wrote about but from a different angle.
If you have a blog and one of your posts went viral or maybe just one that is very popular on your blog, take a moment to think about if you can write this post or story from another angle.
Seeing it from a fresh perspective might resonate with more of your followers and it might help you see things from a new light as well.
“What should I write about?” try thinking outside your own box.
15. Check the comment sections of other bloggers and influencers in your niche.
When you are concerned, “what should I write about?” check other bloggers comment sections.
You can tell if its going to be a good topic if you see it repeated by many commentators or if it’s a topic that is highly debated.
Have you perused comments to see if there may be a great comment to expound upon?
Did someone ask a great question that you can answer in a post? Or did they add some advice that makes you think about another topic you can go into even further?
An easy way to see this is to look for comments that got lots of conversation going. Find a comment that went on a little bit of a buzz or maybe started a good discussion and use that to create another amazing post.
“What should I write about?” look at the comments and reviews.
16. Can you write about a mentor?
“What should I write about?” what mentors have you had?
Maybe you took an online course that shared some information with you that really helped you succeed whereas before you were failing.
Perhaps your mentor has an affiliate program and you can add some good reviews about the product because you have used it and learned from the person and have good insight to give.
See if you can help your readers by posting a clear and concise review of the product.
Maybe you had a teacher or professor that inspired you?
Fitness instructor?
Parent?
Pastor?
Older sibling?
It could even be a book they wrote.
When you are concerned, “what should I write about?” think about people in your life that have inspired you and what that lead you to.
17. If you have a blog have you written an income report to let your readers in on what’s really working and what’s not for your business?
If you have a blog and are wondering, “what should I write about?” consider starting a monthly blogging income report.
Many bloggers feel comfortable sharing the income they are making through their blogs.
They share what they are making through sponsored links, through freelancing, and through affiliate links.
I have seen this work very well for them and their blogging business as it can be used as social proof for them for affiliate products they write about.
Can you share a report and how can you make that information benefit your readers?
“What should I write about?” consider starting a monthly blogging income report.
18. Have you written about your readers’ problems and how to solve them?
A lot of internet searching comes down to some simple user facts.
I have a problem and I am searching for an answer.
Think about how many times you’ve done that this week.
“Hey Siri, where’s a good place to eat near me?”
“Alexa, what time is it in London?”
“Hey Google, do I strain the noodles before I add the salt in?”
You may not have asked any of these exact questions, but think about the ones you did ask and think about your exact wording.
It is very common that as consumers we ask very similar questions.
Use Google’s keyword planner to see how many people are looking up what you’re wanting to write about.
So since we know people are looking up answers to their problems it should be an easy writing prompt for you to think of a common problem many consumers need help with that you have already solved for yourself.
That makes for a great writing opportunity and now you have plenty to write about since you’ve already gone through the problem yourself and came out the other side with a solution.
“What should I write about?” Solve your reader’s problems.
19. Have you shared about a negative comment you received and how you turned it into a good thing?
If you have a social presence or blog and you’re thinking “What should I write about?” consider writing about a negative thing someone commented about your post.
As humans, we love reading about a good controversy. I mentioned this before.
This is why it could be easy to take a negative comment you receive and turn it into a good thing for your writing career.
One of my email mentors does this frequently on his email list.
Someone will reply to his email negatively and say horrible things about his style, marketing tactics, and character at times.
He will almost always write about the negative feedback and spin it into a good thing he can teach his email list.
Now you could take this and retaliate and say all kinds of firey things back to this person, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
I would instead take the opportunity to thank the person and explain how they are missing out on great information or how a comment like that is completely justified and that they have valid points.
But you have to decide how you would deal with negative comments on your blog or social presence.
“What should I write about?” Write about a negative comment.
20. Have you shared with your readers your writing routine and detailed the different aspects of how you work through a writing project from start to finish?
If you’re wondering, “what should I write about?” it might be inspiring and helpful for your audience to see into how and why you write the way you do, especially if you are in the writing, freelance writing, and blogging niche.
For me, one of my key secrets is outlining.
Outlining sounds awful and boring and to be honest it is!
But once you get the hang of it and you are doing most of the foundation work in your head it becomes second nature and is extremely useful. (Thanks, Mrs. Louden! My English teacher.)
I used to think it was useless as a kid, and it was because my essay had all of 3 points, so pretty pointless as it would be hard to forget three points, but in a post like this with 22 points, it is EASY to forget where you are, where you came from, and where you’re headed next in the point.
“What should I write about?” Share your writing process with you readers.
21. Have you written about a problem you are in the middle of discovering for yourself?
We already discussed writing about a problem and solution you have already found, but are you brave enough to write about a problem you are in the middle of and the fact that you haven’t found a solution yet?
Could you create a post while you’re in the midst of the problem and write the post live and update it as you solve your own problem?
There are several ways you could take this, let me know if anyone does as it sounds like an interesting writing experiment!
22. Have you shared with your readers a recent time you were personally refreshed by a blog post you just read?
Considering the question, “what should I write about?” What have you been reading lately that inspired you?
Don’t back away from paying it forward and sharing about a recent post that you read on someone else’s blog that really inspired you or helped you get out of a rough spot.
Do you have a blogging mentor of sorts?
Reach out to them and see if they don’t mind you reviewing a post that you personally found helpful.
You can even let them know about it and see if they’d like to link to your review.
Especially if you give them social proof of high praise they might be likely to send some of their readers to it so they can see how the mentor’s writing helped someone in the real world on a completely different blog.
You never know how much helping someone else out will help you.
Don’t be afraid to invite others along with you on your path to success as a writer.
Did you enjoy this post?
Did you find a prompt that helped you?
What did you end up writing about from reading the post: What Should I Write About?
If you found your prompt here, feel free to share a link to your post in the comments.
Enjoying What Should I Write About: 22 Writing Prompts to Give You BIG IDEAS? Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂
If you enjoy What Should I Write About: 22 Writing Prompts to Give You BIG IDEAS, Storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
