5 Steps to Deciding What to Focus Your Writing On
Last week I talked about how my past 5 years of blogging have been muddled mess. Too many stabs at different topics that ultimately weren’t going anywhere.
I was building too many little fires all over the place, without focusing my effort on building one big bonfire (originally heard from Sean McCabe).
One of the biggest questions I received came from Melissa Lim, when she asked about the biggest issue on choosing a topic.
This is a huge question and one I struggled with for years, so I wanted to flesh it out more than a quick tweet and clarify a couple points.
Personal interest matters
I do think this is a big deal. We’ve swung the pendulum back quite far from the craze of “follow your passions at all costs” to doing whatever is going to fulfill the needs of “X”. There’s a happy medium (see what I did there) of finding what people respond to and what is interesting to me.
Do people respond to the idea?
This is one of my biggest “duh” moments in the entire process, because I can look back and see several moments and sketches where people responded very favorably to my sketchnotes.
It was awesome to see Joel Gascoigne from Buffer recommend and share last week’s post, because it was on their blog I received the first significant validation that my sketchnotes were helpful. I sketched a post from Kevan Lee that received thousands of shares and lots of comments.
The response came back to a couple ways the sketchnotes were helping.
- Sketchnotes took a helpful, but dense article and made it understandable on a single page. This was also powerful for webinars, podcast episodes, speeches, and much more.
- Seeing hand-drawn images and icons on screen is a big change from what we’re used to, so they catch our attention easier.
Market validation
Once I saw that I had an interest in the topic, talent for it, and people responded to it, the time was ripe for the final box to check.
Will people pay for sketchnotes?
For me, I do want my blog to be a source of additional income. I love working with a team, and honestly don’t think I’m cut out for the solopreneur lifestyle. But, I do want to have a steady side income.
Nothing talks the way money does. I had to ask people to pay for stick figures and shapes.
What I missed early on was my own messaging for the value-add. People weren’t interested in paying for stick figures. They WERE interested in paying for clear, concise ideas.
The clearer an idea or story, the easier it is to sell. I help people do that.
Medium makes all of this easier
Back to the issue of how can new writers and bloggers decide what to focus on. The sooner a decision is made, the better. Because if creating content is a side project (like mine), there are only so many hours to commit each week. These hours have to count.
If the decision is not made yet, Medium makes all of this easier.
What’s difficult about the early stages of growth is finding an audience for your work. With tagging, mentions, and search capabilities, Medium makes it easier to test whether a topic will find some traction.
I’m going to elaborate on this in another post, but here’s the quick-n-dirty plan you can copy.
- Narrow your options down to 3 topics.
- Write 10 articles for the first topic you want to test.
- Post one each week on Medium.
- Link to a landing page to gather emails (use ConvertKit).
- Share on social media.
- Start conversations with anyone who interacts with the articles.
- Repeat.
Say no to fear
Fear is what kept me moving around for 5 years without getting anywhere. It kept me from focusing on a topic because I was afraid it might not be the best topic to focus on.
I realized the biggest challenge is having the courage to put your flag in the ground and say,
“This is my message, and I’m going to share it.
Even if I did choose the “wrong” topic, focusing on the second best option is better than splitting focus between 2–3 topics.
Since I researched, tested, and validated the idea, I know it’s one that people are interested in.
Pick one and show up
That’s the essence. Don’t be discouraged or bogged down after a few months, or even a year. Keep showing up. Remember the research and validation, the experimental phase. Trust your instincts.
There is a gift in focusing my topic. Yes, I’ll have to say no to many things now, but all those “no’s” will allow me to be even better at sketchnotes. It clarifies my content, calendar, and ideas going forward.
I believe it will do the same for you.
I create sketchnotes that help people communicate and understand big ideas. Want to learn how you can too? Get my free email course here.
My name is Matt Ragland. I work at ConvertKit on Customer Success & Education. I’m also a visual thinker that loves to get people thinking outside the box. Creating sketchnotes for writers, speakers, and events is my ongoing side project. If you’d like to work together, let’s talk!
matt[at]mattragland.com
