Can’t decide what you should write about next?

November 12, 2019 Eddie Shleyner

Last week:

“You write so much...” they said. “How do you decide what to write about next?”

“Well thanks,” I said. “But I only publish a VeryGoodCopy article once a week. Some bloggers publish stuff every day. Good stuff!”

“Still,” they said, “you must have a process for deciding?”

“Yeh,” I said, sheepishly.

My process for deciding.

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I guess it’s like this. I take in a lot about copywriting, content marketing, consumer psychology. Books, blogs, movies, shows. And when I come across something that helps me, delights me, inspires me, lights me up, I jot it down in a running Google doc.

And then I let it sit. Sometimes for a while. Sometimes for a bit. And when I come back to it, if it still makes me feel a certain way, I write about it. That’s it, really. Hardly scientific I’m afraid.

No content calendar.
No keyword research.
No link-sharing strategy.

If I’m moved, I write. (I just make sure I’m moved at least once a week).

I like it that way.

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I like it, mostly, because it keeps me learning.

After all, I started VeryGoodCopy as a means to practice and get better. (Because I knew if I could explain a concept or principle or tactic simply and efficiently, I was ready to use it.)

Writer and artist, Austin Kleon, puts it like this:

“My books are the by-products of the process of trying to figure out how to be a writer and an artist. When I write, when I publish, when I speak, it is in the spirit of being a fellow student. I am simply sharing the things that I am learning.”

Yes.

Designer, Mike Monteiro, put it another way:

“The secret to being good at anything is to approach it like a curious idiot, rather than a know-it-all genius.”

Yes.