Ever feel like your keen on contributing to the world of wrting but not sure exactly how to write about it? Let alone what “it” actually may be.

I’ve prepared the following ‘Key steps and Questions’ to help you get a clearer idea, as well as tips and tricks on how get started and sustain your writing practice:

• 1- Motivation – Why write?
  It’s always important to know your end goal. Why write? Do you enjoy it? Are you using it to get somewhere or get something done? Do you want your writing to be a source of help for people? What value are you wishing to share?
• 2- Self Awareness – Will writing come naturally to you? 
  What themes do you feel come naturally to you? Do you have knowledge in mind you are particularly passionate to share? Are you willing to do the sufficient work to get good writing and rich content out? Questions like these help because you want writing practice to be as easy and enjoyable as possible so you can sustain it for a longer time. Also, ‘life’s short’, it’s important to know ourselves well and do only what we enjoy or what really needs to be done…

• 3- Make a List of what you ‘like’ and ‘think you know’
  Where have you been? What have you previously done? Who and What do you have good knowledge about? How do you think what you are saying is bringing added value to others’ life journeys ? Do you think you’ve got a particular humour, style, perspective that is fresh or memorable?
• 4- Done with the list, Great! now Sack it!
  You’ve got a good word cloud to keep in the back of your mind to help you. But that was just a first draft to narrow things down to find your topic and genuine style of writing.
• 5- Now, Make a list about what you know inside out.
  Write only the absolute 3…. okay 4… fine… 5… things you believe you know better than —85% of your friends—. Any audience wants to learn from someone who know’s more about their niche than an average person or at least someone who is more talented in articulating ideas better than they are.
  Keep these 3–5 items in mind, operate on the next steps based on them.
• 6- Put your 3–5 words aside
  You’ve identified your —field of advantage—. Now is the time to put the pens down and get the keyboards out to research and develop a strategy for your writing and the topics that you’d be gold at! To be able to know how to help people, you need to know what people are asking about relating to your 3–5 word list.
• 7- How to find Topics:
  If you can’t think of titles for your writing see what other people are reflecting about in relevance to your field of advantage (a.k.a. your 3–5 words). Better write about topics that people are actually specifically asking about than to make an assumption. Good platforms to figure that out on are Medium and Quora. On Medium, study what is trending and why it’s trending. On Quora, get a real vibe about questions people are forwardly asking and which answers were found the most relevant/helpful and why.
• 8- Which questions to answer
  1. Only answer questions you know the answer to. You don’t want to spend time doubting if what you are saying or writing about is accurate or wonder if you’re the “right person to be saying it”. You shouldn’t feel you are the writing version of an ‘impostor syndrome’
  2. Target high value and demand market gaps. The best way to become a valuable contributor in any field is to target the ‘high demand’ but ‘low serviced’ market gap. The same applies to writing, what topic details are high in demand, but not a lot of writers are addressing.
• 9- Turn Answers into Longer and richer Writing Content
  That’s your time to shine. Writing longer content means adding more value with each statement you write. It also means steering clear of other bad writing habits, such as: (a) going off topic or (b) getting into unnecessary jargon or (c) talking disproportionately about one detail within a larger piece of writing. The idea is to add value, be consistent and easy to follow.
• 10- Golden Rule → Sound like your self. ←
  You’ll lose interest and get tired a lot more quickly if you’re not using your true writing voice. Also you want to be comfortable when you’re writing, that also means to not over think about how things ‘sound’. Your audience will appreciate your writing more when your writing voice is genuine and down to earth.

Bonus Tips: The Royal Don’ts
This is probably the biggest favour I’ve done for my self not only in writing but even in any project I undertake.

• Don’t write about the things you think you “should” be writing about.
• Don’t write when you don’t enjoy it or when you feel tense about it. The tonation of your content might get affected and not come out how you intend it.
• Don’t write about things that you notice take longer than they should unless if you’re really keen about the topic (accordingly to sustain writing well, adapt your writing strategy so you would be able to maintain a high morale and keep track of your progress)

Hope this helps, Goodluck!
Lara Waked, Out!
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Originally on posted on Quora: How do you decide what to write about?
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