Having problem thinking of a topic to write? You can try these 3 ways

I decided to write about this after seeing @Yinye_xo article a few days ago talking about writer's block (check it out: am I still here?) and I commented on it, giving her some advice and things she can do to overcome that problem.

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I got carried away while typing the comment and it became really long, it could have been longer than that and end up becoming an article inside another article if I didn't take the initiative to cut out sone parts.

I still had a lot to say and I figured a lot of persons especially newbies might be experiencing this problem as well, so I opted to write an article on it. I even told yinye_xo that I have gotten an idea for an article while making that comment 😃

I might not be the person to be advising about this, seeing as I'm still quite new on readcash (going to 2 months now) and I won't say I know it more than those that have been here for long, but I have never experienced writer's block (at least while on this platform).

I have never experienced writer's block while here, does that mean I don't know what it is or how it feels? Of course not, readcash isn't the first platform I have written for, I have done so for several forums and websites, but I will say this is the first place I'm actually enjoying writing.

While writing for other platforms in the past, I experienced writer's block most of the time and I ended up plagiarising articles. I could have done the same on this platform, but while I was still been being introduced to this community, I already got something I want to write about.

After my first post, I still had some tricks up my sleeve and there were still a couple of ideas in my head. I researched on content writing and how to get ideas for a topic, and one answer I got was using online forums like Quora and Reddit (I will come to this later).

Yinye_xo mentioned that most people write about their daily experiences (including me) but how will she do something like that as well when she's always home every day?

Image credit: School vector created by upklyak - www.freepik.com

I kind of get where she is coming from, I mean if it wasn't for school, I also will always be home every day and I can't possibly know what to write about my day because it will always be boring.

But before dissecting yinye_xo's article further, let me first talk about some of the ways I get topics to write on.

1. Everyday experiences

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I didn't do this the first time I joined because I asked myself; "who will want to read about how my day was?". I change my mind after seeing some of @Princessbusayoarticles where she usually writes about her day, especially as a student.

I found out I actually enjoyed reading her articles and can actually relate to some of the things she talked about, so I started doing that as well. So sometimes, if anything interesting happens in school, I just write about it when I get back home.

Princessbusayo isn't the only person that writes about her day, most persons I follow also do the same and it's fun reading other people's experiences and learning about their lives.

I now know a couple of things about Jane, FarmGirl, tired_momma, George_Dee, JonicaBradley, HappyBoy, Kristofferquincy, king_gozie, and a lot of other persons just after a month of reading their articles.

Sharing your everyday experiences is one way to create a connection with other persons here, as you're opening up to them by letting everyone know a few things about you.

2. Online forums and social media

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This is the second way I get some of the topics to write on. If you're a frequent reader of my articles, you will notice I always make mention of nairaland forum. It's a Nigerian forum that I will consider the biggest in Africa, having more than 2 million members from different countries.

Different topics are discussed every day which are mostly news articles, but sometimes someone can just bring up an interesting topic which will lead to a huge argument. If the topic is something I'm interested in, I also pick it up and build an article around it. An example is this article I did a few days ago; What careers turn you off?

You can also do the same by using your favorite online forum or website. You can get ideas from Quora, Reddit, and even social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. I even get topics from telegram and WhatsApp, an example is this article from 3 days ago; Nobody has ever traveled to space; they lied to us!

3. From other readcash users

This is another way I get ideas for an article; I get inspired by other persons. I spend more time every day reading articles than I actually use to write mine and anybody active here will always pick a thing or two from reading articles.

For example, the last article I did (Would you rather this or that?) was inspired by @Khing14 after I read a similar article she did. I have also gotten something like that from other persons and I even have some I have bookmarked and haven't done yet.

Even when I don't feel like writing a random article, I can just check out JonicaBradley's weekly prompts and pick a topic from there. I have written about 2 or 3 prompt articles and the last one was A distracting article.

So even when you can't write about your day and you haven't seen any interesting topics online (forums or social media), you can always opt-in for one of JonicaBradley's prompts and write about it.

check out my wonderful sponsors and feel free to read their articles. Trust me, they are fun

Apart from all these I have mentioned, there are other ways you can get topics for an article, sometimes an idea might just hit me while taking my bath.

Yinye_xo mentioned something about how most people manage to write very long articles without losing context, but that's very possible if you have passion for what you're writing and you're very knowledgeable about it.

Sometimes I get carried away and end up writing an article that's 2000+ words, then I just have to split it into two. Most of my articles are 6 minutes read, with a few of them within the range of 4 to 5 minutes read and some are even up to 8 and 9 minutes, that's because I love writing.

I spoke in-depth about the difficulties most people have with writing in one of my articles titled Is writing really that difficult? You can check it out to read more about this.

A little detour

Yinye_xo also mentioned not getting visited by rusty despite all her hard work and I know quite well that it can really be frustrating.

I checked out all her articles and truly rusty haven't visited any. I actually felt bad for her because she got good engagements on her articles but rusty never visited.

Well, it turns out her latest article finally got rusty's attention and he tipped her really well! That was actually her 10th article and it finally got visited by rusty (@FarmGirl it looks familiar, right? 😉)

She hasn't been online since the day she published her last article, she's in for a big surprise when she gets back (I hope she hasn't given up).

Closing thoughts

Using all these methods I mentioned, I have never run out of ideas for a topic to write about and I'm sometimes overwhelmed by the number of articles I have pending.

Right now I have some topics I have noted down and will write on them when I finally get the chance, and I keep coming up with more topics every day. So you can also use the same methods I'm using or you can even discover something else that works for you.

Good luck on your writing journey and don't ever give up

Thanks for reading 💗💗💗

September 23, 2021