What to Write About

When writing, consider listening to atmospheric music. It may help reduce your susceptibility to distraction: a steady beat without vocals helps put you in a trance. Here's my Spotify playlist.

But the best topic to write about is always the one you can’t not write about. It’s the idea bouncing around your head that compels you to get to the bottom of it.

People read nonfiction to learn and to feel. My framework for ensuring a blog post accomplishes both is to start with a first draft that focuses on "novel" ideas.

A novel idea is one that's not just new to the reader, but also significant and not easily intuited. Think of it as new and worthwhile . I've identified five categories:

• Counter-intuitive —

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Step one is choosing an objective for your post, such as:

1. Open people’s eyes by proving the status quo wrong. Example.


2. Share a solution to a tough problem. Example.


3. Distill an overwhelming topic into something approachable. Example.


4. Tell a suspenseful and emotional story that imparts a lesson. Example.


5. Articulate something everyone’s thinking about but

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