I struggle a bit with finding topics for my blog. I don’t know if it’s obvious or not, but you may have noticed some thematic overlap. And I’m only posting once a month—kudos to writers who are more prolific and who achieve more.
If you’re also a writer or are just finding it challenging to find topics to write about, I’ll do a rundown of things that help me.
To start with, it’s very important to have a clear idea of what I want to write about and who my target audience is. For the first bit, I’d say I want to write about writing, editing, publishing, books, and the like, and I want to keep things as positive as possible. I share tropes I dislike, I’m not specifying texts because it’s not what I’m after. I won’t shy away from recommending authors, though. (Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, Agatha Christie, Marian Keyes, Nora Ephron…)
As for my target audience, well, besides my mom and some of my Happy Writing friends (hi A and N!), I’ve no idea who else (if anyone) is reading this. I mostly use it as a mini-writing mind break of sorts.
If you’re a writer and you came across this post from Google, well, these are some incoherent ramblings. Welcome!
The point is, it’s important to know what you want to write about and for whom it is, as this will affect the tone and topics.
When I was setting all of this up a lifetime ago, my friend (hi P!), who’s the expert, gave me some pretty great feedback and ideas. The gist of it is, consistency (of tone and themes) is important. Readers should know (roughly) what to expect from you.
Of course, it’s not always easy.
There are plenty of sites that list ideas, but they may not necessarily fit your brand or they might not be super interesting to write about. Plus, not everything can become a blog post.
Right now (at time of writing this post, July 2024), I’ve got a list of around 20 topic ideas, yet roughly half of those, I’ve no idea how to approach. And I want my blog posts to be more than 100-word ramblings—so I’d say that’s something important to define: Is it a topic that can be delved into, or is it more of a social media bit?
Many suggest having how-tos (e.g. how I stay organized and research), lists (romantic tropes I love and more), opinion pieces (Why I love…Jane Austen), and explanation posts (editor vs. proofreader).
It’s not easy, but it can be done. It just takes time, patience, and inspiration.
