A Writing Tip That Always Works
I am one of those annoying writers who’ll tell you that writer’s block doesn’t exist. I truly believe that it doesn’t exist and I’ll tell you why in this article.
I don’t have the habit of beating around the bush so here I go — A writing tip that always works is to have something to say.
It’s really that simple. So, get your blank canvas and start painting with me.
The difficult bit is having something to say. That’s where data steps in as the proverbial knight in shining armor.
How does data give you a voice?
Data runs the world. It always has. In my young, immature opinion, it always will run the world. The Templar Knights and the Merovingians had medieval data about trade routes and ports and that’s how they ended up inventing banking systems and becoming as powerful as they were. These days, data is not a rare commodity. It’s easily available. If it isn’t, you can post a question on any Q&A platform and you’ll receive helpful suggestions about where you could start looking.
Raw data is available everywhere you look. You take any random titbit you heard, read, or came across and process it in your own style. Once you’ve processed that data using your flair, extract every ounce of information out of it. Try visiting discussion platforms or mediums and see how the unrefined data is being processed by others.
You’ll have blobs of information, perspectives, and opinions about your initial data, which will look like the image below.
That’s it. Start with data. Get some lovely shapes, designs or patterns on that canvas and fill them up using information.
How does information play a part?
In my experience, just data doesn’t do much. You need to assign some value to it. To do that, you must assign context to your data using information you already possess or have access to. Your random shapes on the canvas will need to have some color in them. Your color palette includes defining your data, assigning meaning to the data, and making the pointers that make up your data relate to each other.
In essence, you refine your dots and give them a new look. That change is what we could alternatively term as extracting value from data.
We all exist in the era of the World Wide Web. Information overload is bound to happen. To ensure that something like that doesn’t happen to you, you need knowledge.
Knowledge is actionable, data and information aren’t. That’s where experienced writers win over the amateurs. Just like how we refine data using information, we sort the available information using knowledge.
Linking those lovely colorful shapes is difficult but not impossible to learn.
How does one use knowledge?
Most writers have fields of specialization. They are called niches in the content writing field. A writer that writes in a particular niche has a lot of specific knowledge about their field of expertize. This cache of information and knowledge lets them make sense of things. As they make sense of things, they easily draw connections between different bits of information.
Knowledge essentially filters the noise out. Once the noise is gone, we can smoothen the flow of information, making our draft clear and manageable. We can link all the facts we stumble across in the information stage via knowledge.
Depending on the topics you like and are curious about, your knowledge will grow profoundly. Knowledge is more about the acquisition process. So, it lets you sort information into relevant and irrelevant bits.
Your canvas now has a plethora of colorful dots that have some connection to each other.
What are insights then?
Those connections you made as part of your knowledge acquisition process will now need synthesis. This is where our data and knowledge become useful. Based on how you synthesize this knowledge, you develop some understanding of a problem. The insights you develop will rely on the unique characteristic traits you possess and the beliefs you possess.
Insights make some shapes and connections on the canvas stand out. Insights make your painting uniquely yours.
Why is wisdom necessary?
Wisdom enables us to make informed decisions as it teaches us to sort the relevant insights from the irrelevant. Relevant and irrelevant here depends on the main theme of your article.
Essentially, wisdom transforms data into action. Wisdom lets you connect your insights.
Create an impact with your words
You’ve taken data, supplemented it with information, used knowledge to sort the relevant from the irrelevant, developed insights for the relevant knowledge and used wisdom to know what works with your piece and what doesn’t. Once you do that, once you’ve taken a motivated idea and processed it appropriately, you’ll have your impactful article or a series.
While this article might seem boring to most, this is how most detailed articles are framed. If you want to write a piece that informs someone, educates someone, enlightens someone, do the things that not many in the writing industry are doing these days.
Follow this writing guide. Just try it once. I have been writing professionally for over five years now, and I am yet to struggle with the elusive writer’s block. If you keep collecting data and educating yourself, you’ll never run out of things to say.
Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with in the comments.
This is Binati Sheth signing off.
