How to Pick a Topic for Your Writing

Sometimes I sit down to write, but nothing comes to me. Maybe it's a case of writer's block. Maybe I'm just feeling too tired. I find that there are usually a few ways that I can get over this, though. If I go ahead and sit down to write, I usually have a couple of ideas pretty quickly. Here's what works for me.

Write About What You Know
If I'm having a hard time thinking of something that I could possibly write about, I just think about what's going on in my life. Stop and consider if there is something new going on in your life. Have you recently started a new job? Did your children just start to school? Are they learning to walk or talk? Maybe potty training? What about your pet? Have you recently got a new one, or taught the old one a new trick? All of these things are things that you could write about. I know that for me, sometimes I start out writing about one thing that is going on in my life, and then completely change it somewhere in the middle. I trash the original start and start something completely new. Usually I will have a whole new piece in no time.

Research Something You Want to Know
If I can't think of anything new to write about that I know, I start researching things I want to know. Is there something you have always wanted to learn how to do, but just never got around to it? Research it and then tell other people how you learned to do it. If there is some topic that you have always been interested in, find out more about it. When you write your article about it, you will be learning something new, as well as teaching someone else something they might have never even known they would be interested in.

Look At the Calendar
Is there a holiday coming up that you would like to write about? Do you have some seasonal tips you can give? There are so many things that go on in any given month. Usually it's pretty easy to find some event every month that you can write about. If you are particularly fond of a certain holiday or season, you might be able to come up with many different articles all based on the same subject.

Look At the World Around You
If you keep up on the news, there are hundreds of things you could write about. There are a lot of people who are interested in what is going on in the world, but might not have time to read the newspaper or watch the news. There are others, like me, who just like to see the news from someone else's perspective. I would imagine that news articles are quite popular on sites like this one.

Whatever you decide to write about, make sure it is something that is interesting to you. It is easy to tell when a person is genuinely interested, and when they don't really care. Most people write because they love it. If you don't have an interest in the subject, it's hard to love the writing process for that piece.