Write What You Want to Read
Recently I’ve been trying to convince several of my close friends to write more. Writing — and especially publishing publicly — has many benefits: it’s a great way to meet interesting people, refine thoughts, gather feedback, and track how one’s perspective evolves. It’s also really fun. I’ve seen these benefits first-hand in the ~2 years since I started writing online, so it’s a no-brainer that I want my friends to experience the same.
But one blocker seems to come up consistently: not knowing what to write about. My answer? People should write the things they want to read.
This is one of those things that sounds easy, but can actually be quite difficult.
I tend to start this process by thinking about topics I find interesting. Sometimes inspiration comes through asking myself a set of daily questions and paying attention to where I consistently struggle to find answers. Other ideas frequently come through reading. For example, love learning about the history of media? Try writing about recent events in the industry and how they may parallel major historical media shifts. It doesn’t matter if other people have written about similar topics; the process of writing may lead to a unique insight, or reveal a different (possibly related) topic worth writing about.
By writing about topics you want to read about, you inherently end up connecting with people who are also interested in those topics. This may stem from researching what’s already written, and finding like-minded people through reading their work. But another, more powerful variant is through publishing your thoughts, wherein someone else interested in the topic may reach out or comment on your work.
It’s also worth thinking about how the writing you enjoy reading is actually written. For example, I like reading essays that are short and describe succinct, compact ideas. That’s why I’m trying to keep this essay fairly short. I also like writing that includes personal anecdotes on where the ideas in the piece originated. Doing so helps turn a topic into a story. Paul Graham does this well, especially in his earlier essays when he talks about his experiences running YC. I try to do this by referencing moments of inspiration from college, conversations with friends, and insights from new places I’ve visited.
But what if, in reading this essay, you realize you don’t know what you like to read? In that case, the true prompt may be to simply go and read more. Just find a book, or article, or essay and start reading. It’s ok if the book is bland. I abandon over half of the books I start (oftentimes less than half way through). Reading things I don’t enjoy — and recognizing that I don’t enjoy it — is still useful: it helps crystalize what I find boring, and leads me to try to avoid such things in my own work.
Finally, just sit down and start writing. Draft a piece as best you can. Once you have a draft, read it from top to bottom. The last step is to ask yourself: did you write something you enjoyed reading?
Thank you to Spencer Korek for reading drafts of this essay.