Ep 133: How to Decide What to Write Next (Introduction to What Do I Write Next series)
Every day, a writer wakes up and asks, \u201cWhat do I write next?\u201d\n\nAnd the answer varies from writer to writer\u2014even your own answer may change from week to week. Sometimes it\u2019ll be obvious what to write next. When you\u2019re approaching a looming deadline and that article or chapter must be completed, the decision is made for you. You sit down and work on that.\n\nBut other days you have flexibility. You can write anything you want. How do you choose? Can we be sure the next thing we write is the right thing to write, or the best thing? Do we need to be sure?\n\nI don\u2019t think there\u2019s an absolute right or wrong answer. You choose. But you usually choose based on something, whether consciously or subconsciously. And if you make the choice based on something that rings true with your values and supports where you\u2019re at in your journey, you can feel good about your decision.\nWays to Decide\nThe next few weeks, we\u2019ll go through various ways you can decide, so you\u2019ll feel a little more confident moving forward on whatever you do write next.\nWrite Something That Moves You Toward Your Goals\nWhen you\u2019re trying to decide what to write next, you may already have clear goals in mind. You want to submit poetry to literary journals in hopes of being published this year, or you want to put together a book proposal and send it to an agent this fall.\n\nKnowing your goals can help you start with the end in mind and work your way back so that you know what to write today and the next day. For you, the question \u201cWhat do I write next?\u201d will be easily answered by those goals\u2014your next thing to write will be whatever moves you closer to that goal.\n\nBut you may not be that clear about your goals. You may not know where you want to be in a year or what you want to do even in the next month or so.\n\nOr you\u2019re re-evaluating your goals.\n\nOr you just want to write.\n\nThat\u2019s okay. You don\u2019t have to overthink it or get uptight about your decision.\n\nBut if you want to give it some thought, I\u2019m going to toss out various filters or motivations that might help you begin to think about your next writing project and make a decision.\n\nThis list will serve as an overview, and then in the weeks ahead, I'll go into more detail on some of them.\n\nSo\u2026How do I decide what I write next?\nWrite Something That Increases your Skills\nOne way to decide what to write next is to take stock of your skills and experience. Do you need to work on something? You could pick a project based on its ability to help you hone the craft and develop yourself as a writer.\nWrite Something You Can Finish and Ship Fast\nIf you\u2019re working on a long-term project and have been for years, you may realize you\u2019re not going to get any real feedback on it for several more months and you won\u2019t know what readers think for months or even a year after that. An occasional shorter project lets you enjoy quick turnaround and a sense of completion. This could be something as immediate as a social media update or as formal as a poem sent to a literary magazine.\n\n\nWrite What\u2019s Next in Sequence\nIf you\u2019re writing a blog article series, write the post that explains the next step or stage. If you\u2019re writing a novel, tackle the next scene. Your short story will need the next beat. A poem grows with the next line leading to the next stanza. An article will expand with another paragraph or section. The sequential approach can be a logical way to decide what to write next.\nWrite Something for Validation\nYou may want to write something in hopes of a magazine acceptance. You\u2019ll get that feeling of being chosen. \u201cHey, they picked me! They picked my article! Someone other than my spouse and mom says my writing is worth publishing.\u201d After that, you may have readers responding and enjoy another layer of objective outside affirmation and validation. Though we should be careful not to rely on the trends and whims of the market to help us feel good about our writing,