Unblocking the Inkwell: A Writer’s Guide to Swift Content Creation

William Shakespeare:?It's as if my quill is broken... as if the organ of my imagination has dried up... as if the proud tower of my genius has collapsed.

Dr. Moth:?Interesting.

William Shakespeare:?Nothing comes.

Dr. Moth:?Most interesting.

William Shakespeare:?It's like trying to pick a lock with a wet herring.

If you remember this dialogue from “Shakespeare in Love,” this is where William Shakespeare was diagnosed with writer’s block, which caused him to struggle with his new play due to lack of ideas.

Well, playwriting is not our goal today. But have you ever felt the same as Shakespeare? Have you ever tried to write a piece of content but couldn’t get past the first paragraph?

If yes, you are reading the right post. When it comes to writing, whether it’s creative, non-fiction, or technical writing, most people struggle to get started because they have too few or too many ideas in their heads.

In this post, I will walk you through a process I follow to turn ideas into written content without spending too much time on the process. I mainly talk about written technical content here. But it can be applicable to others based on the context.

P.S I did like “Shakespeare in Love”. But honestly, it’s not worthy of getting an Oscar for Best Movie of 1999. The Avatar got robbed that year :)

Do your research

In most cases, you will have a topic in mind to write about. If you are comfortable with the topic, you are lucky. Otherwise, you will have to conduct research on the topic to find what to write.

So, do your research before starting writing so that you have credible facts, sources, and sufficient knowledge for articulation.

Unless you’re Elon Musk, you’ll need something to hang your hat on. On second thought, we’d probably ask Musk for links to sources, too. Because even the best writers back their facts up with references — be it published research or expert opinion. Include links to sources that support the factual assertions in your writing. - Ali Mese

Let’s say you are going to write about vector databases, a topic that you’ve never heard of. How do you plan your research?

Googling is old-school. I’d say consult a Chatbot, like ChatGPT, to crash-learn the subject by generating an 80:20 plan. By focusing on the 80% that matters the most and eliminating the rest, you will save time and energy you invest.

For example, you can try out a prompt like this:

“I want to learn about [insert topic]. Share the most crucial 20% of information that will give me a solid understanding of 80% of the subject.”        

Scope the research, never let it linger.

Once you have figured out what you want to research, try to finish it in five days maximum. Otherwise, the research will drag you into too many rabbit holes, keeping you away from finishing the writing on time.

Unless you are writing about a super deep technical topic, it’s fine to touch upon things at a high level based on the need without going too deep.

Use spaced repetition to reinforce your learning

If the subject is completely new, how do you learn things fast without forgetting?

Take notes as you do the research, and write, draw, and tag notes in a way that connects the information you learned. As my friend Sameera Perera suggested, spaced repetition is a technique that you can leverage to reinforce your memory. The idea of spaced repetition is to space out your repetitions – or review sessions – so that you are not trying to cram all the knowledge into your brain at once.

As a fun project, you can also let ChatGPT test your knowledge by creating personalized tests.

“I’m learning about [insert topic]. Quiz me with questions that evaluate my understanding. Identify gaps in my knowledge and provide explanations to address them.”        

Conducting content research deserves an article of its own. So, let me write about that in a future post.

Write the outline first!

Now that you’ve done your research about the topic, it’s time to articulate that knowledge in written words.

A common mistake many beginner writers make is starting to write from top to bottom. I’m not saying that’s wrong. However, I see many writings often struggle to get past the introduction or the first paragraph.

That’s where I find the root of writer's block.

You must have a clear idea about what you are going to write—a mental modal, a compartmentalized view, or simply an outline!

You must create an outline before starting to write anything. That’s the first rule you have to follow, and treat that as divine words. I, too, followed the top-to-bottom approach as a beginner. Then I realized that it took me a long time to finish one article, or in most cases, I abandoned it. Thanks to the advice I received from my former colleague, Shiroshica Kulatilake , I started following the outline-first approach.

To try that in practice, take a piece of paper and list down the sections you plan to include in the writing. For example, if you write about vector databases, start with the introduction, followed by the need, how they work, some real-world implementations, and conclude with a summary.

Don’t think your outline is set in stone—it can change to accommodate new ideas. You may want to tweak it by adding or removing sections as you think fit. So, spend some good time editing the outline until you are satisfied with it.

Write first, make it quick, and edit later

Once the outline is sorted, start writing and try to finish it soon.

This may sound unorthodox to most of you. But I fill up the outline as quickly as possible and edit the content later, preferably in another deep work session.

I sit down with a 50-minute Pomodoro timer, get myself into a deep work session, and start filling up the outline with unorganized and unpolished words. That helps me achieve a flow state in writing, providing a non-obstructed path for thoughts inside my head to flow through and become words. Sometimes, they can be clauses, sentences, or even bullet points. What matters the most is that you should include all the relevant information under the sections that you harvested in the research.

Trust me, I get the whole content done before that Pomodoro timer goes off. I believe you can, too!

Edit slowly as if engaged in a craft

Once you write the rough draft, give it some time—keep it aside for a few hours or even a day.

Then, block some focus time on your calendar to work on the edits. This time, take things slowly as if you were adding the final touches to a craft.

Re-read the content and start polishing your sections with proper sentences. You may add or remove certain things from the rough draft this time. That’s totally fine. Most often, I find editing is much more fun to work on than writing because the baseline has already been done. It’s all about adding your creative touches here and there.

For example, use this time to quote your research sources, draw beautiful diagrams, and craft smoothly flowing sentences—anything that adds value to the content.

Rinse and repeat the process until you are satisfied with the outcome. Finally, you will have your content ready.

The reason I asked you to separate editing from writing is that they are different practices, and each requires a different amount of focus, energy, and time. Let me explain that next.

The concept of deep work sessions

You may have noticed that I dropped the words “deep work sessions” and “focus time” a couple of times above. There’s a reason for that.

A deep work session refers to a period of focused and undistracted work on a cognitively demanding task. Coined by productivity expert Cal Newport in his book "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World," deep work involves concentrating on a single task without interruptions from external stimuli such as emails, social media, or other distractions.

During a deep work session, people strive to reach a state of flow where they can fully immerse themselves in the task at hand and achieve a high level of productivity and cognitive performance. To facilitate deep work, you can create a dedicated and quiet environment, set specific goals for the session, and eliminate potential distractions.

When I’m working on a piece of content, I spread the research, writing, and editing over several deep work sessions, each session stretching up to 2 hours max. I usually edit in the morning and do the rest whenever I find time. When you switch between sessions, you will feel your energy, focus, and creativity are replenished.

However, I’m not a “productivity guru” to advise you about work routines. But this is something that I’ve been practicing for several years, and it started to show me good results.

I will write about flow states in a different post in the future.

Wrapping up

Now that you’ve read the post, I believe I’ve taken you to a level where you no longer look at writing the same way you used to.

I think the biggest takeaway for you is to treat writing and editing as two—each requiring a different pace, focus, and methodology.

• Writing an outline first gives you a solid structure to work on.
• Quick filling up of the outline gets you moving and takes away the writer’s block (or whatever it’s called)
• Once the above two are done, you may find the slow-paced editing feels like engaging in a mindful craft.

In conclusion, creating content is a creative process that requires several iterations to complete, and it can’t be rushed.