A question-&-answer approach to writing

Truth be told, I’d always struggled with using an ideas pipeline for my writing. I know many writers do that and it works well for them. They have a Notion doc chock full of ideas and ideas built on ideas, and they never have to stare at a blinking cursor when they sit down to write.

I’ve tried creating the equivalent of that Notion doc in various formats—physical notebook, a spreadsheet, a note-taking app, random messages saved in Telegram app—but all didn’t work. Every time after I list out the ideas, I lose interest in writing them.

I could never figure out why it just couldn’t work for me.

Until I started writing on Quora.

I think the question and answer approach of Quora suits me really well. I respond well to the conversational aspect of Q&As. My best tweets are often inspired from replies to other people’s tweets. I find myself having and saying words I never knew I had, when I have a deep discussion with someone about a topic I’m passionate in; words which I would have never wrote down without the other party parrying back and forth with me.

Plus, I’m a big fan of collecting beautiful questions. There’s just something magical about a well-worded question, than an idea stated in absolute terms. Is it any surprise that I choose to be a consultant in my day job? The whole point about a consultant is to be consulted, to be asked questions and having to provide answers.

So instead of an ideas pipeline, I’m going to start keeping a questions pipeline. A Notion doc or notebook full of questions I would love to write answers for.

Questions related to problems creators have when it comes to developing a daily writing habit, problems they desperately want to solve. And I go write answers to those problems.

So, if you too are struggling with finding ideas to write about, try this:

Stop trying to find ideas to write about.
Talk to people in your niche or the problem space you’re in.
Answer the questions they ask regarding these problems.
Questions that you know you are interested in answering and have good answers for.

And go write them.