Notion database for article dev

Weekends are dangerous for me. I get sucked into new projects that sometimes go nowhere. I’m hoping today’s project won’t stall and drop like the proverbial lead balloon. It has potential.

It started with a spreadsheet I made yesterday on Google Docs. I realized I could make a 3x3 grid to develop article ideas. The grid lays out the eight different parts of the article template I use plus a title. The spreadsheet rearranges the squares into an outline I can then paste into an editor and start drafting. It worked like a charm. I took my first abandoned article on Medium and broke it into three different article ideas: meal kits for single people, couples, and families. That article started off as “everything I know about meal kits” and has now become three outlines for specific audiences and their needs.

But I soon realized it will be cumbersome to keep creating new worksheets. Dare I say it? It’s time for a database.

The 9 Square Template

So I spent my morning creating a Notion database that’s similar to a Zettelkasten I abandoned. Records in the database can be 🔘 an index, what I’m calling 9️⃣
a 9 square, or ⏹️ a square.

• The indexes contain article ideas, here called 9 squares.
• The 9 squares are article ideas and each contain nine topics laid out in a 3x3 grid.

| TITLE | EMPATHY| ACTION |
| USER Lead | USER Rival | USER Ally|
| NEED Goal | NEED Flaw | INSIGHT |

The nice thing about this is I can work on articles individually, or develop articles using either a top down or bottom up approach.

Bottom Up Development with Orphans

The database can have orphans that are listed by a special index record called “Lil Orphan Index”–it shows squares that aren’t indexed by anything else.

• If I have an idea for a title but no idea what it means, I add it as a title not indexed by anything.
• If I notice a viewpoint out in the world that seems unhelpful, I can add a USER Rival record.
• If I have an insight I can drop it in as a free-floating insight to develop later.

Top Down Development with Indexes

The indexes can be used to generate connected article ideas without necessarily assigning any content to them, not even a title. For example, next year I want to publish 52 articles about writing fiction. I have a list of 52 topics–like character, vignette, and theme–which I’m adding to an index called 52 Weeks about Writing Fiction. I can create the 9 square article stubs without really having any particular insight about them. Then as I come up with an idea, a problem, or a solution I can start to flesh out the parts. So, for example, as I’m reading a story and have an insight that you shouldn’t introduce characters until they are important to the story. That’s now the insight in my “character” focused article for the 52 week project. That becomes the seed for a fully fleshed-out article.

Individual Articles as 9 Squares

When I’m ready to flesh out an article I work from the page view for the 9 square. I fill in each part of the grid with a sentence of two. This gives me the ability to compare related squares. For example, the Rival should be related to the Flawed viewpoint. That’s what makes them the rival, they have a rival viewpoint that will interfere with the goal. Likewise, the Ally is related to the Insight.

I could also generate new orphans while writing an article. I might have an insight that doesn’t belong in this article. I can add it then unassign it from that article so it becomes an orphan.

Then I can write each part of the article by opening one square at a time and writing more deeply about each topic. I lose a bit of efficiency since I’ll have to copy and paste the individual parts into the Medium editor later, but that’s not a huge inefficiency compared to the time I hope to gain keeping ideas organized.

It’s a bit ambitious. I could have simplified things by focusing on just three parts: audience, pain point, and solution. But I’m going to try it out for writing articles next year with this 52-week project.