The Tsèz

A question, a dilemma and not an answer at all.

I’m back at Medium! Or at least, that’s what I’d like to think. I have to confess, the question that kept me from writing was the one so proudly stands as the title, and disclaimer, before we go any further, no, I haven’t got a definitive answer.

The few months that have passed since my last article have been all about discovering what to write, when to write and how to write, and I’ve been getting quite interesting resolutions.

The biggest change I had came when I signed up for the #Tweet100 challenge. For those who might not know what it is about, the premise is simple: tweet a good tweet for 100 days.

What made #Tweet100 so impactful for me, was that it made me face my biggest enemy: the lack of consistency.

Along my quite short adventure as a creator, I’ve had a few ideas that made me proud and excited of working in, however, my lack of consistency made them fall like a leaf falling from an autumn tree. (I’m not saying they won’t come back. For the moment, let’s say those leaves have flew away. [Hopefully on the next spring they will bloom again]).

100 tweets. 100 ideas. One each day. How hard can that be? Right?

Well, it actually is, specially if you start on the (wrong) perception that each idea should be uncommonly rare, very unique, peripatetic, poetic and chic.

As I mentioned earlier, my problem while writing (whereas #Tweet100, Medium or any other platform) was that I thought I needed to have a never-seen before idea, opinion or text.

That misconception fuelled my lack of consistency, I thought: “I need to get my ideas planned, and then, if I get to have the enough, I’ll start”.

Surprise, I never started.

Now, I’m on day 58 of the #Tweet100 and I can feel an habit forming inside me. But the point here isn’t the habit development, it is what to write about.

The first lesson: Don’t be afraid of writing opinions.

If you’re like me, you might think: “I need to be an expert in order to have an opinion”… wrong!

As long as you’re being serious, willing to learn and not scared of making mistakes, you can write and share your opinions.

Opinions can’t be wrong, the facts they state can, but an opinion is a personal belief and it is only yours.

The second lesson: You can get inspired by others.

Follow people that write about your topic of interest. The fact that it has been written about all gives us the huge advantage that we can find at least one person talking about our interests. However, this doesn’t mean you can copy them.

While reading what others have wrote may be useful to see the path we can follow, it doesn’t mean you can just come, see their content, change two words and post it as yours. That’s plagiarism. It’s a crime.

My best advice on this is: Want to see how the person came up with that idea? Contact them.

A few of the tweets I’m most proud of, were about to be text messages in conversations with persons that inspire me. Contacting people that write about the same topics you want to cover, will put you in an automatic mindset of passion, creation and learning, and let me tell you, there’s nothing like it.

The third lesson: A topic is never over-talked about.

“Oh no! Everyone talks about productivity!” “Oh no! Everyone writes romance stories!” “Oh no! Everyone is talking about that economics report!” Of course everyone is talking about everything, everyone has a voice.

The clue with this is to find your voice, your passion, your interests, and talk about them. You want people to read what you write? Post it.

See it this way: How would you have known you were interested in that topic if it wasn’t because someone wrote about it?

If that author didn’t publish that text, you wouldn’t have known about that already talked about topic.

The next time you feel you are writing about something “everybody” knows, think of that person that doesn’t know, and write for them.

Writing is learning. Writing is communicating. Writing is idea-sharing. And most important, writing is power.

My final answer, for the million dollar question, would be: Write about what you like. Don’t wait for inspiration, knowledge or an audience, each and every single one of them will come on the go.

Writing is a lighthouse, ideas are boats on a dark ocean, you just have to turn on that light, start that fire, and they will come, they always do.