There are various ways to approach content creation and each person tends to take a different approach for example, organizing "go-to" topics to cycle through or, having several backup posts written when not feeling like writing that particular day, and some have scheduled posts that are semi-automated based on the type - may do use hybrid strategies too. For me, I just sit down at the keyboard each day and wing-it, hoping that something will come to me.
This is easier said than done, but with practice (I have a little experience under my belt now) it can be a lot of fun, as it means being able to be reflective and reactive at the same time, as in the moment, we tend to present our current experience. This is an availability bias, which is also why some people struggle to create content, as they have nothing available that they recognize as potential content. Creative people rarely have this problem though, as they are able to make something from near nothing.
However, since I had a stroke a few months back, I have struggled more than I used to when it comes to writing, with something that was akin to breathing earlier, now more like having an asthma attack at times, where my creative lungs don't fill with enough oxygen. A large part of this is caused by my brain's current inability (possibly permanent) to automate the development of mental imagery, meaning that thoughts no longer just "come to me" attached to visual scene.
This is hard to imagine for most people I have tried to explain it to, as this is like breathing, as it is an automatic reaction to stimulus, but unlike breathing, it is very hard to hold our mental breath. This means that most people have never considered how their brain processes their experience. I have spent a fair amount of time thinking about these things in the past, and I still didn't fully appreciate the intelligence in the design of it, until I lost the ability almost altogether. Even then, it took me a week or so to identify what was missing.
Because of my own challenges and a conversation I was having on content creation last night (we reflect on and present our experiences), an old tool I developed to use with clients came to mind. I used it primarily as a vocabulary builder with lower-grade students, but it has other uses, including content creation, as it is able to focus on a topic and quickly associate ideas, which can be leveraged in a "pizza menu" fashion to direct the development of an article. There are other uses too.
I have written about this before and you can get some more uses here, but I will cut, paste and edit the basic directions from that post, to save me typing them out again. It is just a word association exercise, except it branches from one stem word (the primary) where related words are added (the secondary) and then associations are made on the associations again (the tertiary). I call it PST for short.
Primary, Secondary, Tertiary.
Primary - Core word / idea / image / problem
Secondary - 5-10 associations made off the primary
Tertiary - 3-5 associations made off the Secondary
The process will take about 5 minutes max, and will create ~50 words or so that are all somewhat related to the central stem topic. These can be used in several ways to either get the mind working, order thoughts, combine for new thoughts, or create a logical presentation flow. Starting with one or two of these before writing can make the entire process much more efficient. I have students that use this daily for their presentations and will make one for each core section of their presentation. Multiples can also be tacked on top of each other for much larger projects.
Easy as, eh?
When it comes to content creation on Hive for example, I believe a lot of people make it very hard on themselves as they think they have to have some "amazing" topic to write about. However, anything can be interesting if it is well-presented and there is some thought put into leading the reader. The trouble is, that many don't really want to do a lot of thinking, so something like this might help them get the mental juices flowing and provide a structure to build upon.
While in the past I could write a post in my head in a minute and then spend the next hour or two fleshing it out on the page, with the inability to visualize, it now means very conscious effort to cerate the images, so writing a post takes me almost twice as long as it did. For those that think what I do is easy for me, you are sorely mistaken and it has become a magnitude or two harder in recent months.
But it is funny, I actually have techniques such as this one that I know work and could help me, but they just haven't come to mind or, I haven't utilized. One of the reasons is that in my head, I am still able to do what I have always been able to, even though my body says, "no" most of the time. I have lots of little games like this that can help, that I should probably employ more now that I am mentally incapacitated. They should also help me focus, but I am not ready for the crutch quite yet, but it is nice to have them in the back pocket and for those who may be struggling, building processes of creation will go long way to developing habits of creativity.
While I am sure there are some genetic elements of creativity where people are "born with it", this doesn't mean that it is impossible to learn how to improve our creative thinking. However, since most of us don't spend much time thinking about thinking, let alone reflecting on our personal processes and working out how we can improve them, a lot of our potential is lost. While luck plays a part, much of our success is dictated by the process use for luck to play a role. As @themarkymark said in a comment this morning, it is all about timing, but I would add that being ready at the right time is about preparation, so that when that time comes, our resources are aligned with the opportunity and then, we can pull the trigger.
I will end with a different way to use PST that could be useful if wanting to reflect on something personal. Put the topic in the Primary position and honestly start adding the Secondary word associations. In the Tertiary ring, add your feelings. Then do it again and associate your ideals in the Secondary then in the Tertiary ring, add what you are going to do about it. What do you get if you put - Hive, Content, Engagement, Personal Finance, Crypto, Friends or Family in the Primary position?
What happens if you put "My relationships" there?
As I have said many times before - writing is a cathartic process for me, meaning that it gives me the space to think and reflect on my experiences, as well as process my feelings without having to have them be reactive physically. Having tools to manage our own world not only helps us align ourselves with where we want to be, but also can help us find the space and the energy to support us taking the steps to get there.
I know that most people will not even attempt this simple exercise. But like most things in life, that is why most people struggle to generate value for themselves. There are plenty of tools we can use to improve ourselves and our outcomes, but nothing comes for free - we have to invest ourselves at the very least.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Went for a walk with Henry a couple of days ago, we were just chatting about random stuff, when he mentioned that term 3 is light green.
I figured he was mentally picturing a calendar in the classroom; but I asked a few more questions and it turns out he has synesthesia. Numbers, letters, months of the year, days of the week; they each have a colour that appears in his mind when he thinks of them.
Around 1 in 20 people have it, and I'd heard of it before, so it wasn't too big a surprise. The real surprise was his; as he assumed everyone thought that way.
The most fascinating revelation was that most concepts were lighter shades, as his background consciousness is a very dark grey, almost black; and so they're lighter for contrast. Generally the darker the colour of a concept the less he wants to focus on it.
That is awesome! I didn't know it was so prevalent.
I wonder if because of it, he has more ways to process information. Do people with it have better memories and perform above averagely?
The brain is pretty incredible in the way it is able to not only process things, but discover different strategies to process, without having external direction. When I was in the midst of the stroke and couldn't remember the names of my family, my brain started running games in an attempt to recover the information - things like running through the alphabet to see what letters were familiar and thinking of scenes where names may have been used. My brain was also in a bit of an internal panic though, so it was not very effective, as while it tried, it failed over and over to find an outcome.
I wonder if your son is able to improve it even further through training?
Sounds like a full reset/reboot. Like your brain woke up and had to rediscover the most basic things about itself. I wonder how much of that happened before you (self aware you) woke up. Fascinating.
Really glad you're still with us, and recovering so well.
He said there are a couple of letters in the alphabet that don't yet have a colour, so we're trying to give R a sort of deep mahogany, just by force of will.
15 is a bright crimson, and probably always will be. (Multiples of 5 are different shades of red.)
Funnily enough, he said they usually stay constant, but the number 3 was a dull yellow when he was younger, but at some point he realised it had changed to a dull pink.
Also 3pm has a completely different colour; since the quantity and the time are in completely different categories.
Haha! I had no idea it was even a thing!
Some great advice. For me, content is never an issue as so much of what I do tends not to follow the prevailing current.
What I do struggle with is formulating a concise outline of how I want my material to be presented.
I will give your method a try as the 5 minutes and 50 or so words it would take to organize my thoughts sure seems like a good investment of my time.
I hope that as time passes your health improves and you find yourself in a better place.
Although all that you have gone through over the past several months may have made it more difficult to write, you would never know it when reading your final draft.
Try it and then break the words into themes that have a logical flow.
Draft? :P I freewrite for the most part and what I struggle with now is tying off ends and bring it all together. Normally, I end back at the start after exploring a little in between. it is a struggle to not leave threads hanging.
I don't know how some people write in advance and schduled for posting.I whenever write ,should be continued till end and just post.This way i get more thoughts and ideas for my contents. I think it should be a great practice .
Depends on the topic and the person. I prefer to freewrite on the fly too
Yeah, sometimes it is hard to find new ways to say similar things, if you are specific topic driven. We all need to explore more. I will have to try your 50 word idea. Makes sense.
It is a bit of fun too and if willing to use it for the personal exploration, very useful to focus - There are lots of ways to tweak it also =)
Wow. Sometimes I feel a bit challenges reading your lengthy posts but this one was exceptional. Was able to read it without feeling tired. Thanks for this.
Hopefully it is useful for you.
I struggle to write short posts :)
I took an advertising class in college and they taught us something similar to PST. It was called mind mapping. You would start with a piece of paper and write the product you wanted to sell or the problem you wanted to solve in the middle. Then you would draw branches out from the middle, with each branch containing a separate concept/detail/theme/etc about that main item. And then you would draw more branches out from those branches and just kind of see where your brain would take you. It was actually a very effective tool for generating ideas.
Yeah, this is a similar process, with a little more focus. I would demo it in class by getting the group to do the brainstorming on a topic they knew but I didn't and then based on that, give an on the fly presentation with a minute planning to read. While there is no way it could make me a product expert, I can "sound believable" from a presentation perspective, which means a knowledge expert would have no issues. Since I was training predominantly non-natives (Finns), it was very useful for them.
I believe a lot of people make it very hard on themselves as they think they have to have some "amazing" topic to write about.
I think that the content creation is about one's life. For example, what have you done today? If nothing interesting, therefore you think it would not be interesting for others as well and you wouldn't post.
Perhaps this is part of the problem, where people are unable to recognize what is interesting in their lives anymore. I find that the people who passively consume the most, have the lowest curiosity and creativity.
Tools are there to assist, time effort and practice make it easier with time.
Your short example in achieving makes logical sense, I must be honest I have never seen this previously, I like it!
!PIZZA
As far as I know, it is my own invention. I originally designed it as a vocabulary activation exercise, but adapted it for different purposes in client sessions :)
I forget to send !PIZZA
Simple to remember for future, growing it out yet keeping on track.
Good to see you learning more about recent event and how it has affected you, drawing on previous knowledge to enable more stability.
Now you remained me of the Undisputed 3 ending:
from reader's perspective your writing skills are as good as they were before.
But now I am curious what your shitpost would look like. I imagine that you would still write 300+words😜
haha - I have never seen that.
I struggle to shitpost and when I do, they aren't much shorter - just different kinds of content :)
Thank you for sharing this :)
Hopefully you use it and it helps you :)
Am so inspired with this piece of writing and thanks for sharing boss @tarazkp
Will you use it though?
I'LL will try my possible best boss
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I will try it, for real. Just looking at the process, it looks complicated, especially when you put a long string of things - Hive, Content, Engagement, Personal Finance, Crypto, Friends or Family in the Primary position. Yikes.
But, it should be interesting. No time limits, right? :)