If you have a desire in you to write, one of the hesitations you may think you have is what to write. The challenge is not really what to write but I believe aspiring writers are more conscious of criticism than actual writing. When you remove your focus from what people will say about your writing  to actually writing, you will find out you have articles, novels (fiction and non-fiction), poems  and perhaps other genres within you.

However, if you still feel you don’t know what to write, here are four ways of finding what to write.

Write what you know

In your journey of life, you may have had some experiences people can learn from. There are things you probably know how to do that some people are yet to know. For instance, it is possible that you may have had several conflicts in your life which has taught you how to manage conflicts. There are people who need to manage their emotions during conflict looking for who to learn from. So you can actually write about your experiences and what you have learnt from them. As an aspiring writer, you should carry a notebook around such that as you reminisce your past, you can write down what you would want to write on.

Write what you want to know

I know some writers advocate aspiring writers should write only what they know. I am not disputing but I would say aspiring writers should write both. From experience, I know there are topics I want to know and writing about them has helped me know more. For instance, writing on Parkinson’s disease helped me know about the disease and the challenges the patients face. I bet there are people who want to learn as much as they can about Parkinson’s disease who would read the article and appreciate the information given. I am sure there are a quite a number of topics you want to know more about. Go ahead, research them and write them for there are readers who want to know about them as well.

Write what you think your readers want

I am writing this article because I think some people who ought to be writing are not for they think they do not know what to write. Someone or an incidence may indirectly make you think your readers may want to read on a topic. When you start thinking so, do not brush it away; rather sit down and flesh up the topic.

Write what you found out your readers want

One way of finding out what readers want is through the comments they leave on your articles or other writers’ articles. Other ways of finding out what readers want are through yahoo buzz, yahoo answers, google suggestions and google trends. Some readers are actually bold enough to communicate to you what exactly they want to know.

If you consider these approaches, you will realize that as an aspiring writer you have a lot to write on. However, as you develop, you may begin to understand the genres where your strength and preferences are; then you may decide to specialize if you so wish.

So stop hesitating and start writing! Your life and the lives of people around you will give you enough to launch out.

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Image by Magomed Magomedagaev @ Dreamstime