Because of the nature of my work in writing web content and articles about subjects I know very little about, or have not even heard of, people will ask me how I am able to pull it off.

How can I write about bubble-making machines and growing organic wheat and the real estate market or even how to make peanut oil when I have absolutely no knowledge of it?

Well, writers are all-knowing creatures. All we have to do is think of something and the knowledge trickles into our minds from the universe like those bubble-making machines.

No, I’m just pulling your stockings. Writers have one common facet. We have become experts at research. Once we’ve read enough, and for every writer that “enough” varies, we can start writing with some semblance of knowing what we are trying to convey. Then it comes down to our ability to reveal what we’ve learned.

Researching First

Researching a subject is actually pretty easy, especially in the Google age. Then again, the sheer plethora of information can make your brain throb and your eyes drip.

Sifting through all that information usually takes the majority of my time. Finding reliable sources can be difficult because in these days of “Anyone Can Write Whatever The Hell They Want”, good information has become merely a matter of opinion.

There are some sources like Wikipedia, who are fairly reliable. Yeah, Wiki has taken some hits because anyone can edit and that vulnerability has made Wiki’s information seem suspect. But I also see the advantage to that, and the makers of Wiki certainly must have seen it, too. Experts who actually know what they’re talking about can correct any misleading information. Like teachers correcting their students. To me, that is an advantage - and one I’ve actually utilized to correct Wiki errors.

The point is when you cross-reference your information and weigh it one against the other, you eventually find enough reliable and proven material to work with.

Making Your Point

After you’ve sifted and sorted, then comes the most difficult part – putting your own spin on the information you have, using your own voice, and calling it your own.

Sometimes I labor to get things started trying to find my own angle on a subject. Do I want to talk about the amazing elements involved in making bubble gum? Or should I go into the nitty-gritty details of how the machine works? Or should I make it fun for myself and talk about all the ways to love bubble gum?

If you have all the details, you’ll have a good foundation from which to write. Knowing more about the subject than what you actually write is never a bad thing – unless the hunting and gathering become more important than the eating.

I’ve had to write articles about the most mundane and boring things … well, to me. Ironically, many of the subjects I groaned about turned out to be super fun. Because I put the spin on it that made me happy.

I once had to write a 1500-word article for a greeting card company about greeting cards. Really … greeting cards … 1500 words? Ugh! OK, it’s a job. Hmm. They’re made from paper - um. They have pretty poems – yawn. How do you find them … duh! All the obvious things you could say – blah, blah, blah … zzz. What is a person trying to say when they use them? A-ha! That they care, they’re thinking about someone, and they want them to know. What’s that boil down to? Kindness.

I wrote about the random acts of kindness that greeting cards convey. I didn’t get credit for that particular article, but I was proud of how it turned out.

So, which bubble gum route do you think I’d go with? Well, yeah! The fun one. Which one would you go with? That’s entirely up to whatever direction your fingers and mind take you.

Whatever you do with all that research, you’ve got to make one main point. Just one. Let the other relevant points that support that one main point trickle through, but only to support your one main point.

Now for Beginnings…