How do I find my big ideas to write about?
A big idea is a subject you know well and could write about for years: the thing customers always ask you, the mistake you see people make, the way you do your work. With a handful of them, you never start a week with an empty page. Each week’s piece comes from one big idea.
The prompt
“Ask me a few questions about my work and help me find at least six big ideas to write about.”
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Big ideas and your weekly piece are part of Nautilus Medium and Nautilus Large.
The guided start
Choose Help me find my big ideas in the Workshop, or ask your own assistant through Bernard Social. Bernard asks you about your work, one question at a time. Each question is written for your business, from your site and your earlier answers, and says what it builds on, for example “From your shop page”. Answer in your own words, as long or as short as you like.
There are five to eight questions. Your answers are saved as you go, so you can stop and carry on later, on your phone or with your assistant.
Bernard suggests, you choose
From your answers and your site, Bernard may suggest a few big ideas, each with a short line on why. They sit on your list marked as suggestions. For each one, keep it, change it into your own words, or drop it. A suggestion counts as one of yours only once you keep it, change it or add a note to it. Up to twelve suggestions can wait at once; keep or drop some and Bernard can suggest more.
If you drop one of your big ideas, the coming weeks it had move on to your next big idea, and Bernard tells you which weeks changed. A week you have already scheduled stays as it is.
You can add your own big ideas at any time. A name can be up to 80 characters.
At least six
Six big ideas start your weekly piece. A few more is even better. You can keep up to twenty at once.
Your notes, in your words
Each big idea can carry notes: a story, a question a customer asked, a line you want to use one day. Bernard keeps each note exactly as you wrote or said it, and never tidies it. When a week’s piece is made from that idea, your notes go with it.
Next: one piece a week
When you have six, pick the day of the week your piece goes out: How does one piece a week work?. For how your posts are written, checked and scheduled, see What does Bernard do about my social posts?.
Questions people ask
- Does Bernard write my ideas for me?
- No. Your big ideas and your notes are in your own words. Bernard asks the questions and may suggest an idea from what you said and what your site says, but a suggestion stays marked as a suggestion until you keep it or change it. Nothing goes out until you approve it.
- How many big ideas do I need?
- Six of your own to start your weekly piece; a suggestion counts once you keep it or change it. A few more is even better, so the weeks have more to choose from. You can keep up to twenty at once.
- Where do Bernard’s suggestions come from?
- Only from what you told him in the questions and from what your own site says, such as your shop, your courses or your about page. He does not invent facts about you.
- Can I add a note later?
- Yes. Tell Bernard the thought, the story or the line you want to keep, and he adds it to that idea exactly as you said it, on a new line after your other notes.