Deciding what to write about can be a big, overwhelming thing. Fair. But, it’s all about loading up on specific strategies to punch through it. Here’s another one that’s incredibly useful: the micro/the macro.
Say, for example, you are generally interested in writing something about a big event like a Presidential election, the upswell of the racial justice movement, a space shuttle launch, or, I dunno, a pandemic or the resulting stay-home orders, masks or travel restrictions.
First, try the macro: take the bird’s eye view of it, whatever it is, and expand it out as big as you can. That could look like, “The recent Space X launch to the International Space Station opened a new era in American space travel for NASA— one that, like just about everything else, is destined to be spoiled by private sector involvement.” Voila, suddenly you’ve pulled back from Space X and opened up a much broader conversation about tech billionaires, CEOs of industry, etc entering involvement in government agencies.
And, also try the micro: find the smallest detail on the topic that you possibly can find and see what you can extrapolate. That might look like, “The sequin toy brontosaurus astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley brought aboard the Space X launch earned them the ‘American’s favorite dads’ moniker, and it was a sweet moment to see even space-traveling parents making a point to connect to their children. But, it also brought forth an uncomfortable truth: if a female astronaut would have brought along a stow-away toy from her child, it would have undermined her credibility.” Boom, suddenly you’re writing about Space X, but you’ve let the sparkly dinosaur hand you a way in to a conversation about workplace double standards.