How to Create an 'Evolution' of Content

Great writers are great iterators.

They know that the thing they just published is a springboard for their next iteration of content. A never-ending loop to craft their best work.

If there was one misconception that killed my writing in the early days it was thinking that the thing I just posted stood by itself, treating each piece of content as an island. In reality, they are all connected like neurons in your brain.

Today I’ll show you the technique I use to craft content from pieces I’ve just published which means I have a never-ending content loop.

Let’s get into it.

Step 1: Write untethered and free

I’ve said it a million times, the best writing is the writing you get lost in, the writing that makes you feel like you are doing something with your thoughts.

I often get asked ‘how do you come up with stuff to write about?’ and most of the time it comes from observing the world.

I think a lot (probably too much). All I have to do is pick one of those thoughts and explore it deep enough to write an article. It’s a habit to practice but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be writing more stuff than you know what to do with.

• Find a thought
• Explore it deeply
• Write those ideas down

Once you have written a few posts, you’ve got some writing to work with, and here’s where it gets interesting.

Step 2: Speed-read & locate 'seed' ideas.

Every article you write contains ‘seeds’ of new ideas.

Once you’ve written a few pieces, the art is reading through them all at pace. Speed read through the pieces of content you’ve written over the last week or so and ask yourself:

• What stood out to me?
• What phrases made me stop?
• What parts did I re-read again?

The trick here is to pull at what grabs your attention. Try not to consciously stop yourself (it’s tricky but you’ll get the hang of it) instead, look for the things that pull you without you thinking about it.

I did this recently with a piece, I was scrolling through an article and this section caught my eye:

I was pulling on a frustration that a lot of content feels lifeless and hey presto, that’s my starting point.

Step 3: Expand the idea by asking 'depth questions'

Most people stop before the idea gets good. The trick is to expand your thinking.

You can expand an idea by asking big questions of it.

Often when you write, you are sprinkling a million different ideas onto the page. It’s up to you which way you take them. Each article I write has hundreds of paths I could walk down, you find those paths by asking good questions.

If you’re stuck, here are some questions you can ask to turn ‘seeds’ of ideas into a full-blown article:

• What do I really mean by this?
• Why do I think this is happening?
• What is the real reason behind this?

In the example above, I’m talking about lifeless writing, that people don’t write about the stuff they care about. If I ask myself better questions (like above) and I come to a new conclusion:

People write the stuff that they think people want to hear.

Step 4: Rewrite with confidence

Remember, every idea can be rewritten into something new.

I took this idea that people are secretly writing for other people, secretly seeking validation. As if to appease their audience, but your audience doesn’t want that.

They want confidence, truth, and guidance.

So I created a new piece, a piece that spoke to this very idea, that great writing isn’t about what you think other people want to hear, it’s what they need to hear. It’s what you needed to hear.

Here’s the piece I wrote. $62 in a week, not bad (and remember, that article will continue to earn me money for weeks, months and years to come).

Just like that, my content has evolved. I’ve iterated.

It’s not new, it’s subtly evolved

This method means you don’t need to constantly churn out completely new ideas.

Instead, you iterate. You build content by constantly asking questions of your own thoughts.

That’s an evolution of content.

That’s a complete reframe from starting from scratch.

So when you go to sit down at 6am to write today’s content, remember, you don’t need a completely fresh idea. You can use the ‘seeds’ of ideas hiding in your content.

It means you’ll never run out of stuff to write about.