Hi Reader,
Whether you're writing copy and content for money (as I do), writing on a schedule on social media, or creating a newsletter, you're going to find that deadlines and client demands invariably conflict with your internal motivation.
You're going to run into periods of time where you don't feel like writing but you've just gotta get stuff down on paper.
I'm stuck in one of those (prolonged) stretches as we speak. Unlike my borderline manic phases where I'm just overloaded with ideas, lately I've been struggling to come up with meaningful subjects to write about.
I feel like I've tried everything. I've read more and expanded the scope of my usual reading material. I've mined my old content for new approaches to familiar topics. I've gotten out of the house and tried some new things. Hell, I even tried the most cliche advice of all time and took a walk or two.
Nothing's worked.
So, as a last ditch effort, I figured I'd write about a technique you can use when you feel like you've got nothing to write about and those deadlines are slowly (or quickly) creeping up on you.
Zooming in and out
I was reading a few books about writing narrative nonfiction when I came across this genius strategy for finding new perspectives on an old topic.
In his book StoryCraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction, Jack Hart repeatedly describes a technique he refers to as zooming. Basically, he fixes his gaze on a subject, writes about him or her, but then "zooms out" to get a birds-eye view of that subject's environment and context.
So, for example, if he was writing about a dockworker, he might zoom out to consider and write about the operations of that entire dock. He then might zoom out again to write about global logistics or trade and how they impact his subject. Then he might zoom way in again, into the mind of his subject, to get a psychological point-of-view from inside his subject's head.
In the past, I've found this technique to be useful for gaining a new perspective on something I've written about previously.
Like, if I've written about a particular true crime podcast, I could "zoom out" and write about the concept of true crime in general. If I'd written about a particular case I was involved in as a prosecutor back in the old days, I could zoom out to write about the criminal justice system generally, and how broader trends gave rise to that case.
Zooming in and out is closely related to the idea of perspective.
While a "zoomed in" view of a subject is associated with the first-person, a "zoomed out" view is much easier to write from the third-person.
Zooming in to a subject tends to give a more personal, psychological story. Zooming out tends to give you a more impersonal story about broader systems and trends.
This isn't just helpful when you're trying to get a new take on an old topic. Using it within a piece of work is helpful.
The first time I saw it done - that I can remember clearly, anyway - was in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (which I read all the way back in high school). Steinbeck alternates chapters between those following the individual subjects of his story with chapters dealing more abstractly with the broader issues impacting those subjects.
He zooms in and out throughout the novel, giving you a more complete picture than you would have if he had stayed zoomed into the Joad family or exclusively focused on the economic and social context of America in the 1930s.
To see this technique used well in nonfiction, check out David Simon and Ed Burns' The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood.
The reporters and authors do much the same thing as Steinbeck did so many years ago. They zoom into the McCullough family before zooming out to address broad, systemic forces that limit and guide the lives of their subjects. They repeat this process for the entire book, giving you a first-hand look and a birds-eye view of the War on Drugs in the US in the late twentieth century.
Unblocking your writer's block
So, the next time you're staring at a blank page and your deadlines are coming up on you faster than you would like, try picking a subject you've previously had some success with and zooming in or out on it. See if you can find a new psychological (zoomed in) or systemic (zoomed out) angle on it.
Better yet, try to incorporate both perspectives into a single piece about your subject. It's a great way to add variety and flavor to your writing without forcing you to range too far afield in search of a subject to write about.
I'm about to give it a try right now. I'm going to see if I can give my Medium publishing schedule a little kick in the ass. Wish me luck!
Thanks for reading,
Steve
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