[Tipster] Tips to Expand an Idea

tipster post Sep 24, 2021

In this edition of Tipster, our focus is on expanding your idea. 

A Tweet. A Facebook post. A blog post. A TikTok video. News articles. 

These are all types of short-form content.

Our culture dishes and gobbles up short-form content. It's easy to spit out 750 or less words or produce a 30-second video. 

You just need one idea, and maybe one or two supporting ideas. Or one grabby story.

Discomfort of Longer Writing

Writing longform (1,000-plus words), however, demands more from a writer. More words. More idea development.

This can be agonizing if you're comfy with short-form writing.

When you write a book - or if you want to write a book someday - you'll need to get comfortable with the discomfort of expanding ideas.

This is one of the main jobs of an author of a book: to help readers understand an idea in multiple ways.

5 Tips to Expand an Idea

Here are just a few ways to expand your idea ... without doing what we all did in high school (adding fluff to an already weak idea!):

1. State and deny the contrarian view to your idea.

As you state the opposition, and argue against it, you solidify your position.

In short, spend a couple sentences discussing the alternative and why it falls short.

2. Provide examples that illustrate your idea.

A story, for instance. Or a hypothetical situation. Or evidence from a study.

3. Quote someone else.

Stitch in a quote from someone who has stated something related to your idea - and explore his or her interpretation. And how it specifically supports your idea.

4. Use metaphor, imagery, or other literary devices.

This helps readers visualize the idea, or feel the idea in a fresh way.

5. Apply the idea.

Readers need to be able to see your idea's relevance and veracity.

One way to do this is to start with: "For example, ..."

There's so much more on this topic, but for now that's it. I'll address this topic again soon, since book writers need to be able to expand ideas if they want to write longform.

 

 

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