Validate Your Idea to Produce Your Best Project (Back to Basics)

[Ep 228] Before you get too far—before you write too much—you need to be sure this idea is going to fly with your audience. You need to validate it so you move forward with a concept that, depending on your purpose, will truly resonate, connect, teach, persuade, inform, or entertain. There are three main ways to go about validating your project idea. Validate “In House”: run it through personal filtersValidate through research: check out what exists alreadyValidate through audience: ask, survey, and test idea Validate “In House” The first method to validate it yourself by running it through personal filters. By that I mean you ask yourself if it fits with your brand, if it will serve your audience, and if it’s a fresh angle on your primary topics. You want to ensure you haven’t written about it before in this way. This may take only a minute or two, but sometimes we rush past it in our excitement over an idea that captivates us. If we skip this step, we may start creating wonderful content that draws an audience that isn’t interested in anything else we write. If I as a writing coach started producing content about style because I was interested in a trend I was seeing, I might write a successful article. Who knows? After an article about fall colors, I might draw a new audience of women who like to discuss shirts, skirts, and shoes. But if I pause and validate “in house,” asking myself if this is a good fit for my primary purpose and audience, I’d probably focus my energy elsewhere. After all, if I’m creating a place online for men and women looking for support with their writing, devoting a long post about red pumps and French braids might not be the best choice of content to spend time and energy developing. But let’s say it passes this initial “in house” test. You believe it's going to serve your audience well and you haven't explored this topic at length in the past. The next step is to do some research—see what else is out there on this topic.  Validate Through Research The main way to research is, of course, to do a broad search using a search engine such as Google to explore keywords, key phrases, key ideas, and key concepts related to your project's idea. I suggest you quickly jot down everything you know about this idea and what you think you want to say about it before the search. Then you can check out the articles, videos, podcasts, and memes that turn up in this search and compare those against your existing knowledge and slant. Don’t be discouraged if you find a ton of material—don’t assume it’s all been said before. In fact, that’s a good sign that people are searching for this kind of content and you can see how you’ll contribute to the greater conversation by bringing your unique angle—and that’s the key. As you explore what other authors, bloggers, and speakers in your niche have created, you can see how your project will be similar, but different...and you can offer your distinct perspective. Go back to the 6 methods of right-sizing your project to find a different slant if the one you had planned has already been covered. You can continue to work through those until you find that unique spin you can bring to this project. Pro tip: As you’re cruising the internet and clicking through to interesting content, be sure to grab all citation information while you're there. Because if you decide to include an excerpt of a piece in your own work or you decide to quote from an expert in the field from one of these articles, you want that citation information at your fingertips. Quoting people builds credibility and so does proper citation.  We told our high school debaters it's always good to bring an expert to the podium with you to raise your own credibility. I think it’s the same with writers—when we cite other sources, we bring a level of integrity and credibility to our work. That’s a way to get a broad look at what’s existing on this topic,