Ask HN: How do you write effectively?

It's been a few years since university, but:

Coming up with ideas is an exercise in creativity. So you need to exercise your creativity. Brainstorm everyday try to come up with 10 topics, they don't need to be good. Optionally, prune them down to what you think is good, and summarize why you think so. When it's easy come up with 10 do 15, 20, etc. Eventually you'll have the creativity muscles of Stephen King :).

Not getting distracted is a matter of discipline. Set aside time everyday to write. Start small and work up (a few hundred words then work your way up to 2000+). Beyond that have a basic idea what you want to write. Outlines help immensely.

Hey! My two cents

2 sources of ideas: - Keyword Research (use SEM Rush, KeywordTool.io and AnswerThePublic; this is great for SEO)

- Qualitative Research with customers/leads (just send an email asking them what are their goals, challenges, obstacles, etc; that is a great way to start writing topics that your clients care about)

How to write fast - I try to copy the structure of similar articles and then fill in the blanks - I just sit and write as fast as I can - and then review and edit to make it better. I think that separating this two steps is a great way to write more - first you write, then you judge your content.

Another tip - I usually see more success writing fewer articles with higher quality (and word count!) - 2k+ words articles perform a lot better and can position you as a source of relevant and deep content

Hard to answer the ideas question without more context, but I'd focus on ideas related to something you are passionate/knowledgeable/curious/have an opinion about. It's so much easier to write a piece of content when you actually care about the topic and have something add to what's already out there.

As for writing, I find it super helpful to have a formula that I can repeat for multiple articles... again, depends on the topics you're writing about. Give yourself timeframes - you'll probably fail to stay within the limits at first, but it can often help to keep you focused.

It's hard to imagine having 10 important things to say to the world in a week.

If forced to do so, I would consider whatever is really important to my audience and write forthright, accurate information about those things.