You're Overthinking It: The Content Fuel Framework

Are you stuck running in circles around a content deadline? Maybe your boss asked you to create a video, perhaps about the history of the company's CEO. Or, you need to find ways to keep your social media postings consistent but don't have any content. 

Planning content can be stressful but  did you consider that maybe you're overthinking the way you produce content? 

In Melanie Deziel's book, The Content Fuel Framework: How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas, Deziel proposes a new way to think about content, and how you are building stories. 

A common theme in content production is this: you know you want to write a blog, create a video, start a podcast, etc. You're wrong. You are overthinking the content without the most important component. What is your focus?

The fault in generating story ideas is the storyteller will start with the format (video, blog, infographics) and then choose their focus. This leads to storytellers telling the story in the wrong way.  Deziel suggests thinking in reverse. Generate unlimited story ideas by following The Content Fuel Framework. 

Deziels presents the perfect example. 

Create a list of 15 names. I'll give you a second. 

Ok, so you have 15 names. How did you come up with that list? You most likely categorized starting with your name, the names of family members, then moved onto friends names, and perhaps your colleagues. The key to Deziel's Content Fuel Framework is finding your focus, and then deciding which format you believe will best tell the story. In this situation, your focus was people, and curation became your format.

Deziel gives her readers a grid of 10 focuses and 10 formats. The purpose of the framework is to challenge content producers to think about their focus and the different formats the story can be told. This can help create content for social media, websites, podcasts, and more. Don't forget about your purpose. What is the tone or story you want to convey through your content? What format will best tell the story of the focus you have chosen? 

The point is, challenge yourself to think differently. Reading this book taught me a new way to rethink my content framework. I can think of instances where I fell victim to knowing my format, but struggling to find my focus, and the story is not told as effectively as it could have been. Find your focus, find your format, create endless stories.