Find Purpose in Your Writing by Asking These Four Questions

Rather than be obsessed with SEO, trends, and likes, focus on selfless service.

Beth Bradford, Ph.D.
6 min readOct 30, 2023
calligraphy pen on top of small book
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

After hearing yesterday’s news about Matthew Perry, I anticipated having to work on the “time-sensitive” story about his cause of death. I looked on the assignment board and was somewhat relieved it had already been taken. After all, the medical examiner doesn’t quite know what exactly led to his death. There was a part of me that wanted to write the story because he was my age, and he was very much a part of my 20s.

Then I moved to the other stories that were labeled “time-sensitive.” Were they stories about medical breakthroughs? The updates about the surge in COVID? No, there were four stories about daylight savings time ending. Is that news? No, not really.

I know that if I still worked in the news industry I would probably have to do a story about how people are looking forward to the extra hour of sleep that they would get that weekend. Then there would be another story about how to prepare for the change in circadian rhythm. The health reporter would interview a doctor about how the morning sunlight can prevent depression.

What is this feeding?

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Beth Bradford, Ph.D.

Former TV person, college professor and media researcher. Ironman triathlete, meditation teacher and yoga instructor. https://www.brad4d-wellness.com