Writers aren’t mindless robots who create documents without emotion or conviction — or at least they shouldn’t be. One of the most important things you can do as a writer is to look for a conversation that will hold your interest as you work on your writing project.

Analyzing an assignment will help you think of general topics that interest you and that fit your writing situation. Even if you are assigned a specific topic, you can almost always find an approach that will engage you and still accomplish the goals of the assignment. In fact, most successful writers have learned to deal with “boring” topics by creating personal or professional connections to them. Essentially, they try to convince themselves that they actually care about a topic — and in many cases, they end up developing a genuine interest. You can do this by generating ideas and asking questions about potential topics, taking care not to rule out any topics until you’ve given them a chance.