How to get the most out of Wondermaxx

Use it when

You know a topic well but have never written it down. If you are new to Wondermaxx, start here — it is the most forgiving mode and the one most people get their first piece out of.

Questions it might ask

• “What do you know better than most people you work with?”
• “Walk me through one time that went completely sideways.”
• “What's the advice you give that most people ignore?”

What you get

A publish-ready article with a specific title, a hook, and one clear through-line — plus the same material reformatted as a newsletter, a LinkedIn post, a thread and captions.

Best practices

• Start vague, then narrow

  Your first answer sets the territory; the follow-ups find the story inside it. Say the broad thing first and let it dig — do not open with your most polished point.

• Do not prepare

  A rehearsed answer is the one thing it cannot improve on. The best material comes from the follow-up question, not your opening answer.

• Finish the thought out loud

  The last sentence is usually the point. When you feel the urge to stop, say one more sentence — that is the one worth keeping.

Use it when

You have run a few interviews and want to know what to write next — or you are staring at a blank page with plenty of material and no idea where to start.

What it might surface

• “A strong opinion you mentioned once and never developed”
• “Two separate threads that turn out to be the same idea”
• “A question you keep answering for different people”

What you get

Five to seven fresh ideas, each with a specific angle, traced back to something you actually said — and a one-click route into a full interview on any of them.

Best practices

• Run it after three interviews

  It can only find patterns in material that already exists. One conversation gives it nothing to compare against; three gives it a point of view.

• Pick the idea you resisted

  The suggestion that makes you slightly uncomfortable is usually the one with a real opinion behind it. The comfortable ones are the pieces everyone else has already written.

• Develop it while it is warm

  Take an idea straight into an interview rather than saving it for later. The angle is fresh in your head now, and the context carries across.

Use it when

You want raw material to accumulate without committing to a big session, or you want to find out what you actually care about before deciding what to write.

Questions it might ask

• “What actually mattered today?”
• “What did that cost you — or give you?”
• “What do you want tomorrow to feel like?”

What you get

A short, honest journal entry for the day, filed into your Story Vault where you can revisit it by date — and over weeks, the recurring themes that become your best material.

Best practices

• Same time, every day

  Recurring themes only surface in your knowledge graph after a week or two of consistent entries. A streak of five beats one long session.

• Write the boring day too

  Flat days produce the honest material; dramatic ones produce the good stories. Skipping the ordinary days is what makes a journal useless.

• Never force a lesson

  Do not hunt for the takeaway. Say what happened and what it cost you — the meaning is the compiler’s job, not yours.

Use it when

You have a framework, a method or a body of expertise you could happily talk about for an hour — and you need it turned into a definitive piece rather than another short post.

Questions it might ask

• “How did you get into this, and what were you doing before?”
• “Walk me through your framework, step by step.”
• “Where do you part ways with what everyone else in your field says?”

What you get

A full episode draft — title, cold open, the conversation shaped into a narrative, and a closing takeaway — suitable for a podcast, a long-form article or a lead magnet.

Best practices

• Answer as if you are being recorded

  Long, unstructured answers. Every aside is material and every summary is a dead end — this mode is the one that rewards talking for an hour.

• Teach the framework out loud

  Walk through your method step by step, including the parts you think are obvious. The obvious steps are exactly what your audience is missing.

• Name your disagreement

  The moment you say where you part ways with your field is the most quotable thing in the interview. Do not soften it to stay polite.

Use it when

Something happened that's worth telling, and you don't want to lose the specifics of it. Also the right mode any time you need a concrete story to open a piece with.

Questions it might ask

• “Set the scene — where were you, and who else was there?”
• “What actually happened?”
• “What did it mean to you at the time?”

What you get

The story told properly, with the one detail that makes it vivid — stored in your Story Vault so you can pull it out years later and use it in any piece.

Best practices

• Give it the boring specifics

  Names, times, weather, what the room looked like, what someone was wearing. Detail is what makes a story land, and it is the first thing memory throws away.

• Record it while it is raw

  Save the story within a day or two, before your memory tidies it into a version with a moral attached. The messy version is the true one.

• Say what you thought then

  Not what you think now. The gap between who you were and who you are is the story — collapse it and you lose the reason anyone cares.

Use it when

You've had drafts before that didn't sound like you, or you are about to produce a lot of content and want all of it to carry your voice. Do this one early.

Questions it might ask

• “What do you love and hate in writing?”
• “How do you sound when you're not trying?”
• “What rules do you break on purpose?”

What you get

A piece written in your voice, plus a short note explaining the voice choices it made and why — a reference the compiler uses for everything you write afterwards.

Best practices

• Do this first

  Everything you compile afterwards is measured against it. Running Ghostwriter in week one is the single highest-leverage thing you can do in the app.

• Be unflattering

  Say what you actually hate in writing, including the things that make you sound difficult. A polite answer produces a bland voice guide.

• Break your own rules out loud

  Tell it which grammar rules you ignore and why — the fragments, the dashes, the sentence you start with And. That is what makes the voice yours rather than correct.

Use it when

You hold an opinion you want to be able to defend in front of anyone — a room, a board, a comment section — and you would rather find the holes now than in public.

Questions it might ask

• “State your position as strongly as you can.”
• “What's the strongest case against it?”
• “What would actually change your mind?”

What you get

A persuasive essay that argues your case and honestly addresses the best counterargument — the version of your position that survives being pushed on.

Best practices

• State it as strongly as you can

  It can only push back on what you actually claim. Soften your position and you get a soft essay that argues with nobody.

• Concede properly

  When it lands a good point, say so and say why. An acknowledged counterargument makes your case stronger, not weaker — it is the difference between an essay and an argument.

• Name what would change your mind

  Being specific here is what separates a genuine argument from a rant. If nothing would, say that — it is a legitimate position, just a harder one to hold.

Use it when

You keep explaining the same thing to different people and want it out of your head — or you are ready to package your expertise as a course, an ebook or a workshop.

Questions it might ask

• “Who is this for, and what should they be able to do at the end?”
• “What has to come before what?”
• “How would you know they'd actually learned it?”

What you get

A complete course outline — modules in order, what each covers, the exercises, how learning is assessed — and a finished prompt built from your own answers.

Best practices

• Start from the last person you taught

  Think of the exact moment they got confused. That moment is module one, whether or not it feels like the beginning to you.

• Order by dependency, not importance

  Ask what has to come before what. The most interesting idea is rarely the first one, and teaching it early is what loses people.

• Write the assessment before the lesson

  If you cannot say how you would know someone learned it, the module is not finished. It is also the fastest way to find the module that is secretly two.