Learning to write for a blog is a lot like riding a horse. It’s bigger than you and it can kill you. But once you get on, as long as you get in the groove you’re mostly okay. Until it throws you and you break something critical and swear you will never write creatively again. In that case, you dust yourself off and get right back on.
Recently, I was asked “So, how do you write”? and I stammered over the answer. Explaining something inherently creative isn’t easy. But it is possible. The last time I explained the writing process to anyone was a decade ago - and he was oozing adolescent angst and cared a lot more about the state of his complexion than essay structure…However, I am happy to share what I shared with my classes. I suspect this audience may even be more receptive.
Here’s the process:
- Tell them what you’re going to tell them.
- Tell them
- Tell them what you told them.
This seems to imply that your readership is stupid. Not so. Your readership is not stupid. But they are lazy and they want their reading to be nicely packaged: simple, easy, interesting. (I patently disregard all of those rules, because I have the good fortune to work for a company that humours me.) With the influx of information out there, you’ve got to be compelling in order for someone to make the decision to read your writing or move on to someone else’s.
My Four Rules for Writing:
- tell the truth
- tell it clearly
- tell it succinctly
- break rule number 3 all the time
The most important part is to know in your heart and fully accept the fact that not many people really care what you have to say. So just let ‘er rip.
While I firmly believe that writing should be a joyful and creative expression, I also know that it’s drudgery for some. My last job was as a Proposal Writer for a medical imaging company. The company’s lawyer came by and told three of us that we needed to take care of all the hemodynamic systems for now and move away from the “simplicity” of nuclear medicine. (Positrons, isotopes, and gamma rays…oh my!) Knowing very little about cardiology, we all threw up a little, and she said, “Come on guys, it’s not rocket science!” Right. It’s only heart surgery.
Being able to write creatively, where the choice between this word and that isn’t going to make any difference (SEO issues aside!) makes writing fun again. Fear stifles us in everything. When you apply a basic structure, then you can let yourself go wild within that structure. Before you realize it, you’ve written an article.
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