The power of sharing ideas can come from a simple and old school method called writing. It’s strange how simple things are so big in terms of impact.
I would never said that writing has this powerful outcome of changing peoples lives, starting with the writer.
I learned to write when I was very young but never felt this power before. I think when I wrote in school most of the time it was soulless and what can carry more joy than share something that comes from inside? And by inside I mean whatever sparks in you, what you are interested in.
It shouldn’t be a final statement, that’s often a mistake made by inexperienced writers. I did this at the beginning. I thought everything I’ve wrote had to end with a super conclusion or it didn’t had value.
Actually things don’t work like that, maybe in a book not on a post, at least, not always.
So as you let go this fear of reaching this super conclusion and start to have conversations instead, you’ll step up your game. You can compare writing to a conversation in a lot of ways. A conversation doesn’t have to end, it can be left open sometimes, it can be just about sharing a thought, sharing your day, a trip you’ve done, or just talking about things that you are interested in and you’ll get value from it. Writing is all about that, just in a different medium.
But writing is still harder than a conversation for me, maybe because I don’t do it as often as I have conversations, or just because I care more about what I write than what I say. But there are writers that don’t have filters at all when writing and in person they are shy. There is a place for everyone I believe, as long as you share what interests you, you’ll get an audience.
I’ve met the joy of writing and I’m very happy for that. Most people I know think of writing as a talent that you’re born with or not. As most of the things writing is learnable, everybody can learn how to write. And you should do it, because it is one of the most powerful tools to share your ideas and thoughts with whoever cares.
But it’s a shame this old tool, with thousand of years*, is only used by few.
On Writing Well, it’s an awesome book full of great advice to improve the craft of writing. William says exactly that good writing is not natural.
“Good writing doesn’t come naturally, though most people seem to think it does”
But is a result of hard work.
“Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident”
At school I was terrible at writing, I never thought I would write later in my life but here I am writing, learning and improving.
One of my 2017 goals is try to write every other day. So compared to last year where I wrote only a few times this year I will write more often. I hope to get more clear thinking so can be more clear when writing, as William says:
Clear thinking becomes clear writing
*It is generally agreed that true writing of language (not only numbers) was invented independently in at least three places: Mesopotamia (specifically, ancient Sumer) around 3200 BC, China around 1500 fBC — Wikipedia