Why do you write?

This is very awkward question. However, this question is not out of the box. People tend to ask you such questions when they know that you are in to writing and how you can be different from their profession, if they are holding on to something else for making their living. At the same time, you are also not oblige to answer this question but to be able to clear yourself and be able to understood by the larger crowd it is always good to have your reasons stated forward. That makes your life much easier and gets you off from the stupidity of this question. I know this question at a time can be very unpleasant yet the escape is difficult.

There are many good reasons for people to write and a few bad too. These reasons vary from people to people. Some people who are good at creating any form of writing and that has got market, he makes a living out of his writing. These are called the professional writers. There are other writers also who write but not for their living. Their profession is different from the one which they like doing i.e. writing. And if we compare the numbers of professional writers versus not the professional writers or amateur writers, I bet the later would outnumber the former. Especially with the emergence of Internet and Web Media the horizon have expanded horizontally and vertically in sheer numbers.

The professional writers have better place in the traditional media, publication houses, government and private firm’s documentation and communication department. On the other hand, amateur writers are driven by their whims and wishes, and write things of their mind. Obviously, amateur writers have been welcomed mostly in the new found media on the Internet, be it Citizen Journalism, Content writing, Product journalism, Blogs, or many other things, which are on the offerings every other days. I fall in to the category of amateur writer who happened to find a place in the professional writing world. The reason: the opportunity available in the job market and I could prove somehow that I can write. Otherwise also I like writing, so the job is of my liking.

As an amateur writer what drives you to write and publish on the Internet is really an interesting question. Most of my close encounters with my colleagues and acquaintances have provided me the bunch of their ideas as to why they want to write. Some of the ideas are really thought provoking and enlightening, some are humorous, some witty, and some of them aim to achieve something in life through their writing.

To one group, the idea to write is to make a statement, to share thoughts, to express themselves and finally to make a living! Though this is difficult proposition yet achievable. To many of the writers, they live with their writings but can not make decent living by writing. This fact is hard but has truth.

The second group, want to write and publish because they enjoy doing and that gives them an opportunity to think through an issue and provide new insight through their writing. They feel writing force them to think and make them more creative.

Third group believes that others writing are corny, so clean the bin with better writing. Moreover it’s a good way to improvise their English and the write-ups are saved on the Internet and can be re-used. They want to create something that might last longer than them.

To some writing is the expression of nostalgic thoughts, which otherwise can be lost. Writing supposed to be the best methods to record your say, others opinion, your imagination of future, your perspective of present and a criticism of past.

Some write to help or to enable people: To clarify, make something complex simple, to teach so that people can do things for themselves, be safer, may be even happier.

Some write as an expression of love: I love this world, the possibilities and beauty of it. They remain hopeful that we all might just somehow manage to get along without killing or hating each other. We might manage our ecosystem in such a way that equilibrium is maintained. Or, there would be one world where there will not be rich and poor divide. Truly, utopian to the core!

A little further, some write because they feel when they write they are honest to themselves. They create their own image and express themselves and in the process they believe that some part of their thought reaches out to the world and possibly touches the world to create small ripples of goodness.

To little extent some actually do write to create propaganda, confusion, ill effects and spread rumors. Though this kind of writing has immediate impact to a certain extent but does not have long lasting effect. It diminishes with the time. Whereas, good writing, always creates everlasting impact on our mind.

To some the meaning of writing might still be in formation stage and it will come up beautifully with the passage of time and with the blossom of season. Anyway, we all have a place in the world of writing; we just need to create it.

Your Strength of Writing

Is writing your strength? If your answer is yes! There is another question for you to ponder upon and answer yourself. What is the strength of your writing? Or, rather, what are the strengths of your writing? I believe these questions are very straight and you might be having very straight answers to these questions. Some of you can start listing down the answers as soon as these questions are put across.

Many of us can list down: Good Command over the language, Good Knowledge of Grammar and sentence construction, Good Vocabulary and list goes on. Many of us believe that we can achieve creating a good piece of writing if we have these ingredients as our weapon to use. To a great extent we are quite correct in our approach. However, we will be missing the larger picture if we don’t have the good thinking. To me good writing is about good thinking.

The powerful writing is not merely the selection of some special words, but the formation of good thoughts. This is the difference between an elegant prose written by a renowned author and an amateur writer. You may call it a great writing! It is in fact great thinking. To achieve any emotion and passion, words must reflect value-added thought. The reflection of good writing can be a visual part in any form, be it script, an article, an essay, an advertisement or a user manual.

Writers sell their writing because what they write about and not how they write it. Moreover this is a controversial statement and many of the people would not agree with me. But the point what I want to make is the content in your writing. Readers like to read piece of your writing because of your content. If the content is important, have appeal, value and mesmerizing effect, it is bound to sell.

Whereas if you have created writing and have made a brilliant display of your impeccable language skills but failed to address what are you trying to say through your writing then there is something missing. Do you believe it will create any interest among the readers? I doubt. Reader will lose interest in the middle and switch over to something else. So, a brilliant piece of language would not really sell.

For that matter, even the good content written in poor manner with grammatical mistakes and with poor presentation will not enthuse a reader to go through the end of the write-up. Therefore, the message is, a good writing should have a good content and good language.

So, your writing has to be a mix of good thought and good language. The question is how can you have both in your writing. Mind you, it’s not an easy task. But nothing is impossible. What should be the best practice to emulate these in our writing, which can add value to our writing legacy and command respect from the readers. The two principles what has worked for me very effectively are: critical thinking and rigorous editing.

I create my article with many passes. These passes are nothing but visiting and re-visiting the write-up for editing until I get satisfied that my message can get through the reader well. You can have a look how it goes.

First pass: Write down my thought without any hindrances.

Second pass: Categories the paragraph and reshuffle it up and down to create a real good story in readable format.

Third Pass: check for the language legibility, spellings and errors.

Fourth pass: Look into the article with intent to search for the inner beauty—Is it appealing to the reader?

Fifth pass: Go through hurriedly to note that even casual reading can make you understand the content of the write-up.

Sixth pass: Do you see any value in the write-up?

If satisfied, then finally passed to publishing. Off course these are my working steps, which has worked in favor of me for past few years at least creating a face value as a writer. It might work with you as well. Give it a try or else get a good working steps of your own which can establish you to be a better writer. Choice is anyway yours.