This is probably the most random of my posts in quite a while. However, I always post about subjects that have dominated my thoughts or attention throughout the previous week. And I must say that I have never really noticed so much as I have this week how it is such a cursed blessing to be a writer. Sometimes the words flow so easily from my fingertips without much effort at all and other times it is agony to find the words to communicate my points effectively .
Because I usually write about professional and informational subjects, I confess that too often I find myself re-editing my work until there is hardly a trace of my true style left in the finished product. But today, I’m not going to do that. The reason is because my target audience for this post is those aspiring and passionate writers who settle in a career as professional bloggers, content, and press release writers like myself. You are the only ones who will actually get what I am talking about.
Words
Every single piece of written material we produce is limited to the confinements of etiquette and the educational limitations of our target audience. It has to be. And yet I cannot help but wonder if the unwritten (or maybe they are written somewhere) rules cause too many of us to lose out on really reaching our audience in an impactful way.
I love to write about my work and about world issues… and yes, even the often perceived as less significant home life. I love to play devil’s advocate and shine light on a completely different angles of my subject at hand. All my life, writing has been both the thorn in my side and my faithful crutch I’ve used to try to make sense of the world.
The ridiculous myth that disables some writers:
Real writers who really give value to the world are those who do not surrender to the myth that nothing is original. Some actually give up on writing because they hear and actually believe this. I refuse to accept that.
It is such an absurd contradiction of the daily growth in languages all around the world. New words are added to the dictionary all the time. New phrases are getting perpetually rehashed in every high school or office building anywhere. New songs are written everyday.
What if Shakespeare has decided this was true? If he had, then we wouldn’t have the 1600 or 1700 beautiful words he contributed to the English language. Words like: amazement, compromise, dwindle, submerge, and torture are all words that were first recorded in his plays. There are many more… see: Words Shakespeare Invented
I have piles of notebooks and hundred of scrap pieces of paper with statements that compelled me to record and appreciate, resonate, or incorporate in our later work. (Again only a writer would understand what I mean.)
We servants of diction are forced to take mental notes and sometimes repost the most enlightening or meaningful of them on Facebook and Twitter. – On a side note… so many beautiful, powerful, and motivational things can be said in 140 characters or less.
I have promised myself to go ahead and bravely use more of our precious vocabulary in more of my writing from now on. I assure you I will probably not write quite this dramatically on a regular basis, but it truly feels refreshing to not edit myself… this time.
