Words on a page

… in one or two or even three styles or areas doesn’t mean you can tackle other types of writing. I was reminded of this when reading a blog post by my pal Tom Johnson.

Tom, a well known blogger and technical writer, recently discussed a week he spent in his employer’s marcomm department. Tom noted:

Apparently the ability to write a blog post doesn’t always translate into the ability to write other sorts of communications.

You shouldn’t expect to be able to do that. Let’s face it, you just can’t always jump into a new form of writing. Before you do that, you need practice. You need mentoring. You need education, even if it’s self education. Even then, being successful (or even effective) is definitely not a lock.

I know some good writers who can’t do marketing communications. I know a few communications professionals who can’t write good documentation to save their lives. I know technical communicators who can’t write a very good article or blog post. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t good at what they do. It could be that they can’t transfer their skills to another form of writing. Or maybe their minds are locked into one form of writing and they can’t break free of those shackles.

Trust me, I’ve been there. While I’m a fairly good writer of non fiction and documentation, I’ve never had much luck with fiction. I worked at it for quite a while, but I could never get the skills down. That said, I did learn a few things from trying to write short stories that I’ve been able to use in writing non fiction.

Writers, like everyone else, have limitations. Sometimes you can’t overcome those limitations. If you try and fail, will be a better person and (I hope) a better writer for it. Give other types of writing a try. If they don’t work out, pick yourself up and dust yourself off. Then focus on your strengths. Improve in the areas in which you excel.

Thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment.

Photo credit: drakis from Photoxpress

Daily life is full of distractions. And those distractions can get in the way of you writing a killer (or just good) blog post. Why not eliminate some of those distractions and do your blogging offline?

Step Away From the Keyboard

Blogging offline. That doesn’t seem to make much sense. Blogging is supposed to be done while connected to the Internet, isn’t it?

That’s the theory. The reality is a lot different. Think of all the distractions in your daily life: phones ringing, people asking for whatever, mail or courier deliveries, the lure of TV. Add email, sites like Twitter and Facebook, and instant messaging to that mix and you have a some great ways to not get work done.

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I’m tired. I’m not inspired. Everything I tap out is garbage. The stars aren’t right.

Well, tough. Ditch the excuses and get writing. Writing is a habit (OK, it’s more than that), and it’s definitely something that you need to do every day.

It doesn’t matter if you write 100 word or 1,000. Just get them on paper or on screen. If they don’t come out in the way you want them to, edit them later today or tomorrow. Remember that editing is one of the keys to good writing.

If you find excuses not to write, those excuses will quickly become a habit. A very bad one. If you don’t write every day, you won’t improve. Worse, you’ll miss deadlines and maybe even lose gigs — whether now or in the future.

Ask yourself whether you’re serious about writing. If you are, then write. Even if you don’t feel like it.

Time to take a trip down memory lane …

As you probably know, I’ve been writing professionally for quite a few years. In the early days, I gathered together quite the collection of rejection slips. Far more rejections than assignments, by a wide margin. It was, at times, disheartening but I soldiered on.

Over the years, I’ve met more than a couple of people trying to get their freelance writing careers off the ground. Most of them ran into the same problem that I encountered back in the early 1990s. And many of them continually lamented that they couldn’t get assignments or gigs, or get their unsolicited manuscripts published.

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Earlier this year, I wrote a pair of posts on giving up and embracing failure. For some, those are depressing topics. But they’re topics we all have to face at some time or another.

You’ll notice that I don’t write much about success. Mainly because success has become an all-or-nothing proposition. Sadly, we live in a world in which extremes are the norm. You either fail or you succeed. Far too many people discount the middle ground — a partial success is too-often deemed a failure. But it shouldn’t be.

While you’re not going to be successful with everything you try, you’ll probably have just as many (if not more) partial successes than you’ll have so-called successes. And definitely more of them than failures.

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