Sterling Terrell

smart ideas from books

10 Points On Writing

10 Points On Writing

I stumbled across this post today about 10 points on writing (non-obvious points).

Points five, six, and seven were my favorite:

5. Becoming a writer is easy. Quitting is even easier. Professional (vocational) writers don’t write because they love it — they write because they are called. Sometimes, if they are lucky and super-blessed, they will also love it too. But, that’s apparently rare.

6. Honest writing is honestly hard, mostly because we’re literally in the process of self-discovery as the words flow out of us. It’s quite natural to write something only to realize that you vehemently disagree with the very thing that’s still (digitally) drying on your notepad. Sometimes, I’m so disgusted with what I just wrote that I literally have to get out of my chair and walk away! Writing forces us to commit to a side; sometimes, it requires us to think deeply and even defend it.

7. Your writing is shit. It’ll be shit for a long time. Heck, it’ll be shit forever. Everyone’s writing is shit. Mine is the best shit ever. We’re all writing things that, if not today will eventually embarrass us mercilessly tomorrow. Who cares, keep going.

Good stuff.

I feel like I am all over the place right now on what I think about writing.

Writing, for me, started as something tangent that grew out of reading. It became an infrequent hobby at some point. And then a daily habit.

When I write I often feel such a respect for capturing my thoughts in this systematic way.

Other days, what I write feels like I am shoveling dog poo in the back yard…

All I know for sure is that I will NEVER stop.

I want the writing life.

Writing For An Audience Of

Writing For An Audience Of

I think the key to writing is to write for an audience of one.

Of course I want everyone to read what I write. But writing for a small audience brings clarity to your words.

In fact, I gave this advice just a few weeks ago to my wife.

She was writing a report for work and lost her voice somewhere in the process. I encouraged her to write it to me. “Pretend you want me to understand it, and writing this is explaining it to me,” I said.

She was back on track in to time.

And truth be told, I often write to her too.

I hope you get something out of what I write here on this website. I hope a post somewhere gives you pause and you go read more about that topic somewhere else.

But this is not what keeps me typing.

I type for legacy.

Focusing on helping just one person helped me break through my fear of putting work out into the world. I realized if I was waiting until I created something that would help everyone, I would never be able to do it. Instead, I just wanted to help one person.

-Tim Grahl, Running Down A Dream