How to write about anything that interests you?

It’s funny to find myself writing this.  It’s funny because English is not my first language.  It’s funny because 5 years back I was struggling for enough words to put together a proper email.  Today, friends come to me to write-up something for them explaining a situation to the boss, apologize someone, sending a love note and so on.  I am still learning to hone my skills and what I am sharing in this article are things that helped me put my ideas on to paper (word processor in this case) little more effectively.  Hope you find these helpful. Your comments are welcome!

This is not just about writing an article but will also help you with any writing that you have to do: business, book, casual emails or anything of that sort. I will be honest, I am not an authority in the field of written communication but this is just an attempt to share things that helped me and could possibly help others.  So, this is NOT for advanced writers although you may find a point or two new here .

Let’s get into the meat now:

1. What interests you? Look at the title again, I did not say "just about anything" I said "anything that interests you".  This is the key.  Find what interests you, if you want to write an article, sit back and contemplate on what you want to write about and see if you are really interested in sharing it. Sequence to follow – ALL the time – Idea/thought gives way to words, words lead to sentences, sentences lead to paragraphs and paragraphs lead to pages.  If you have the idea/thought that you really really want to share, words will flow, even if you are novice (like me).

If you are in a business setting, see what message you want to communicate.  Imagine yourself as a recipient and see if you will be pleased to receive that email/letter?  As a recipient would you have liked it be more ‘personable’ or ‘professional’ and/or ‘crisp’.  Would you have liked it to be short and to the point or long and explanatory?  Most often you already know the answers to these questions. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes and find what they expect. Know your audience.

2. Write garbage and edit brilliance[1]: This is basic.  If you are writing an article, short story, book, email (personal/professional) or anything of that sort, just throw out whatever comes to your mind, DO NOT try to edit it while writing. Once you have written your mind out, go back to your work and start reading it as if it was written by someone you hate (milder – someone you do not like), this helps you to be honest with yourself to critique your own work.  It is important not to edit while writing as it impedes your thought flow.  Sometimes it happens that while I try to edit as I write I lose lot of good points that were otherwise flowing freely. Let your first draft include all the garbage, but edit it brilliantly.  Best time to edit your work is when you are not in writing mood.

3. Find a feeling place: Take this quote from me – "You cannot express something you do not feel."  Find a feeling place for what you want to write. An example might be of help here, if you trying to write about world politics and you absolutely hate everything about world politics then capture all the feelings of ‘hate’, exactly the way you feel it, do not hold back.  You may not please everyone, let me re-phrase that a bit, you will NOT please everyone but there are people who feel exactly the way you do and they are your audience.  DO NOT write anything to please everyone. Find the feeling place in you and let it express to the world.

Alternatively we can ask these questions ourselves: ‘What am I trying to convey?’, ‘Who are my audience?’, ‘Am I speaking my heart or am I being phony?’  That last question is important, somehow readers can feel whether you are being honest or if you are making things up.  Even if you write garbage honestly people tend to accept it while a phony brilliance fades away quickly.

4. Edit ruthlessly: My professor once said "try to delete ALL that you can, without changing the meaning".  If you can keep the expression that you want while managing to delete words, sentences or even paragraphs – DO IT.  I know how difficult it is to delete a whole paragraph that might have taken an hour to write in the first place.  I understand.  But DO IT.

5. Let ideas seek you: When you run out of ideas don’t make them up.  Give yourself sometime, let go, relax and indulge into something entirely unrelated. Go out for a walk, watch a movie, hang out with friends, meditate or exercise – anything as long as it is unrelated to your chosen topic.  You will be amazed at how ideas come rushing to you.

6. Read, listen, watch & observe: Stay in touch with the area of your interest.  For example, I love dreams – dreams about all areas of life – Health, Love, Spirituality, Romance, Wealth, Relations etc. I always find myself reading, listening, and watching something or other about one of these areas.  When I am talking to my friends about any topic, I keenly observe.  I try to do things that are complimentary to whatever is that I decide to write about.  For example, I meditate when I want to write about spirituality because that gives me firsthand experience.  When I am writing about Love, I go back to all the previous relationships I have been through and feel the feelings that I need to express.

7. Convey what you want to convey:  So you have succeeded in writing your mind out, edited it, deleted what was not necessary still keeping the message intact – you are just one step away from finishing what you started and this is a very crucial step.  Read it all over again. I cannot stress on this more, you will be surprised to see how ‘if’ in the wrong place (’only if’ – ‘if only’, ‘but’ – ‘butt’ mean entirely different things) can change the entire meaning. Word processors will not catch these as they are not spelling errors or grammatical mistakes.  Read it all over again to make sure that what you have written is what you want to write and what you are conveying is exactly what you want to convey.  In a business setting this is MANDATORY.

After a little practice and working on the feedback, you will see that your writing skills start to pick up quickly.  It will not happen overnight but the change will be evident.

I will add more to this list as I learn them and I encourage you to share what helped you.

[1]Abridged from the quote "It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly." – C. J. Cherryh

Photo credit: A Y U M i (LoveLiveLaugh) (License)