Learn to Love Writing

If someone were to ask me what is one of the top 5 things I love most about my job, writing would undoubtedly be on the list.? Does it take me a lot of time? Yes. Has it gotten easier? Yes. Is it critical to success? Absolutely.

I intended to study computer science in college. The courses overlapped significantly with the same curriculum that I had already learned in Central Nine Career Center in high school and had already put into use in my very first consulting gig at the ripe young age of 18.?

Instead of repeating the curriculum, I decided to focus on a subject less in my wheelhouse. So, I changed my major to English, starting with creative writing and shortly after focusing on linguistics - the science of language, as I like to call it.

While studying creative writing, one of my professors referenced the Hemmingway quote: “Write drunk. Edit sober.” That is to say - find a psychological flow, write whatever comes to mind, suspend all of your judgment, and let the words flow. Later, you can let your ego pass judgment and your intellect wordsmith, re-order paragraphs, modify the tone, check for grammatical errors, and contemplate whether you need that oxford comma.

The point is that writing is not a linear process. Writing is a creative process that involves many more skills than putting words on a page.

One of the most effective indicators of a person’s professional potential is their writing ability.?Yes, this applies to software engineers too.?

There are different types of writing: emails, text messages, Slack messages, executive summaries, technical documentation, non-technical documentation, presentations, and talk tracks. The better at positioning one’s prose with the medium and target audience, the better communicator one will become.

The “write drunk, edit sober” paradigm can be employed in all types of writing. And, here is the thing, this concept to “write drunk, edit sober” is even applicable well beyond writing. In linguistics, this is called a conceptual metaphor.

I approach most problems by thinking divergently or “outside the box.” This may seem like an unfocused approach to the layman, but I’m creating the space for off-the-wall ideas and exploring the possibilities. In reality, I’m simply “writing drunk.” Then I work iteration after iteration to improve the original content until I am satisfied with the result.

This is a powerful tool for creative writing that others will find helpful in their work - writing or otherwise.