Why do we write?

Why do we write?

This looks like an obvious question.

Did you know 85% of human beings can write, but only 0.03% do it professionally?

Writing has been the principle way for human beings to physically convey a spoken language. The history of writing is rich, and over time has evolved to its current form.

From the early days of incising pictorial carvings on rocks in caves, to writing on wet clay and baking them for easier preservation, to using reeds as writing surfaces and brushes with ink to write, all are part of the writing evolution.

The principle question is why did human beings find it necessary to invent a means of physical communication aside from oral?

Lately, writing has become a fundamental skill or art all human beings are encouraged to learn early on to seamlessly fit in today’s world. Different cultures have native languages that can be written.

Likewise, there is no spoken language that cannot be written.

The world has English as a universal language of communication originating from the Phoenician alphabet, followed by the Greek which was the first language to have a full alphabet and consonants. Rome with the Latin also had these features.

In turn, the English language borrows heavily from the two languages and has become the world’s unifying language.

Therefore, every message aiming to get the world’s attention has to be written in English.

So, why do we write?

1.?????Education purposes.

One of the main reasons writing was invented was as an alternative to oral communication. After this, the second most important reason is for education purposes.

Education is one of the fundamental reasons for generation of content. Any information that you will come across will educate you on something new or further build your knowledge about a specific thing.

Schools are instituted towards developing the ability to acquire and process knowledge. Higher institutions take it a notch higher by guiding you to your preferred career path. All these are done using the basic art of writing.

Further, those who work hard and acquire doctorates in their specific fields, have to write their thesis based on research that will be peer reviewed. After the review, they can be called professor or doctor in their respective field.

2.?????Historical practice

The only way we can effectively connect with history is through writing.

Before writing became widely practiced, oral literature was the preferred means to pass down messages of history in form of stories from one generation to another.

Past events that have been well documented by writing give us an opportunity to read and virtually relive them though mostly not to the minutest of detail. We get an idea of what it was; our emotions sometimes stirred by the intensity of the words that captured these episodes leading us to automatically get meshed with this history. ?It’s important to note, we are products of history and continue being so by doing our best to document our own experiences.

Unlike many centuries ago, nowadays, writing is a basic art that goes together with reading. Not being in a position to read and write confines an individual into the world of illiteracy. To that end, to effectively interact with others, knowledge of reading and writing is a must to be able to study, contribute and participate in making history.

3.?????We write to deal with specific limitations of speech.

Back in the days, public speeches were impossible to capture verbatim. Enter the electronic evolution and speech could be captured, recorded by media houses and eventually archived for reference.

Lately, transcribing is a highly sought after skill. It involves converting oral speech or conversation in audio or video into writing.

The best way a speech, lecture or oral communication could be captured by writing in the past, was paraphrasing and this diluted the message aside from miss-informing.

So, writing from time immemorial to now still plays a crucial role in dealing with the limitation of speech. It may not be of grave importance lately compared to a few centuries ago where it made a big difference, but all communication seems to be complete when converted into writing.

The heavy demand for transcribing, points to a preference of content to be stored or expressed as a compliment to audio or video. The world can’t shake off writing despite the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which in some cases has been customized to transcribe videos and audio messages.

Jasper (formerly Jarvis) is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software heavily marketed as a writing assistant. It is used to generate content on social media platforms, copy-writing and writing blogs. However, it lacks dynamism, the major one being, writing voice unique to individual writers.

Often after using Jarvis as a writing aid, a human editor has to confirm the content and at this point re-writing is inevitable. The aspect of human editing makes the literary world tick; it re-emphasizes the importance of human touch in refining content irrespective of the times. In that line, writing, more so by human beings, seems not to be fading away anytime soon.

4.?????To pass across a message

A message is passed from one party to another through a medium which in this case, is print.

Before the advent of the printing press, writing with a brush or medieval form of pens was common. Messages carry information intended for the receiver to decipher and act commensurately. The form of passing the message is by physical writing or print which can be hard or soft copy.

There are two major aspects of messages, public and private.

Often, the writer intends or in some cases suggests the message to be either public or private. Mostly, though, it is the recipient who has the power to decide how to handle the message.

The era of cold war had a lot of classified information of inventions that needed extreme caution when handling. This was common in both axis, the west led by US and then communists, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Later on, some of the information became declassified allowing the public access.

In that era, there were no computers, flash drives, external hard disks or cloud. So, all the delicate information was in paper print format.

It is a classic example of not only private messages but meticulously restricted content. Messages come racked up as an ensemble of information designed to paint a clearer and broader picture. When the writer embarks on writing a message, how it will be handled usually influences the content, though sometimes the recipient’s reaction is contrary to expectation.

5.?????Pass across information

Denise Schmandt-Besserat, a Professor emerita of Art and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas, Austin, defines writing as, humankind’s principal technology to collect, manipulate, store, retrieve, communicate and disseminate information.

This is quite an apt definition that captures all the aspects of why we write. Interestingly, it is the second component of her definition that stands out, manipulate.

It is not hard to collect, store, retrieve, communicate and disseminate information in a manipulative way to serve particular interests.

We are currently in the age heavily influenced by internet information. It has become relatively easy to generate fake news, make it spread like bush-fire and before people know it, the damage has already been done.

The media is by far the greatest culprit of manipulation, from tabloids to well respected newspapers; they use their power of influence to push for a narrative that serves particular interests. From their headlines, to story lines, one doesn’t fail to spot language twisted to cover up negligence or gloss over atrocities that needed to be condemned in the strongest terms possible.?

Another way of manipulating information is coded language.

It has been in existence for many centuries. To ensure the enemy or opponent doesn’t know your next move; coded language is the go-to trick. The language is still in use and widely practiced by the military, sports and the airline industry among others. Aviation pilots are famous for using words like tango, alpha, delta, Charlie, echo, India, kilo, Lima Romeo, etc.

The message from face value is different from the information it carries. This language has meaning behind the message whether written or verbal familiar only to those who understand it. The information in the message is processed by the pilot and reacts to it, and the same happens when they respond to the air traffic controllers at the tower.?

Passing a message is to ensure the recipient receives the information, and a call to action (CTA) is the ultimate goal. ??

6.?????We write to entertain.

In the 16th century only a handful of people could write, and that was a preserve of the elite.

During this period, Shakespeare wrote a lot of his material that were dramatized through plays. He had a motive behind the more than 36 plays he wrote; Romeo and Juliet a play which he wrote in 1594-96 stand out as one of his greatest works on love. This in a way gave a snippet of his thoughts with regard to his view of love.

“Romeo and Juliet” was probably the most attended plays then, and an authorized published version was released in 1599, substantially longer than the unauthorized one that was published in 1597.

In the late 1960s a creative way of acting which was first invented in 1925, improved in the 1940s and further refined in the 1950s gained traction. Situation comedy (sitcom), by the 1970s had become a popular form of entertainment in the US. This form of entertainment resulted in some selected comedies becoming household favorites.

To that end, as much as there was a general script, the cast are encouraged to be creative and can go off the script as long as it’s connected to the general topic of the episode.

Movies also follow scripts that have been written by highly acclaimed scriptwriters. The fictional stories border to reality, unless stated.

A few decades back, accomplished script writers were far in between, hence the rate of movie production was not high compared to nowadays.

The hit series 24 aired by Fox Television, is about Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) the government operative in the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) as enacted in the series. Rated as one of the best and most watched, triggered a revolution of series which saw a rise of new actors who could not break into the movie world stage.

More on that, one unique series that was on the movie stage, was the Bourne Series. It is among the sizeable number of movies that have been produced based on novels by famous fiction writers. The Bourne series is a trilogy based on Robert Ludlum’s novels.

The novel is based on the government’s dark operations that are highly classified but considered essential in carrying out the government’s security agenda.

The movies did very well in the movie theater market (box office) and the world in general. The exceptional quality of the movie gave Ludlum high accreditation in the literary world of fiction writing. Those who didn’t know him got a chance to courtesy of the Bourne movie series.

Many fans who hadn’t read the novel did so after watching the movie. Curiously, for those who read the novels prior to the movie and those who did after, shared one unique attribute, and that was, the movie was not able to capture every detail in the novel.

It is an amazing observation that elevates writing to another level. The ability of a writer to use words to paint scenarios in a detailed way is fascinating.?

7.?????We write to reiterate a position about an ideology.

Why do you believe one side of the story and not the other? There have been millions of writers who have filled the literary world with books, commentaries, articles and other forms of literature just to communicate their position about a particular ideology.

Your specific stand about an ideology and who you are-is inextricable. The stand usually dictates your perception of the world around you.

Without a point of reference that substantiates your ideology, you lack a basis to which your identity is anchored. The more you write the more your identity is revealed by developing a distinctive voice on how you communicate.

Writing voice is developed over time. John Morrow, an accomplished blogger, adopts a blunt approach towards his audience. From his writing, he sometimes cuts across as insensitive and out rightly rude. He uses his writing voice to reel you into his perspective at the same time capturing your often imagination of conciseness.

Dr. Ravi Zacharias of Ravi Zacharias Ministries (RZIM) lived his life convincing skeptics why there is a God. Over the many years he practiced apologetics, he emphasized on his ideology by writing books and commentaries that justified his perspective. Some of his popular books are Jesus among Other Gods; Absolute claims of the Christian message and The Grand Weaver; How God shapes us through the events of our lives.

His writing voice is articulate and penetrative making the message compelling as it leaves a soothing sensation in the readers mind. His use of vocabulary to merge truth in relation to the world makes sense of what seems complicated and at best discordant.?Transcending the world of philosophy, his vocabulary gives a point of reference with undeniable and verifiable truths that often leaves skeptics transfixed.

With every word, phrase, sentence, paragraph and eventually a story line, how you think when writing is brought to the fore. The result of your writing is deciphered by the audiences who will either find it fascinating or repulsive based on the ideation, choice of words and evidence adduced.

Ultimately, any form of writing is meant to re-emphasize a particular stand, whether it is a new concept or antithesis to the prevailing ideology, it is designed to influence.

8.?????Write to leave a legacy.

Any authoritative writer’s work leaves behind a legacy. Leaving a mark in the literary world is any writer’s ambition akin to be inscribed into the hall of fame in the sports and movie world or receiving a Nobel Peace Prize. Everyone who writes wants to be remembered by their work, whether it’s books, articles or commentaries that have an impact in people’s lives. In that vein, no writer knows what kind of legacy they will leave behind but more often than not, those left behind give their opinion and the majority’s perspective, usually carry the day.

Legacies are built one article, one book and one commentary at a time by staying true to your identity as you pore through your thoughts converting them into writing.

Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian English professor who is famous for his work, Understanding the Media; The extensions of Man. A canny and witty professor, who had a knack of foreseeing the future of media evolution, left an indelible mark on the role of media in human beings. His famous quote, “the media is the message” is still pivotal in the study of media’s role in today’s world where the medium influences how you receive and perceive the message, hence, the media and the message are inseparable.

Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was a Swiss psychiatrist who came up with the five stages of grief in her book titled, On death and Dying.

While attending to terminally ill patients in a New York hospital, she realized grieving has stages. At first, her work was misconstrued as a template for grieving. Later on, she is on record clarifying, grieving doesn’t follow the order of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Rather, grieving is a must but some will do so differently; additionally, others will not go through all the stages but some. As she penned her discovery, little did she know the study of grief will heavily revolve around her work.

McLuhan and Kubler-Ross have one thing in common, legacy. Their contributions to their respective field still have an impact to this day.

9.?????Write to make money.

Jeff Goins author of books like The Art of Work, You are a Writer and his latest Real Artists don’t Starve, talks about a startling discovery by an American professor, Rab Hatfield. In his latest book, he expounded on the professor’s findings in 1995 at Syracuse University in Florence, Italy. While searching for something else, he happened to stumble upon the Renaissance great Michelangelo’s bank account to his amazement.

During his lifetime, Michelangelo always lamented about lack of money and once wrote a poem of how art has left him poor making him a servant of the people. Embracing this narrative, he led a frugal lifestyle, but Hatfield’s findings were contrary to this. Despite his approach to life as an artist, Michelangelo’s account had hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Jeff lifts this story about Prof. Hatfield’s discovery and goes on an expedition to deconstruct fellow artists and audiences notions that real artists starve. He cleverly flips the coin and rephrases the prevailing narrative to Real Artists don’t Starve.

Mr. Goins pulls the veil off this fallacy to encourage artists especially writers, that it’s possible to make money from writing and he points to himself as an example.

So, the last reason in this discussion is - we write to make money. Of late, a huge number of blogs exist in the internet estimated to be over 500 million. Current estimates suggest around 7 million blog posts are published daily.

Some of these blog posts are journals, articles in form of stories, do it yourself (DIY), reviews, tutorials, name it. But it’s only a small percentage of these that generate money. A lot of newbies have entered the fray of writing in anticipation to generate a dollar or two, but are finding it tough.

Due to a surge in number of blogs, one thing is clear; blogs are avenues for influence in our lives, but for businesses, marketing. A lot of businesses have discovered the power of blogging, and statistics indicate, return on investment (ROI) for businesses that blog regularly is over 10 times more than those that don’t. Statistics also points to an increase in blog readership worldwide; for instance, in 2020, blog posts registered millions of comments with regards to discussion about published content.

Jeff goes all out to give nuggets for artists out there and his core message is, focus to make sure you earn from your craft. He outlines a process which he believes if followed, Real Artists will not starve.

Final thought

As you sit down to write for whatever reason, always remember to make it concise to achieve the intended purpose.