On Writing

This week, LinkedIn invited me to participate in a collaborative article about writing. You can find it here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/advice/1/what-secrets-creating-keeping-your-writing-style-skills-writing?trk=contr . I was happy to help, and a bit flattered to have been asked.

But it was a slightly frustrating technical process, as two of my seven contributions failed to upload. Could the software itself be rejecting me? One wonders.

What follows is the unedited version of my seven contributions, each of roughly 750 characters. In other words, it's brief!! I added in a few short phrases for second draft readability, but otherwise it's as submitted. Note that each section of the LinkedIn piece had a brief situational text. I have not repeated these here.

The headings are as they appear in the original article, however, where you'll also find terrific advice from other fine contributors. Happy reading (and writing).

Know your goals

Everything you write is a call to action of some kind. Every. Single. Word.

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So, think long and hard about, first, who you're calling to (their identities, wants, needs, interests, perspectives, capacities, histories) and second, what you're calling them for (to love, know, give, share, consider, reject, abhor, assert).

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Respecting deeply the former will help you hone impactfully the latter. Calibrating precisely the latter will help you target realistically the former.

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One is about research, analysis, and objectivity; the other is about empathy, intuition, and humility. They overlap, of course, or rather intertwine. They can frustrate and conflict.

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But you only get to the subtleties by knowing the singularities.

Find your voice

The most important factor in making your call to action successful is your readers' faith that what you are saying is true, relevant, or urgent: i.e., their trust that your message is worth their time.

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Certain rudiments matter here: professional experience, training, credentials, etc.

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But critical is how your call to action proceeds from your intimate affiliation with its subject, from the intensity or originality of your observations, and from the believability of your interpretation.

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This is your voice, your unique translation of the individual to the universal.

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This is the view from the window of your own journey, that could only ever have been taken by you, now made into meaning for others.

Vary your style

We tend to think of style like clothing, as a different outfit we wear as appropriate to the occasion. This variation on form following function confuses style with venue, and even suggests the latter guide the former.

This is rubbish.

Your style is and will remain in constant motion. It flows from your voice and the uniqueness of your journey. It isn't contoured by the nature of its venue, save for the practical constraints and editorial dictates these imply.

Think of style as pitch and tone.

Style is how you are most comfortable and confident sharing yourself with others. It is also your dynamic assessment of how that sharing has been received.

In short, what feels right for you? And for them, your readers?

Read and write a lot

The quantity and quality of your reading and writing matter less than both becoming habits.

Reading grounds you in the things you wish to explore, and provides perspective on where your own voice might be raised amid the tumult. Better to read well than quickly, or even widely.

Be attentive, engaged. Explore tangents and contiguities as you go.

Write about what you read, in the margins or in notebooks; wherever you feel comfortable. Begin your conversation with knowledge by reflecting on it as you find it. Then, use your reflections to fashion something new.

If possible, routinize your writing. Same time or place or soundscape. A Spartan cubby, if that's your jam. Or a luxurious penthouse.

Either way, find a safe space you repair to habitually in order to create.

Edit and polish

A blessed few of us are great writers and editors, and maybe orators too. What's a more ordinary, unblessed scribe (like me) to do?

Self-editing (reading aloud, poring over drafts, using appropriate software) should be self-evident, but bears emphasis. You won't be your best writer the first time out. Be humble, patient, and proactive in refining your work.

But editing is also a professional skill, dearly acquired, and not just a talent or aptitude.

Think of it as a necessary aid to your venture's success, and not just a nice-to-have. Seek help.

Note: your 'venture' here is the successful enunciation of your unique voice, not a modified version of your editor's. Good editing clarifies and amplifies you. Be an easy edit.

But remain you.

Be yourself

Assuming a Shakespearean angle here ('to thine own self be true'), minor cautions follow.

First, writing is really hard work, with its own logic, biorhythms, and peculiarities. Anyone can string together words and phrases. Not everyone can use them intelligently to stir readers to think, feel, and act.

The difference is not art, or not art alone, but effort.

Second, your basic currency is the reader's trust. Earn it by speaking truth with reason. Bridge the gaps between your own experience and theirs, allowing others to identify with you and your story. It is not about invective, but empathy.

Finally, your writing is your call to action, not someone else's. Not all aid constitutes help, nor reaction a refinement. Focus is not prideful. It's wise.

And welcome.

What else?

I write sometimes in a crusading spirit - to explicate things I believe misunderstood or to exert pressure for change in public spaces I believe (perhaps pompously) require changing.

But I also write just for me, as part of discovering, of explaining, myself - who I am and wish to be.

There is great ego in this, I know, but my writing helps me chart a course, and to understand the routes I've already traveled.

They help me identify where I've grown, or failed to grow; where I've been impactful or (more often) inconsequential.

There is an intimacy in this sharing, and a profound vulnerability.

But there is also joy, and affirmation. I see myself in my own texts, as others do.

It is rarely flattering, but it is, in the end, me.

That's it, my seven contributions to my first L/I collaborative piece, which I've now mauled by re-posting it as, essentially, an extract. Write well, my friends.