Writing

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Writing

If I write about anything, I would like to write more about solutions than about problems, although you must know the problem to think about the solution.

So apparently writing takes a lot of time. Well, editing takes most of it. I tend to be able to dump lots of text down onto the editor, but never get around to editing. I've been trying to do more of that now, starting with the non-fiction texts I drafted recently (while in San Francisco, for work).

The result is not amazing, but I want to think it's... getting somewhere, eventually. The issue I have with this non-fiction (and it may or may not to be fiction, so I could just call it essay-like) is that my ideas are all intertwined (I guess that's ideas for you), and there is no guiding narrative to put them down in order -- no force to disentangle the mess, and you need a force to do so. I end up writing several times about the same topics, in a disjoint way, and then of course have issues trying to edit the blob into something that is actually readable by a third party.

So I guess I just described what writing is about; in particular if you have a chaotic head, which I seem to have. I hope that I can put my thoughts into some shape; if not, well, I guess I'll just keep failing. I could try focusing on the character-driven fiction for a while. And then find that my characters are shallow -- which I already know.

Oh well. Onwards and upwards.

Improve your writing

• Tone: attitude. changes depending on circumstance, and is used to set the mode of conversation.
• voice: setting a consistent voice is the most important thing you can do for advertising. clear, honest transparency is a great way to start, but introducing flavorful word choice can build upon this. this is a discussion of consistent words and terms to refer to companies in internal and external writing; for example, 'independents' vs. 'employees'.
• natural speech: write as you speak, using fewer nouns and more verbs - this infuses words with empathy.
• speak the audience's language.
• avoid business speak.

References

griffin.sh: How We Write