Plan To Be 100

I write a lot and enjoy it. I have thoughts about the topic of writing, which, for what they’re worth, I offer here:

Writing is a habit.

I started writing at an early age, and spent a decade as a journalist before becoming a lawyer. I often think that if there was one thing I was given that I would love to have given to my daughters, it would be those ten years of sitting at a typewriter (yes, this was before desktop computers took over).  It was work then, but as I moved into the practice of law, I found that I missed that regular time at the keyboard.  So now writing is a habit for me and, like many habits, it is comforting to do it.

Writing is lonely

I have this idea about all undertakings, that the more you talk about it, the less likely it is to come to fruition. It’s like spoken words are the steam that once escaped from the engine, leave inadequate energy to make the grade.  In writing, more than anything else, I find that to be true.  If I talk about a topic I have on my mind, it becomes harder to write about it.  The ideas become fuzzy and my motivation to get it out dissipates. So, for me at least, I keep my ideas to myself until I can organize them and capture them on paper.  I don’t think I’m unique in that – but maybe.

With repetition comes your voice

I believe writing is difficult for people who have not done much of it because they haven’t developed their written voice. It took me many years of writing to get to the point where I could write quickly and clearly; and years more before I felt that I could write quickly, clearly and that the words could convey nuance and suggestion. Now writing is not effortless, but it is not difficult.  It is more like speaking.

Writing has weight

Growing up my Dad would say that people who write have more influence. He was not a writer.  I think he said it out of frustration.  Someone else’s ideas may not be any better than his, but because they had published their ideas somewhere, they just seemed smarter and more insightful.  For a long time I never thought much about his observation.  Now I get what he meant.  For whatever reason, people give more weight to written words than they do to spoken words.  Permanence perhaps.  Things said vanish.  Things written remain.

Writing is not about perfect

Every time I write something I rework it many times before I feel it is ready to go. But I know that if I looked at it again, I would change it again.  Yet there comes a point when the project needs to be done – and I need to be done with it.  It is never perfect, but maybe good enough.  I think people who are inhibited to write feel that what they write has to be perfect. Writing is not about perfect, it’s about done.