Write the Right Way
Let's take a journey back in time.
Back to what could be called the golden age of writing.
That time was the last half of the 19th century and most of the 20th centuries.
These were times that saw great writers emerge.
There is not greater example of this period than the late 1920's.
Should you be lucky enough you might find yourself in Paris in 1928.
It's a mild evening.
A light mist falls over a narrow twisting street.
It's late, Midnight.
Your taxi is almost to the pub.
You wonder to yourself "I'm I just dreaming, or could this be the place I have heard about?" You are a writer.
Not of the caliber of those you hope to meet at your destination, but, maybe...
someday.
As luck would have it you knew the right people who knew the right places.
Once inside you find yourself in a room filled with cigar, cigarette, and pipe smoke.
As you look around you recognize a few of the people in the pub.
Here you are rubbing shoulders with people like Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and others.
As expected, there was either a glass of wine or whiskey in most hands.
Mingling, you over hear each discussing their current work.
Aw yes, 1928.
A time when acceptance as a writer by the world meant a special place among the population.
These writers were bigger than life; adventurous, mysterious.
Their reading public forgive much and often desired more from them.
Those in the real world measured the success of these writers not by the money they earned, but how their words excited our lives.
Woody Allen's 2011 wonderful film Midnight in Paris is a great depiction of the writer's world during the 1920's.
In the film Allen portrays the writer's role in society in an ideal way.
This was a role ascribed to a handful of writers for decades.
I am describing writers defined as great.
Not that they necessarily were, but we thought so.
Yes, there were many others who wrote; journalists, pulp writers, screen play writers, even gossip columnists.
These writers were considered good writer's by vocation, but not great writers by the public at large.
Throughout this golden age the great writer held a preeminent place among us.
The success of a writer was measured by how well he or she brought to life the drama of life.
They created events and people that stirred our hearts and minds.
Was the reader moved to another world? Were we whisked away from the mundane life we thought we lived? The role of the writer was to take the reader to an alternate reality through the use of words.
This role was one shared by the public as well as the writer.
Over the past 10 or 15 years the public's perception of the writer's role has undergone a change of major proportions.
Today's writers write in a different world.
Yes, hopefully their writing is still entertaining to read, but gone are the whiskey bottles, the cigars, the yellow legal pad of notes, and a Uniroyal typewriter.
Today's writing is more about the organization and process of writing.
While there are still a few great writers today there are more good writers than ever before.
Even in the public eye the elevation of the writer to that of being a star no longer is relevant.
It is with profound sadness that I announce that the mystery that surrounded the craft of writing has been solved.
Look around, check book sales and giveaways.
With the rise of vanity publishing anyone can write a book.
The one fact responsible for this change: the digital age.
While steeped in history the actual digital revolution became available to all in 1984.
That was when Steven Jobs and his start-up company Apple introduced the Mac computer to the general public.
Suddenly the barriers to authorship and publishing radically changed.
And as so often occurs throughout history, the availability of new technology to the general public results in revolution and the coming of the digital age was no different.
What is different about this digital age? In pre-digital age times writing most outsiders viewed writing as a creative gift.
In the digital age successful writing changed.
Enter critical thinking.
Today's writer must wear a multitude of hats.
Most importantly, the successful writer of today must balance creativity with the proper use of the mind.
While still dependent on creativity, more than ever writing follows a method of organization and a process.
Process being the steps you as a writer takes to be successful.
It is these A, B, C's that take you from an idea to gaining a readership.
The details s of the process are your ability to organize your work.
Simply put these two elements, process and organization result in two things: your ability to tell your story and how well you tell your story.
Not everything about writing has changed.
There is something that remains consistent in writing.
This is that every writer has their own approach to their craft.
These approaches are far from any standardized step-by- step process for completing a work.
Otherwise everyone would be a writer.
Generally speaking among writers, there are two categories of writers: the free stylers and the highly organized.
Ask a group of writers how they work and you will get several different answers.
There are those whom I identify as the free style writer, one who sits down and writes without any apparent conscious forethought to some of the important details.
Of course this is not the case at all.
More often than not, the free style writer unconsciously follows a map that is in his or her mind.
The free-style writer usually completes their work in a much quicker fashion than do the highly organized writers.
But, because of their reliance on the consistency of the mind in providing the outline and details for their work, they run the risk of getting off track with their work.
Then there is the highly organized writer.
That person who has ever detail of their story line written down.
This writing style can be time consuming and even rigid in its final form.
It is the details that separates the good writer from someone just putting words on paper.
Those highly organized souls follow a plan.
They go step by step through what they believe it takes to write.
While there are extremes on both ends of this spectrum, I think it is safe to say that there is a satisfactory middle ground for most writers.
Much like the metamorphoses of the caterpillar into a beautiful Monarch butterfly this middle ground has the writer accomplishing their goal in two phases.
The first requires due diligence to the collecting, defining, and ordering of the details of the work.
Once done, the writer then spreads their wings and takes on the business of writing.
Perhaps unknowingly, today's writers have adapted to using their mind as never before.
Where once the writer gave the perception of their having some innate talents, today's writers recognize the important role that the mind has in forming their ability to write.
There are no truer words regarding the fallacy of innate writing ability then the words of Ernest Hemingway: "It's none of their business that you have to learn to write.
Let them think you were born that way.
"
Back to what could be called the golden age of writing.
That time was the last half of the 19th century and most of the 20th centuries.
These were times that saw great writers emerge.
There is not greater example of this period than the late 1920's.
Should you be lucky enough you might find yourself in Paris in 1928.
It's a mild evening.
A light mist falls over a narrow twisting street.
It's late, Midnight.
Your taxi is almost to the pub.
You wonder to yourself "I'm I just dreaming, or could this be the place I have heard about?" You are a writer.
Not of the caliber of those you hope to meet at your destination, but, maybe...
someday.
As luck would have it you knew the right people who knew the right places.
Once inside you find yourself in a room filled with cigar, cigarette, and pipe smoke.
As you look around you recognize a few of the people in the pub.
Here you are rubbing shoulders with people like Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and others.
As expected, there was either a glass of wine or whiskey in most hands.
Mingling, you over hear each discussing their current work.
Aw yes, 1928.
A time when acceptance as a writer by the world meant a special place among the population.
These writers were bigger than life; adventurous, mysterious.
Their reading public forgive much and often desired more from them.
Those in the real world measured the success of these writers not by the money they earned, but how their words excited our lives.
Woody Allen's 2011 wonderful film Midnight in Paris is a great depiction of the writer's world during the 1920's.
In the film Allen portrays the writer's role in society in an ideal way.
This was a role ascribed to a handful of writers for decades.
I am describing writers defined as great.
Not that they necessarily were, but we thought so.
Yes, there were many others who wrote; journalists, pulp writers, screen play writers, even gossip columnists.
These writers were considered good writer's by vocation, but not great writers by the public at large.
Throughout this golden age the great writer held a preeminent place among us.
The success of a writer was measured by how well he or she brought to life the drama of life.
They created events and people that stirred our hearts and minds.
Was the reader moved to another world? Were we whisked away from the mundane life we thought we lived? The role of the writer was to take the reader to an alternate reality through the use of words.
This role was one shared by the public as well as the writer.
Over the past 10 or 15 years the public's perception of the writer's role has undergone a change of major proportions.
Today's writers write in a different world.
Yes, hopefully their writing is still entertaining to read, but gone are the whiskey bottles, the cigars, the yellow legal pad of notes, and a Uniroyal typewriter.
Today's writing is more about the organization and process of writing.
While there are still a few great writers today there are more good writers than ever before.
Even in the public eye the elevation of the writer to that of being a star no longer is relevant.
It is with profound sadness that I announce that the mystery that surrounded the craft of writing has been solved.
Look around, check book sales and giveaways.
With the rise of vanity publishing anyone can write a book.
The one fact responsible for this change: the digital age.
While steeped in history the actual digital revolution became available to all in 1984.
That was when Steven Jobs and his start-up company Apple introduced the Mac computer to the general public.
Suddenly the barriers to authorship and publishing radically changed.
And as so often occurs throughout history, the availability of new technology to the general public results in revolution and the coming of the digital age was no different.
What is different about this digital age? In pre-digital age times writing most outsiders viewed writing as a creative gift.
In the digital age successful writing changed.
Enter critical thinking.
Today's writer must wear a multitude of hats.
Most importantly, the successful writer of today must balance creativity with the proper use of the mind.
While still dependent on creativity, more than ever writing follows a method of organization and a process.
Process being the steps you as a writer takes to be successful.
It is these A, B, C's that take you from an idea to gaining a readership.
The details s of the process are your ability to organize your work.
Simply put these two elements, process and organization result in two things: your ability to tell your story and how well you tell your story.
Not everything about writing has changed.
There is something that remains consistent in writing.
This is that every writer has their own approach to their craft.
These approaches are far from any standardized step-by- step process for completing a work.
Otherwise everyone would be a writer.
Generally speaking among writers, there are two categories of writers: the free stylers and the highly organized.
Ask a group of writers how they work and you will get several different answers.
There are those whom I identify as the free style writer, one who sits down and writes without any apparent conscious forethought to some of the important details.
Of course this is not the case at all.
More often than not, the free style writer unconsciously follows a map that is in his or her mind.
The free-style writer usually completes their work in a much quicker fashion than do the highly organized writers.
But, because of their reliance on the consistency of the mind in providing the outline and details for their work, they run the risk of getting off track with their work.
Then there is the highly organized writer.
That person who has ever detail of their story line written down.
This writing style can be time consuming and even rigid in its final form.
It is the details that separates the good writer from someone just putting words on paper.
Those highly organized souls follow a plan.
They go step by step through what they believe it takes to write.
While there are extremes on both ends of this spectrum, I think it is safe to say that there is a satisfactory middle ground for most writers.
Much like the metamorphoses of the caterpillar into a beautiful Monarch butterfly this middle ground has the writer accomplishing their goal in two phases.
The first requires due diligence to the collecting, defining, and ordering of the details of the work.
Once done, the writer then spreads their wings and takes on the business of writing.
Perhaps unknowingly, today's writers have adapted to using their mind as never before.
Where once the writer gave the perception of their having some innate talents, today's writers recognize the important role that the mind has in forming their ability to write.
There are no truer words regarding the fallacy of innate writing ability then the words of Ernest Hemingway: "It's none of their business that you have to learn to write.
Let them think you were born that way.
"
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