If you're reading this, you almost certainly know how to write as well. But knowing how to write, i.e. to string words and sentences together that more or less make sense, doesn't make you a writer, or a good writer necessarily, or even a good-enough writer.
Knowing how to drive doesn't make you a race car driver, or perhaps even a safe driver. Knowing how to eat doesn't make you a chef.
Writing, great writing, optimally effective writing, doesn't happen by accident, is not taught in the general curriculum of our schools, and is something that is developed though years and years of writing with purpose, writing to an audience, and writing with awareness.
As a child, my father introduced me to writing, as a "printer's devil," in his print shop. I learned the basics of paying attention to spelling, kerning and leading by setting type by hand, learning to compose words, phrases and sentences, upside down and backwards! I learned about perfection, attention to detail, accountability to the customer, and how to do it right the first time, or the nth time, but before it was delivered and considered done.
Exposure to the wide variety of content produced for local small business, theater, and government was as liberal an education as the classes in French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew that expanded my love for and understanding of language and the power of the written word.
Forty years of writing for pay in the software industry, for government agencies, defense contractors and the Postal Service, provided me an opportunity to broaden my understanding of life in general and business in particular, and how in many ways the same rules of communication apply.
A few years ago I began broadening my interest to writing and publishing poetry and short stories, resulting in the publication in April of 2012 of The Liar, The King, The Libertine, with my friends and coauthors, Lois Young and Indara Dubay. This was quickly followed by the delightful opportunity to mentor an aspiring young poet in the production of her first collection, "One Page At A Time," published In January of 2013; and soon after to assist a first-time author in creating the Guide For Spiritual Seekers.
As I move forward on this new path, exciting opportunities for new friendships, collaborations and growth are popping out of the woodwork (and yes, I do love my cliches). And I am doing more writing and publishing--as well as working and playing with other writers, encouraging them and joining them in the fun of writing and publishing.
Knowing how to drive doesn't make you a race car driver, or perhaps even a safe driver. Knowing how to eat doesn't make you a chef.
Writing, great writing, optimally effective writing, doesn't happen by accident, is not taught in the general curriculum of our schools, and is something that is developed though years and years of writing with purpose, writing to an audience, and writing with awareness.
As a child, my father introduced me to writing, as a "printer's devil," in his print shop. I learned the basics of paying attention to spelling, kerning and leading by setting type by hand, learning to compose words, phrases and sentences, upside down and backwards! I learned about perfection, attention to detail, accountability to the customer, and how to do it right the first time, or the nth time, but before it was delivered and considered done.
Exposure to the wide variety of content produced for local small business, theater, and government was as liberal an education as the classes in French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew that expanded my love for and understanding of language and the power of the written word.
Forty years of writing for pay in the software industry, for government agencies, defense contractors and the Postal Service, provided me an opportunity to broaden my understanding of life in general and business in particular, and how in many ways the same rules of communication apply.
A few years ago I began broadening my interest to writing and publishing poetry and short stories, resulting in the publication in April of 2012 of The Liar, The King, The Libertine, with my friends and coauthors, Lois Young and Indara Dubay. This was quickly followed by the delightful opportunity to mentor an aspiring young poet in the production of her first collection, "One Page At A Time," published In January of 2013; and soon after to assist a first-time author in creating the Guide For Spiritual Seekers.
As I move forward on this new path, exciting opportunities for new friendships, collaborations and growth are popping out of the woodwork (and yes, I do love my cliches). And I am doing more writing and publishing--as well as working and playing with other writers, encouraging them and joining them in the fun of writing and publishing.