Developing a Writing Practice
Writing practice . . . Some entrepreneurs come to this activity with zeal and happiness.
Others among us would rather not have to write at all, but the truth is that the online world of business contains a lot of language wrangling—website pages, marketing pieces, blog posts, and the list goes on.
So having a grasp on writing and leaning into it and actually writing is a good, no great, thing to do.
For those of you who are tentative about writing, but want to, or need a nudge to do it, this post is for you. Following are the reasons why you should write. Not a SHOULD, but a gentle invitation to do so, to practice, and to share it with the world.
Showing your writing to the world builds confidence; it puts you in a creative mood, which shows up in other positive ways in your life. Writing helps you become known and sought after. Thought leaders often establish their platforms through writing, some exclusively so, while others go on to be speakers and teachers (who continue to write their speeches and teaching materials).
Nurture Your Writing Skills
What you need to do is nurture your ability and give yourself permission to write.
You need to nurture your writing even if it comes out in comic book or graphic novel form (actually, that would be pretty cool to see your blog posts as graphic novel scenes. Wow.), and love your writing.
I am talking about both creative writing and business writing, which by the way, can be a very creative form of writing and certainly takes creativity to produce. I want you to transcend time and place and get emotionally attached to the process of writing and what it offers. I want you to accept it for what it is—beautiful and needed.
Are you with me here? I am not asking you to become the biggest, best known blogger in the world, but if you want to, go ahead. I am asking you to start calling yourself a writer. Give yourself the title. Now. Do it. Say it out loud. “I am a writer.”
Even if your writing is haiku that you scribble in a little notebook while standing in the checkout aisle at the supermarket. Or lists of topics that came to you while in the shower that will make great content for your site. Or ideas that popped into your head while you read a bestselling novel that takes place in India. Something about the story prompted you to make a gigantic leap to your business writing and you see tons of possibilities and ideas that you can pursue in written form.
Very often, people who are business writers are also creative writers at home (meaning out of the office). Just like several architects I’ve met who are ace building designers at work, and portrait painters, photographers, and muralists when they’re not at work.
Writing in One Genre Informs the Other
The concept of design, like writing, is so universal that no borders can, or should, contain it. The creativity from one seeps out and nestles into the other. Writers often say that when they write in a new, untested genre, their writing overall improves.
Take the journalist who starts writing short stories. The fiction writing informs the journalism and vice versa. All of the journalists’ writing improves.
I offer an in-person, weekly writing salon. People from all sorts of backgrounds come, write, share what they wrote, and receive feedback. A regular group of writers attend and they love the process. An unfettered, uninterrupted hour of writing they can call their own, and at the end, they get to hear what’s lovely, exciting, and beautiful about their written piece. Some of them are business owners, some work for others, but they all bring a spirit of inquiry and a wish for creative output. They leave with work done, and a great outlook on life.
Re-purpose Everything You Write
Which is why I don’t want you to feel badly that the prompts you may be receiving, if you signed up for them, are forcing you to write your memoir instead of web content. Somewhere in that memoir is you and what you bring to your business, your life.
Look at all of your writing as fodder for something else. Remember, if you write content for your business, you’re a writer. Creating a writing practice teaches you not only how to write for your business, but how to do it regularly.
Take a lovingly critical eye to all of your writing to see how you can re-purpose its use. And along the way, enjoy the process.
If this post struck a chord with you, please consider sharing it with your colleagues and friends.