Writing Isn't Something That Only Writers Do
20 Jan 2025 #books #writingWhat’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear “writer”?
Probably it’s a starving artist isolated in a cabin, in the middle of nowhere, typing the next award-winning best-selling novel on an old typewriter, holding a cigar.
The truth is you don’t have to be a “writer” to write.
That’s the main lesson from “Writing to Learn” by William Zinsser. Here are five lessons I learned from that book—in five quotes:
1. “Contrary to general belief, writing isn’t something that only “writers” do; writing is a basic skill for getting through life.”
A CV, a cover letter, an email for a client, a request for time off, and a resignation email. What do they all have in common? Writing!
And that’s only thinking of an employee in a full-time job. But writing is everywhere else.
2. “Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts”
If you want to check if you know a subject well enough, try to explain it and even better, write about it.
When you write you need a message, a chain of thoughts, and a reader persona. You need the right words and the right amount of them. The act of writing solidifies your understanding and shows you your gaps.
Writing is thinking.
3. “Writing is learned mainly by imitation”
Writers are readers too.
And noticing your behavior as a reader is your cheat code to better writing. Notice your favorite passages from the books you read, the posts you read until the end, the social media posts that make you stop scrolling. How did they grab your attention? What title did they use? Why did they make you read?
If you need a writing mentor, hand-copy your favorite writer and find patterns in their writing.
4. “The hard part isn’t the writing, the hard part is the thinking”
There’s writing to share information and writing to discover what we want to say.
When you write to share information, you need to ask yourself, “what do I want to say?” And when you write to discover what to say, you’re free to leave questions without answers and to build up from an answer you don’t have yet.
Either type of writing makes you think clearly.
5. “Non-fiction writing should always have a point: it should leave the reader with a set of facts, or an idea, or a point of view, that he didn’t have when he started reading”
Can this benefit one person?
That’s the best guideline to decide what to write. If it can benefit one person, you can write lessons, stories, rants, mistakes, questions, and predictions… Anything!
If it can benefit one person, you’re safe to write. And that one person can be your past self.
You don’t need to be an expert to write. Who’s an expert anyway? You don’t need to be famous either. Share what you have learned. Share what you’re learning. Share what inspires you. You don’t need to be a writer for that. Write! Probably the next time you’re Googling something you’ll find your own writing.