Rena and I are getting close to finishing our book. I’m continuing to write about the things I learned while writing a book.Today it’s about the power of just the writing itself.
There’s just something magic about having an idea flow out through the fingers and onto the page that clarifies our thinking. This is true with our blog as well as with the book. It’s true with physical pen and paper or in electronic form.
We gloss over so much in life. When we write to explain something, we can no longer gloss over it. You know, our book could have been one sentence if we wanted to gloss over everything. We could just tell people to live as if their time on earth is really short. Okay, done. Publish it.
But glossing over the concept isn’t all that helpful in a howto book. It certainly doesn’t transfer our life experience to other people. So, we write about our experience and our observations of ourselves and others. And when we do this, the act of writing untangles our thoughts into clearer, easier to understand concepts.
When I rewrite my essay, I often will write down my initial thoughts, look at it, and then go, “Hm, no that’s not quite right. It’s more like this other thing.” So I go back and tweak it or even rewrite it.
Sometimes when I’m done with a blog or section in the book, I realize there are several concepts “thrashing around in the mosh pit” so to speak. I need to yank out the extraneous ideas and give the text greater focus. The extra ideas might need their own section or be saved for a later time. I did exactly this pruning with this post.
When we are living our calling, at some point we will want to explain it to someone else. We may want to pass it on to the next generation, or perhaps we want some followers who join us in our cause. If we have written down our thoughts and ideas, we will be much more able to communicate clearly with others.
I highly recommend writing. Whether it’s through journaling, writing a blog, writing out plans, or just exploring ideas, the act of writing will help bring clarity.
What about you? Do you write regularly? If so, what have you found to be best benefit?
