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The Best Writing Advice

Who knew that something as simple as writing could lead to other discoveries and opportunities? That could be any type of writing, whether it be for a journal, blog post, article, op-ed, or copy for social media outlets.

I love books and feel I grew up with them. In my childhood home, my parents had this one cupboard in the rec room with all these titles and I’d go through back descriptions deciding what to read. I almost never had to leave the house and felt like a kid in the candy store as there were so many books. Then there was the library. I went almost everyday during the summer where I’d frequent the history, fiction and magazine sections. This fascination with the written word led me to study English literature in college. I often wondered if there was an art to writing so I studied the great classics and contemporary writers alike. To some degree I discovered the patterns, the formulas, and style depending on the author and times s/he lived in. I tried emulating these patterns, but to no avail as they weren’t me.

Voice
So what about your writing, your voice? Is that hard to find? Some people have it and own it sooner rather than later. Others flounder in the dark, struggling to find what’s their own. And studying other peoples writing can only confuse the mix sometimes, unless what you’re reading either truly moves you or resonates with you.

It’s like what my friend from tennis said. She’s a great singles singles player, but got confused as she started listening to the teachings of multiple tennis pros. Their coaching techniques were all very different, so that led to info overload upon playing matches so she didn’t do so well. When she kept it to 1-2 pros however, she did better. The instructions were simpler to implement. I can relate this to finding your own voice or writing style. Too many cooks can spoil the broth. Nowadays, with so many titles out there, I’ll only read what speaks to me. As for writing advice, I follow what intuitively feels right, then forget the rest.

The best advice I got was to write for yourself first, then the editor/readers second.

Otherwise, how in the world are you ever going to find your voice? You could also try the 10,000 hour rule from Outliers. Just write and keep going.

Free Book (until Wednesday, June 3)

I’m excited to share my first Kindle book:
Fifty Shades of Simple: How to Prioritize in the Age of Information Overload.
It’s available for FREE download until Wednesday, June 3, 2015.
Please share. If you enjoyed it, I’d love for you to leave a review on Amazon!

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