The Secret Weapon of Good Writers
I have been writing regularly since 2004 and while I am not completely comfortable with calling myself a “writer,” it is something that I aspire to become. Today I was inadvertently paid a complement by an editor who told me, “Your style is a bit different than what we do. Your writing is a bit more personal than I’d like.” The context of this statement was after evaluating some writing samples I sent as a prerequisite for possibly writing for a certain web designer site. While it wasn’t meant as a compliment, I really took pride in the fact that something “personal” is coming through with my writing.
The truth is that, yes, I take my writing very personally. The writing that I admire the most is from authors who aren’t afraid to let their emotion carry over to their written words. For example…
Some authors are visionaries.
Some are great teachers.
Some are prolific creators.
Some do it with humor and logic.
Some do it with honesty.
Others are articulate.
Some are fanatics.
Some do it with insightful commentary.
Some are trendsetters.
Some are committed to excellence.
Some are consistently random but fascinating.
Some are just experts.
Is there something that all these authors have in common. If I had to guess at the source of this talent I would put my money on passion. When you are truly passionate about something it is very hard NOT to let your passion show through in your writing. The opposite is definitely not true. If you don’t care about a topic it is impossible to write a compelling essay about it.
The question that this leaves me with is whether or not the world needs another lifeless web design blog. How many CSS galleries, Photoshop tutorials, top ten lists, and free font/icon/theme blogs do we need? At what point will the pendulum swing back to the side of truly passionate discourse about design? Will there be a resurgence of critical thinking similar to the days when BADG and SpeakUp dominated the design blogosphere? I truly hope so. In the meantime, I will continue to strive toward writing passionate and personal posts.
February 9th, 2010 at 6:40 am
Thanks for this post. I enjoyed it. I don’t consider myself a writer either, but I hope to write a book some day. I think I just keep stopping myself because I’m afraid of the criticisms you mentioned above. Writing IS very personal, and to me, it feels almost like an attack on my character!