Writing 101: Authenticity

Reading.  You can read for fun, for concrete approaches to problems or processes and for thought provoking ideas. 

Writing. You can write for many reasons too. Most of my writing has been for school or for business and I find that writing for my blog is very different. I am intrigued by it and I want to know more about it. So, the journey begins.

I am starting to look more closely at writers that I enjoy and I am searching for writing tips. It was while searching that I found 6 Ways to Improve Your Writing.  Bullet # 2 "think on your own time" caught my attention.  It goes, "most of us think while we write. But people don’t want to read your thinking process; they want to see the final result. Find your main point in each paragraph and delete everything else. If someone is dying to know your logic, they’ll ask." Really?! Wasn't letting people see the down and dirty of how you got to a certain point necessary to be available, approachable and knowable? I had thought so but now I was not so sure. 

I went back to the writers that I enjoy to see what was it about their  posts that kept me coming back. Did I see the starts and stops,  the behind the scenes "stuff," for lack of a better word, or the messiness of an idea in process? I did not. What I did see were ideas, insights, and conclusions. What I heard were rhythms and voices.  The rhythms were as unique as the voices. The voices were that of authenticity. 

My first lesson in writing: authenticity does not have to be messy, it just has to be real.