As a digital creative, Stemians bring value to the world by creating content, but what kind of content do we produce? This is what newcomers, like me, should be asking at the beginning of the journey, the starting line of the STEEM marathon. And while many who arrive here already have an established blog, website, or a YouTube Channel, some of us are new to writing and self-publishing on the web. As you may have already guessed, I am not an expert; I’m just sharing my two cents worth of advice derived from quotations famous and successful writers have for us aspiring to achieve the same.
Benjamin Franklin once said:
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."
–Benjamin Franklin
The Best Topic to Write About
To be honest, when facing a blank screen, I sometimes get discouraged because it’s so hard to find a topic to write about that an audience will read. It has to be worthy of the reader’s precious time. The second part of Ben Franklin’s quote tells us that some of our personal experiences can be the topic of writing that reciprocates the irony of time: free, but priceless.
So, diving in to find writing material should not be too difficult if we follow Ben’s suggestion. Taylor Swift famously writes about her breakups, so why can’t we? If we just put in a little more effort, and a little more time, then we can produce quality content corresponding to the value of the reader’s attention. In our case: an upvote, a comment, or reply. Heck, we might even get a resteem, if we created something awesome and exciting.
Research, A Necessary Step
The heart and soul of good writing is research; you should write not what you know but what you can find out about.
– Robert J. Sawyer
Having material (e.g. remarkable personal experience) to write about is not enough. It has to be thorough. It also has to be founded on facts. These days, we have the internet at our fingertips, a gigantic resource for our research. It’s like using the Titanic to go on a fishing trip at Lake Erie with two of your best buds. It is estimated that the big four alone (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook) stores at least 1,200 petrabytes of data between them. That’s 1.2 million terabyes or 1.2 billion gigabytes of information that may help us improve the quality of our content.
Editing is the Key
It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.
– C. J. Cherryh
The second part of this quote from C.J. Cherryh suggests a logical answer; the perfect solution to flawed writing: brilliant editing. For me, this usually involves taking a deep breath and changing hats from a writer to a reader. It might also involve something as simple as getting a glass of water to drink or going to the garden to find Zen. Everyone has his or her own way of flicking the switch. But, the goal is the same: to improve the material you have already written. So after picking a topic to write about, doing some research, and creating a bullet point of ideas, it is always good practice to pause for a while and clear your mind. Who knows? It may help create something magical.
Henry David Thoreau suggests making an effort to edit one’s work. It is a skill to reduce for simplicity, and to condense for brevity, and one that anyone can be good at with practice and patience over time.
Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.
– Henry David Thoreau
Conclusion
Writing a song is so personal. You have to have trust in someone you're working with; otherwise, you're not gonna come out with something that's really you.
– Billie Eilish
Teenage singer and songwriter, Billie Eilish, speaking about her brother, collaborator, and producer, said something that really says a lot about the craft of writing.
First, that writing is always personal. Because what we put out there represents us; denotes who we are; and, indicates what we stand for. In short, it epitomizes our essence and being, on a piece of writing about something that we truly, deeply, care about – or not.
Secondly, there has to be trust. Trust that whatever will come out will be something of value and worth sharing to the world. Not that we all have the opportunity to work with musically gifted and extremely talented brothers, but the focus should be on the value of the trust between them.
In the end, I truly believe that all of us can write from the deepest part of ourselves. We only need to trust that we can bring out the light within if only to inspire and be a blessing to others.
I will end with a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote suggesting that Napoleon’s writing represents the spirit of France, as our writing must also represent something, and that something is our soul.
Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thank for dropping by Steemians. Sharing positive vibes and good luck to all of us and all the best in 2020!
Quotes from the links, image is mine.
https://www.writersdigest.com/writing-quotes
https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/writing-quotes
https://www.inc.com/glenn-leibowitz/50-quotes-from-famous-authors-that-will-inspire-yo.html