Business Writing Training: Business Writing Seminar - The Difference Between Writing And Good Writing

I've been writing on and off for the past fifteen years. In that times I've written all sorts of different things in many, many different genres. One of the things I discovered along the way is that there is a huge difference between writing and good writing.

When I started to write I just sat at the computer and typed whatever came out. I would focus entirely on the things I wanted to say but not on the words I was using to say them. Sadly, this is exactly what most writers do - focus on the story, the message, or the content without giving any thought to the words they use to create them. It is this simple thing that separates a writer from a good writer.

Look at any successful writer out there. Every word they use is specifically chosen to make sure it conveys everything they are trying to say. They craft their sentences like a painter paints landscapes - one careful stoke at a time. Each paragraph that they create is almost like a work of art in its own right. Until finally they create a chapter, a manuscript, or an entire book.

What allowed me to see that I was a writer, and not a good writer, was learning how to become a better writer. I wanted to start working on a number of books that I wanted to write. Instead of just sitting down at the computer as I had always done, I went and bought "The Chicago Manual Of Style". For those that don't know, this book lays out the general rules and requirements that people expect to see from your work in the book publishing industry. There are a number of other style manuals and guides out there for all the various forms of writing there are. However, as I wanted to write books, Chicago was the one for me.

I spent the time to read Chicago cover to cover before I wrote a single word of the books I wanted to write. I will admit I didn't understand everything within; some things still confuse me even today. What I do know is that the book was somewhat dry but I needed to read it. That the book held the secrets and tools I needed to learn if I wanted to have any success in the book writing industry. Some sections I had to read a number of times before I finally made sense of what they were trying to convey. Even though the book was dry I wanted what it had to offer - skill; so I made sure to read every word.

At the end of all of that I realized I was not a good writer. I was mediocre at best. Even though the information I wrote was good and useful, the way I wrote it made it difficult and useless. If people have to struggle to read what you write, or if they get lost along the way, what you mean to say becomes lost. When that happens all the good stuff in the work becomes meaningless. For someone like me who was writing educational material, much as I am right now, no one would take it serious because of how it was written.

What's funny is that writing is considered the only industry in the world you need zero training to get into. To learn how to write code to build websites requires training. To learn to play softball you need training. To even learn how to make cookies, you need some training. Yet the vast majority of writers don't bother to get any - or worse ignore what people tell them about their writing.

A perfect example of that occurred for me a few months back. I'm part of a number of different writing groups; one of the members of one of the groups posted a snippet of their work so they could get some feedback. In the first paragraph alone there were more mistakes than there were things right. What astounded me more was that they had supposedly been writing for a number of years. They had a number of stories published on a writing website that were all the same as that snippet. When I took the time to show them the mistakes they made it fell on deaf ears. They were so focused on the story they were trying to tell that the words they used simply didn't matter.

So take it from someone who was once just a writer, and hopefully now is a good writer - the words you use are equally important to the things you want to say; in many ways even more so. Since people will never read your work if the words are wrong, don't work together, or are riddled with mistakes. That means what you have to say doesn't even matter if people can't stand reading your work. So instead of wasting your time writing things no one will ever read, you really need to take the time to either train yourself, or get training, on how to be a better writer. In the end you will be glad you did because it will allow you to become a good writer, instead of just a mediocre one.

Source: Devon K. Link

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Business Writing Training: Business Writing Seminar - The Difference Between Writing And Good Writing