Writing: According to Me

Admittedly, there's a more academic way to describe what writing is than my definition. But in my own simple words, writing is sharing what's in your brain with the outside world. You do that by creating symbols that, with the right combination, become words. Those symbols are called letters, especially in the English language. Those letters build words and those words carry ideas from one place (one person's mind) to another place (another person's mind). So writing is the process of building boats so ideas can travel from one island (or one person) to the next. When you understand writing from that point of view, then you'll have a chance to write something people want to read.

For this article, I thought it would be interesting to show some of the elements that do NOT make up good writing in my own humble opinion. With that said, here are three things I don't think make for good writing.

Pretentious Prose

Ah, yes. Pretentious prose. We love it, don't we? No, of course we don't! Who loves hearing from a person with their heads shoved so far up their behinds that they don't realize other people exist? People who write pretentious prose tend to think the world of themselves and their writing capabilities. They believe they're important, and everyone should hang on to every word they say. To make sure you hang on to those words, and you recognize their genius, they write in the most pretentious way possible.

So what's a good definition of pretentious writing? It's writing that has no regard or respect for an audience. It tries to be good without considering what readers have already established is good for them. I'm all for experimenting with writing. It's how you create interesting ideas and concepts. But even when you experiment with your writing, you should keep in mind what your readers are more likely to accept and what they will reject.

But pretentious writing doesn't do that. It doesn't consider anyone else but the author.

Now, I will take a step back from my initial reaction when I think of pretentious writing (prose) to think a little more about it. Perhaps every writer who writes pretentious prose doesn't write it for their glory. It could be that they are insecure about their writing abilities. That insecurity convinces them to write "better," which leads to them writing pretentious prose.

With that said, I don't harshly attack those who are insecure and think they have to write in a pretentious way to write better. But those who think the world of themselves and that they are blessing the world with their writing get all of my harshness. You don't write for yourself or your glory if you are presenting your work to others. You write the kind of story an audience wants to pick up and read! That's how you become a successful writer.

Pretentious Writing is a Blockade!

The problem with pretentious writing is that it serves as a blockade between you and your readers. If you're busy trying to make people understand your genius or trying to be a "good writer," then what are you sharing with others? You're sharing your desire to be "better" without offering anything of value back to the reader. No one likes an unfair deal - especially one they don't benefit from. What benefit does a reader get from recognizing your genius? How do you make their lives better in any way?

I think of pretentious writing as a blockade because writing for an audience is a two-way street. You write and an audience connects with your writing. If the connection is valuable, your audience will continue to come back to your work, provided you keep giving them what they want to read. In other words, you're building a connection with your audience with each piece of content you write, whether it be a book, an article, or a social media post.

When you're only thinking of your genius and how everyone should marvel at it, then that two-way street becomes one way. You want all of the praise and attention to come to you. The value you believe others get is by being in the presence of your self-proclaimed greatness in the form of words. But your audience doesn't feel that way. Your audience sees no value in what you're writing. Not only that, but they feel insulted by the way you're presenting your written content to them.

Pretentious Writing Insults Others

Typically, when people want to lift themselves above others, they find that they can't. So they result in lowering others around them.

"No one understands my genius. They're just too stupid and need to educate themselves!"

True. No one understands your genius. So why don't you try building a connection with an audience through written words so they can see the worth of your genius for themselves? No. They don't need to educate themselves. You need to educate them on why what you have written is important to them. You don't do that by making them seem like they're stupid for not understanding you.

Instead, you should educate yourself on what kind of writing resonates with them and adapt to that style if you can. If you can't, then that's not your audience. You find another audience. If you can't find an audience, then you resort to simply writing for yourself if you think what you have written is so great.

To suggest someone has to submit themselves to your feelings and respect your genius is to demand they disregard their feelings and thoughts just to hold yours in high regard. No one is going to go for that kind of unfair nonsense! Pretentious prose keeps you locked in your head - and that's not good for forming connections with others.

Writing Is An Exchange

Writing - specifically writing for an audience besides just you - is an exchange of what's in one's mind that others find valuable in some way. They show they value what's being written by paying money for the content or taking some other call-to-action cue such as liking a post, leaving a comment, sharing the written content on social media, and so on. Once you take away the value you give to others, you're not writing for an audience or to make money. You're just writing for your benefit.

So consider the value that you have to offer to your audience. If they don't value what you are putting out, then why should they read it? Again, this is not about stroking your ego. It's about giving value to an audience.

And now, I'm going to seemingly contradict that with the next reason I'll give for bad writing.

Pandering to an Audience Way Too Much

I know I explained how bad it was to keep your head up your own behind as a pretentious author. But it's just as bad to shove your head up someone else's behind! In other words, just keep your head out of anyone's rear end. You're going to need the oxygen in the open world to create quality content.

While you do need to consider what your audience values, you also need to make sure that what you value somewhat lines up with what your audience values. What if your audience believes in gods or a god but you're an atheist? Would your article explaining ten thousand different reasons gods don't exist appeal to those who have ten thousand and one different reasons why they do believe in a god or gods?

A devoted Christian wouldn't value what an atheist has to say about how real or fake their God is. So while you may write a well-written article on why intelligent design can't be real, that devoted Christian isn't going to admire how well-written your article is. They're going to be insulted because they feel you've attacked what they've been taught to be true since their childhood. And some will take it very personally.

But does that mean you shouldn't have written that well-researched, well-put-together article on why intelligent design probably isn't a thing according to modern science? No! You made some people mad? Well, that happens. But you took your writing seriously and wrote an article to the best of your abilities to present your case to a considerate audience. Other people shouldn't shut up your skills because they're uncomfortable with it. Are there exceptions to this rule? Probably. Anything that threatens someone's well-being or quality of life probably should be restricted or eliminated, including harmful content.

What Doesn't Kill You...

I know censoring and restricting words is a heated point of discussion - which it should be. What is harmful to society? Who makes that decision? But I like keeping things simple. If it stops someone from being happier when that person being happy wouldn't cause significant harm to anyone in society, then don't restrict or "cancel" that person. We have bigger issues in the world to worry about, like the state of our healthcare system and education system here in America, for instance.  And also, we have a massive problem with how common it is for mass shootings to occur. So when there are bigger societal issues to worry about, we should spend more time focused on resolving those and then taking care of the other issues as they threaten our well-being as a society.

Who cares if you believe in what deity or not when we have to be afraid for our children going to school because they may be the latest victim of a mass shooting? Or why do I care if you hate my swashbuckling male main character who likes other men and lizard ladies on different planets in Galaxy-S3X in my sci-fi steampunk story? (Steampunk Cassanova in space... Sounds like a challenge to write. Could be worth the challenge, though...)  Is it going to be the end of someone's world if I write that book? No, it shouldn't be. So I wouldn't focus so much on appealing to people just because they yell loudly in objection to something. People like yelling to hear their voices sometimes.

With everything said, just understand that your audience isn't always right. No one is always right, so your audience can be wrong sometimes, too. And if you find you're in disagreement with your audience a lot, then perhaps it's time to choose a different audience. That would be better for you than to waste your time and everyone else's time writing content that doesn't connect with anyone.

And... Nothing.

So I talked about how an author's head being stuck up their backside is bad when discussing pretentious prose. I also talked about how an author's head stuck up everyone else's backside is bad when discussing pandering to the audience. Finally, we get to what should be a short section. Because, like  Seinfeld, it's all about nothing!

Seriously, this is a section about nothing. As in, the inaction most would-be writers and authors take as they sit in front of a blank screen or a blank notebook. I'm not trying to put pressure on anyone to be a writer, especially if they don't want to be one. But if you're so adamant that you're a writer or an author, then you will have to eventually start working on a project and put it out there for your potential audience to see.

Of course, you don't just start writing and then send that first draft to your audience. You should do multiple rounds of editing and rewrites, get an editor, get beta readers, take the feedback you receive, and rewrite until you create a product your audience wants to read.

But if you get stuck at the very beginning stages of writing and you never get yourself unstuck, then your creativity dies. Not taking action is how creativity dies. Creativity has to be in motion to grow and stay alive. It's not possible to make "nothing" real. You need to have something to work with, even if it is a piece of crap first draft. Or a slightly modified piece of crap second draft.

No matter what you have, at least you have something you can work with. But those who never get started have killed their ability to make progress in their writing careers.

In It For The Dream

Some people like the fantasy of being a writer. They like to imagine everything going easy for them and having that easy, sit-on-the-beach-and-chill kind of life. They only write when inspiration hits them, which it does hit them for two hours out of every day, punctual and effortlessly. They get so lost in their writing, that they hardly know any time has passed. And when they're done, they have perfection in the form of words in front of them.

But that's the dream, not reality.

In many people's dream worlds, things just fall into their laps. The real world isn't the fantasy world they know and desire. Their world works in their favor at all times and they get exactly what they want. It feels nice to have those kinds of dreams from time to time. However, we can't forget that those dreams aren't reality.

Things happen in real life that don't go our way. But a lot of things that happen can be dealt with.

Plans > Challenges!

Plans can help you overcome most challenges in your life. But a good plan can help you get some traction going, even if you're at a dead standstill. What do I mean by a dead standstill? You staring at that blank document on your computer, watching that cursor blink for a good thirty minutes. I'm sure your intentions weren't to count how many times the cursor blinks per hour. There's a much easier way to do that. You planned on writing something.

Yet you sit there in front of a blank document with a mind that feels just as blank. What do you do? Well, a good way to overcome "writer's block" is to prepare for your writing session before you sit down to write. Think about it. Before you do any strenuous or repetitive physical activity, you stretch your muscles, right? Well, it's a good idea to do so. Why? Because it gets your muscles "warmed up" and more prepared to do strenuous activity.

Writing is a complex mental activity. You have to train your brain like you train your physical body. Prepare your mind for the mental task of writing. How? Do an outline of what you want to write. Come up with some ideas within your outline and expand on them a little. That usually gets me warmed up and ready to write.

Making Nothing Into Something With A Plan

When you come up with a plan, it helps you come up with the direction you want your writing session to go in. With GPS, you can find your way to a destination you've never been to. A plan is like your GPS for your writing session. If you come up with a good plan, you'll come up with a good route to get you to the end point of your writing session.

This means you'll have to set realistic, attainable, and useful goals for your writing session. How much do you plan on writing? How much time do you need to spend on research? There are a lot of questions to resolve before you start writing. Those questions are the beginning of your writing session. If you knew what your end goal was and it was clear, then you would more than likely not have that hard of a time writing.

It shouldn't be a broad goal, either. "Write one thousand words today" is a goal, but not a good one. What about getting more clarity with more details? Or even breaking it down into a smaller, more specific goal that you can quickly get started with? "Develop Chapter One's first scene by introducing the main protagonist, her best friend, and her husband. Be sure to show how important their relationship is to each other..." and so on. The more clear you are on what you need to do, the faster it is that you can do what you need to do.

Being too broad with your goals is the equivalent of driving in fog. You can do it, but your ability to see what's out in front of you diminishes drastically. You'll have to travel slowly to get to your destination safely. But with a clear plan, it's like driving on a clear, sunny day. You can see much more of what's in front of you and give yourself plenty of time to react and adjust to what's in front of you.

Writing is a Journey... and a Bridge

To wrap things up, writing is a journey. It is a journey of growth for one's self. It's also a journey to connect with other people's hearts and minds. We don't have a connection to each other's minds, so we had to create one. Or a few. Writing is the attempt to build a road or a bridge between one another.

Connecting with other people in some capacity is a skill we all have to some degree. I mean, we have to have it to survive. Humans are social animals. Our greatest attribute is our ability to build knowledge with our complex minds and pass that knowledge on to our offspring so they can build on it. Writing helps to preserve knowledge so it can be passed on to others. So writing is also a time capsule?

Writing can be viewed as a lot of things. And it also doesn't have to be just one thing in particular. It can be a journey of self-reflection and discovery while being a journey to connect with others while also preserving our knowledge so we can pass it on to others. But one of the most fascinating things about writing to me is its ability to capture knowledge from times past and preserve it for future generations to analyze and build on. Of course, all knowledge can't be built on. And like everything else, knowledge has its expiration date. That means certain literary works or documents or other pieces of writing have an expiration date and should be disregarded to some extent.

For example, it's probably not a good idea to believe that just because we have different skull sizes our intellect is superior or inferior to others. I think we have better modern-day knowledge to demonstrate why that isn't necessarily so. 

But writing is a way to connect with one's self, the world, and others in it. And it can be a tool to help one grow and understand one's self and one's world. That's what writing has done for me.