Photo courtesy of Vibragiel
Chief Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind, a rising star in the blogging world.
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In the endless sea of textbooks, essays and lectures, there are obviously more than enough pages about how to better your writing. Be concrete. Focus on the core message. Evoke emotion. Entertain, surprise, tell a story, omit needless words. Simplify, simplify, simplify.
Despite all this useful advice, many aspiring writers fail to heed the most important rule of all: trust your material.
There seems to be a trend where uninteresting ideas try to covertly pass as interesting. A lot of this writing ends up have a cheesy, gimmicky feel. It’s like raving about the amazing quality of high end office supplies. While they have the best intentions, it just sounds cheap.
I’ll be honest, trusting your material is easier said than done. How do you know when your material is amazing, merely mediocre, or, worse, absolute drivel?
The best way, I think, to test the profundity of your material is through enthusiasm. Are you truly excited about your work, or do you spend hours trying to find angles and clever ways to deliver your thoughts?
If you find yourself trying to force excitement in your writing, chances are there’s a problem with the material itself.
To better illustrate, here is a personal example:
Topic: Happiness, liberation, and feeling comfortable within yourself.
I wanted to write an article about increasing your happiness. I could have given 10 suggestions for greater happiness: spending more time outdoors, doing what you love, spending time with yourself, etc.
The only problem with this approach — if you haven’t noticed — it’s not very original. Many people elsewhere have exhausted the number of things you can do to increase your happiness. I realized that in order for me to stand apart, I needed to find a more interesting approach; something more creative and unexpected (something that hasn’t already been written over 40,000 times).
Now, I could have tried all sorts of gimmicks and tricks to make my article seem more interesting than it was. I could call it “10 ways to be happier than you’ve ever imagined” or “Suggestions for making the most of every moment.” I can hype up the reader with a lot of chest-pounding, motivational hype. I can pull out every inspirational idea in the book. In the end, my article will likely be forgotten a few minutes after the reader is finished (if not before he even started).
Instead of trying to force excitement on dull material, I took a different approach: the idea of living without a template. What’s one of the best (if not the best) ways to achieve greater happiness? Being yourself.
I took the idea of being yourself as one of the primary determinates of happiness, and mulled over in my mind the possible ways I could approach it. I could have talked about having greater self esteem. Played out. Self forgiveness? Tired. Being nice to yourself? Boring.
So I waited. I thought of a lot of ideas. I brainstormed. And I waited again.
Then I thought, why not approach the idea of having greater happiness as breaking free from the shoulds of society. Doing what you want to do, rather than trying to live up the expectations of everyone else. Living without a template.
When I came up with the idea of living without a template, the creative and fresh approaches of writing flowed easily and naturally. I came up with the idea of instead of living with a template, you could freestyle life. I also brought to light the fact that living without a template might cause upheaval from others who are living inhibited. With that came the idea of the “anti-role collateral.” The price you pay for living on your terms, the strange looks you might get, the rejection from society and disapproval you will inevitably face. But all the while keeping in mind, your personal liberation and happiness are worth more than anyone else’s fear-driven approval.
Right away I realized that the idea of living without a template was creative and exciting. I didn’t need to force interest on it, because it was internally interesting.
As soon as I realized it was an idea worth pursuing, worth writing about, then came the hard part of simplifying, getting to the core, evoking emotion and entertaining. But this was naturally easier when I trusted my material. Much easier than trying to find an interesting approach to 10 suggestions to live more happily.
The Impact of Trusting Your Material
Trusting your material isn’t easy. It takes patience. A lot of it. You’ll likely go through, 10, 20 or 50 ideas before you find one worth writing about. It take patience to wait for those ideas and at times it can be frustrating as hell.
But I guarantee that if you were to write about those 20 mediocre ideas, forcing interesting on them, you’d have less than half the interest as one completely compelling idea. Trusting your material is definitely a skill that takes time to develop, but once you do, I know you’ll find it extremely liberating.
My college English teacher asked at the beginning of our first day of class, “Why does anyone write?” Myself and all of my classmates squirmed and strained ourselves to come up with an answer to her question. After ten minutes of failed attempts my teacher said, “Because you have something to say.”
It’s so common sense, but it was so compelling that it stuck in my mind to this day. I regularly ask myself when writing, am I just trying to force interest on an uninteresting idea, or do I really have something to say? So the question is… What do you have to say?
Jonathan is the author of Illuminated Mind – The less boring side of personal development. His articles include Living Freestyle; Life Without a Template and Liberate Your Life: Put Yourself on Auto-Response.
25 Comments, Comment or Ping
Al at 7P
Hi Jonathan,
The experience you had is so common in the blogosphere. It’s so easy to fall into the routine of writing a formulaic article, since the formula seems to succeed in the past. Writing with a structural formula in mind without the life and passion would indeed make the article uninteresting.
This is very helpful for many of us who face the constant pressure of writing deadlines. We should only write when we have something to say. When the message is unforced and compels itself onto paper (or the keyboard or whatever), that’s when the life in the article begins.
Aug 12th, 2008
writer dad
I love the idea of “Living without a template.” You’re right. So many sites are saying the exact same thing. It can start to sound like a bunch of toneless echos. Trusting the creativity, and having the courage to throw away an idea that’s been done to death, is important. Thanks for the post.
Aug 12th, 2008
Mary Jaksch
Hi Jonathan!
Thanks for the great article! I like your approach to writing articles. At the same time, it’s sometimes difficult to follow your advice when there is a lot of pressure to produce. For example, I’m now writing for my own blog GoodlifeZen, for Lifehack, and for WritetoDone.
I’m having to train myself to think and write faster. I haven’t got the luxury of waiting for passion to hit me between the shoulder blades!
Jonathan, how do you manage to keep your attitude of writing with passion – even when you’re pushed to produced?
Aug 12th, 2008
Marie
My college English teacher asked at the beginning of our first day of class, “Why does anyone write?” Myself and all of my classmates squirmed and strained ourselves to come up with an answer to her question. After ten minutes of failed attempts my teacher said, “Because you have something to say.”
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Great post. I just have to say though, that I think your English teacher would’ve also asked, “Why are you starting a sentence with ‘Myself’ when you should start it with ‘I’”?
Aug 12th, 2008
Mary
Thank you for this post. Though I know I have something to say, I often find myself getting bogged down in the “shoulds” of writing. Between this article and the Living Without a Template article, I have a new perspective.
Now to get writing. :)
Aug 12th, 2008
Amanda Linehan
Thanks Jonathan, I needed this. :)
Aug 12th, 2008
Bamboo Forest
“If you find yourself trying to force excitement in your writing, chances are there’s a problem with the material itself.”
Yes. Absolutely.
Brian Clark did an article today, which underscores your excellent point. He writes:
“Post when you’ve got something interesting to say. Post when you have content that furthers the aims of your business. Post when you’ve got something that will go viral and bring you tons of links and new subscribers. Most of all, post something of value to your intended audience.
Or don’t post.”
Link: http://www.copyblogger.com/steven-wright/
Aug 12th, 2008
Leo
Awesome post, Jonathan! It’s a great reminder even for bloggers like myself, who have grown in readership but sometimes need a kick in the seat. :)
I think this is a topic we can all relate to — it’s hard to trust your material when you’re so unsure about it, about whether people will like it and find use in it and be as enthusiastic about it as you are yourself. But what you say in this article makes a lot of sense, and I think while it might be hard at first, with practice you get a better sense of whether your material has value or not.
Aug 12th, 2008
Zoe Westhof
Hi Jonathan,
It’s refreshing to read a post that doesn’t tout the benefits of list posts or encourage the writer to scrawl extravagant promises.
So much useless text is dumped on the Web in the effort to produce “content.” Doesn’t “content” become pointless when it lacks all substance?
I’m heading over to your blog to read more!
Aug 12th, 2008
Eugene (Editor, Varsity Blah)
“My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.” – George Bernard Shaw
Aug 12th, 2008
Mary K
This was great advice at a great time. One of my editors threw out a story idea, first come, first served. I immediately fired back I wanted the opportunity, but after I sent the email, I wondered how I was going to write this story. There just didn’t seem to be anything there beyond reporting. I fretted, but was beaten to the story by another writer. In the future, I will worry less and trust myself more to come up with original approaches.
Aug 12th, 2008
Glen Allsopp
Nice work Johnathan, I really enjoyed this. And it’s nice to see that I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while before finding this article ;)
Cheers,
Glen
Aug 12th, 2008
Kelly@SHE-POWER
I agree with you Jonathan, if you don’t have anything to say, why write? But we always have something to say, it’s just a matter of pulling the right story out. I find that if I approach a topic organically and just free write I’ll soon see if I have a post there that I can write today. If I struggle too much, I take a break, try and go for a run or lie outside in the sun (bit hard in winter now) and get my mind off writing. This always seems to free up the initial idea or replace it with a new one which flows. I’m not saying this works for everybody, but I can’t force myself to write a post that isn’t flowing. It’s too time consuming and with work, a child and a house to run I need to make the best use of my time and write in the zone, not spend hours trying to get the words down. .
:) Kelly
Aug 13th, 2008
Jonathan Mead
@Mary: It’s true that it’s really difficult to keep up the passion when you’re pressured to produce. I think the key to solving this (or at least alleviating it a bit) is to have many ideas gestating at one time and to respect the gestation of each of them. Have a lot of ideas going at once, but don’t try to force the article to be finished until you find it coming to fruition naturally. That doesn’t mean you don’t sit down and work, you do. But you don’t try to push something out that is premature and ends up sacrificing the quality of the material.
I write more about this in my article on creativity over at my blog. You can check it out here if you like:
http://www.illuminatedmind.net/2008/07/29/how-to-be-more-creative/
Aug 13th, 2008
Jonathan Mead
@Marie: My bad, thanks for spotting that. I hope you can forgive me.
@Mary: Thanks for reading, I’m glad you liked both of them.
@Bamboo: I actually read that article yesterday after submitting this one. It’s one of the best I’ve read from Brian in a while and inspired by one of my favorite comedians. Steven Wright is a prodigy.
@Leo: Absolutely. It’s a skill that takes time and practice to develop. I’ve gotten a lot better at weeding out my mediocre ideas. In the end, I can let go of the pressure to produce, because I know that if I write one really amazing article it will connect with people on a much greater level than if I write 10 unoriginal and forced pieces.
Aug 13th, 2008
Jonathan Mead
@Zoe: I’m so glad you liked this. I am in no way bashing lists. I think they can be very useful for organizing thoughts and ideas. I don’t think, however, they should be used as a crutch for producing when you really don’t have much value to offer or anything new to say.
@Mary K: I’m glad you were able to see that. Thanks for reading.
@Glen: It’s nice to know I have support from my readers.
@Kelly: I think you are right, we do all have something unique to say. It’s just a matter of separating that from all the noise.
Aug 13th, 2008
Mary Jaksch
Hi Kelly!
Yes, we always have something to say. Because we are always experiencing something worthwhile communicating. Except when we’re asleep, maybe. But when we wake up, we can write about: “Why Sleep is Crucial for Creativity’ – or “Why Dreams are a Writer’s best Friend”.
Aug 13th, 2008
Jack
While I see your point, I have to say that I think you’re missing out on some awesome pen and notebook discussion by passing up “raving about the amazing quality of high end office supplies”. Notebookism exists because people do care about this stuff.
Aug 14th, 2008
Jonathan Mead
Hey Jack,
That was meant to be a joke. I actually do love my office supplies. Especially my high-end ball point silver pen that never seems to run out of ink. I don’t know what I’d do if we were ever separated.
Aug 14th, 2008
Yvette
Aha. Be yourself. The age old solution to the human condition ;-)
Your stuff is a good read, thanks for taking the time to write.
http://jerseygirlgenius.typepad.com/
Aug 14th, 2008
JohnKhoo
Hmm… Be passionate with what we like to do. That’s the main driving force behind every creativity works. If we don’t like things in certain niches, where comes the ideas of making it better? If we like doing something so much, we will try to get familiar with it. Then, only we have thoughts, ideas and the familiarity that brings creativity on it.
Aug 15th, 2008
Ryan Letourneau
Passion is essential in writing because it is contagious — if you really love what you’re talking about then people will love hearing you talk about it. Your articles will be more addictive than crack cocaine.
Aug 17th, 2008
Steve Shaw
> If you find yourself trying to force excitement in your writing, chances are there’s a problem with the material itself.
Very similar to writing sales copy. You need to get yourself enthusiastic about the product/service, to be able to communicate that effectively through copy. If you have to force it, chances are there’s a problem with the product itself.
Sep 5th, 2008
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