Having been sold on the dream of the paperless office many breathed a sigh of relief that they would no longer be required to write. What they hadn’t bargained for was the need for written content in emails and web sites. Even if we ignore the internet there are still many times when a written communication is more appropriate than any other format. Being willing and able to write is, in my view, essential.

Like any skill, writing is something which improves with practice. It is also a skill that will atrophy through lack of use.

When we write we are simply translating our thoughts into a more tangible format. Those ideas that float in and out of our minds are captured and recorded. It really is as simple as that. The difficulty comes in discerning which thoughts to capture and which to ignore. If your mind is anything like mine, you will possibly not even be aware of many of ideas that flit around your head.

You could probably get as many different definitions of good writing as the number of people you ask. However, a general standard would surely be text that is easy to understand that successfully transmits the intended message.

It is very tempting for a writer to throw himself into a new project without planning or researching his theme. Indeed this is a method followed by a number of successful writers but it is not one that is necessarily to be recommended as it leads to numerous rewrites and wasted effort. At the other end of the spectrum are the writers who spend far too long researching and planning to the extent that it becomes a form of procrastination.

Writing styles vary, which is considered to be a good thing by readers. There’s the matter of personal writing style combined with the style most appropriate for the piece being written. These two variables alone combine to produce a rich diversity in the written word.

For me it’s important that whatever I read causes me to pause and think. I don’t want to be bored. I don’t want to find myself speed reading and scanning pages. I want to enter the mind of the writer and learn something new or be offered the opportunity to look at things in a different way. That is the essence of good writing.

It saddens me when I come across web content in particular which is there for the sake of being there. It provides nothing. No interest, no entertainment and certainly no value. It leaves me feeling cheated and breaks trust with the author.

We’ve touched on planning, researching and writing but that is not the end of the matter. A finished piece that a reader will value needs further attention from the much talked about blue pencil. Work that has been edited is always easy to spot simply because the quality is so much higher.

Some confuse editing with proofreading when in reality they are two different processes. A proof reader looks for errors. An editor looks for opportunities to improve the text by shortening sentences, removing adverbs and adjectives and removing ambiguities. Editing is the process which turns a manuscript into a masterpiece.

As a lifelong reader and writer I so want to see others enjoy writing. At the very least I would like to remove the fear so many seem to hold about the process of writing. My wish for you is that you find some inspiration here that encourages you to pick up your pen once again. Write for the sheer fun of it. Write simply because you can.