With that said, I don’t believe we need to be so concerned about proper form and using words like “ye” and “thus” (like I did above). And I’m sure there are many English teachers that will hate when I say this, but you no longer have to understand all the little nuances of writing proper English either. So don’t be scared.
You Think You’re Not A Writer?
Text. Facebook. Twitter. Your blog. Commenting on blogs. Emailing. These are things most of us do without giving it a second thought. The funny thing is, we don’t consider ourselves writers. But I have to tell you something that Jeff Goins told me. You ARE a writer. Our world today revolves around communication and writing is an essential part of that. Some of the best writers in the world will tell you that less is more. Twitter is the perfect example of that. Think of how many times you’ll rewrite a tweet so you can limit the characters to 140 and have it still make sense. That’s awesome writing! Facebook often causes us to do the same thing. Or sending that email to your boss where you tweak it for 15 minutes before hitting “send”. We are all writers.
Why Don’t We Think We Are?
I’d say it’s pretty simple, really. We tend to think of writers as people that write books. Back before social media, that was really all there was. Texting is fairly new. Blogs are fairly new. Facebook and Twitter are very new. And the plethora of other sites in the Web 2.0 era are all new products. But we can’t let the past define who we are today. Today, we are all writers. Writing is an incredible blessing to our world today. It allows us to communicate thoughts, feelings, actions and so much more just by writing the words that come to our mind. It allows us to evoke emotion in people and build a tribe of people sharing the same mindset. Writing releases new ideas into the world that have never been outside of our skull before. It does numerous things, many of which are essential to helping the world change. Yes, writing is more than just words. It’s life. It takes on a meaning of its own when paired with the passion for something. Whoever made up the “sticks and stones” saying was totally lying about words not hurting. They can hurt. They can also encourage, tear down, build up, make you cry, make you laugh, humble you, teach you, empower you…they can do almost anything.
This is a call.
A call to ask you to understand the power of words. To ask you to understand that a writer isn’t just for novelist or scribes anymore. It’s time to wake up and realize how often we write and how meaningful it is and can be. Pair it with your passion in life, don’t wait. Maybe you’re not a book writer or a blog writer…but I tell you, you ARE a writer. (Photo credit: tnarik)
