WHY SHOULD ANYONE WRITE?

LEARN to write. Developing your writing skills will benefit you – it helps you in many ways. Here are some.

1. HELPS YOU IN YOUR STUDIES

If you are planning to continue on with formal studies, you must write.

At the tertiary level, many of your assignments and research will be presented in the form of essays – a style of writing.

People who write better (and speak better) do better than others.

2. WRITING HELPS YOU RE-LEARN A LANGUAGE

People who write, master the language that they are writing in.

If you write in English, you master the grammar of the language better. (That goes for French, Italian or other languages that have a written form. My French tutor said writing notes in a journal in French will help the student in a big way.)

3. YOU REMEMBER BETTER

People who write remember things better … and can express incidents better – in letters, as well as speech.

When recording an event, a good writer pays attention to details – dates, weather on days that of concern, music, atmosphere of the environment, ergo.

4. SHARPENS YOUR OBSERVATION SKILLS

This is related to the last point.

Put a good writer (good journalists are like that) in an environment and s/he will pick up details that an average person would miss.

Words spoken, people seen, sounds heard, etc would be absorbed better by a writer.

Those details add colour to the painting board of his story plots.

5. IT IS FULFILLING

Writing, like producing music, appeases the soul.

A person working on an interesting plot will forget the noise and excitement outside his/her home – or the pub.

He or she would not need entertainment; the creative work that s/he is involved in is entertaining enough.

6. IT CAN EARN YOU SOME MONEY

Writers can publish their work and get paid for it.

A writer (like a recording musician) can be a trained mechanic, who gets paid fortnightly for his skills in the trade.

If s/he writes a book and publishes it (with the help of a publisher), s/he can receive royalties from that.

Money earned can help sort out the many bills and obligations that the fortnight pay might not be able to sort out.

HOW TO DEVELOP WRITING SKILLS

So, how does one develop one’s writing skills?

Simple. Write.

Yes, the student (person) who wants to writer must … WRITE.

1. KEEP A JOURNAL

Such a person must learn to keep a journal to record events of interest on a regular basis (if not daily).

2. WRITE STORIES ABOUT YOURSELF

It is easy to write about you – because nobody knows you better than yourself.

It is interesting to note that some people have written about themselves.

I had a biography passed onto me by a sister to have a look at. The writer may want to have that published later on.

(I have written many things about my own experiences in life. I have shared some of those - but many of those will never be published. The time and effort put into creating those pieces is part of developing/honing my writing skills … going over my own lines, editing, re-arranging, etc to make the sentences really stand out.)

3. WRITE ABOUT THINGS YOU LOVE

Many people talk about bad things and it brings gloom into their lives. (It is like talking about the rain yesterday, when it is bright and sunny outside.)

When you write about things you love (music, exotic places, literature, relatives, etc), and things you wish to do or achieve, it boosts your morale to work towards better times and things.

I cannot say more about this, except, you’ve got to try it to know how fulfilling it can be.

It is my hope that more of you reading this will take up a pen and notebook and start writing.

Cheers.