Writing Is Easy When It’s Over

Writing is easy. All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.

—Gene Fowler , Screenwriter, Director, Author

Let’s face it. Everyone can think of things we’d rather do than write. Writing is work, even when it comes easily. We have to get the words down in the right order. We have to check that they’re all there and spelled correctly. We have to make sure that they make sense to people who aren’t us. Those are a lot of things to do when we might be doing something more fun, such as having a life.

Why do I write?

I just can’t let opportunities fly right by me.

10 Reasons to Get Jazzed about Writing

Why do folks write? They know that words have power. That a word well-placed and well-written can bring visibility and attention to them, their business and their brand. They know that writing is an incredible tool that reaches farther than other forms of conversation do. Even video, well-done, is written first.

We write because writing is power. Here are 10 reasons to get jazzed about writing.

1. In today’s universe, writing is your voice. Not to write is close to having laryngitis. The ability to write is critical. You learn it same way you learn to play the guitar–by practice. If you want to communicate when the spotlight falls your way, you need to be writing “solos” now.

2. Writing can reach an unlimited audience. More people can access what you have to say when they can read it. Your audience can read what you write on their own terms, in their own time frame.

3. Writing allows you to think before you speak. One beauty of writing is that you can edit before people hear what you say. The uhs and ums, the wild digressions, and off-base thinking can stay a secret between you and your delete key. You end up looking smarter, and your audience ends up thinking you are too. That’s power.

4. Writing lasts to become an asset. The words you craft today will still be available to you again and again. One investment pays you back with many returns. You can repurpose your writing to fit new situations. You can make it last to serve you and your business as long as you need it to.

5. Writing is free promotion. Offer quality, relevant content to an audience who needs it, and they’ll be coming back to see you again. Your name, your business, and your brand will gain a following from the writing that you did.

6. Writing increases the visibility of your brand. Writing great content means search engine ranking and link popularity. Whether you’re looking for a new job or promoting your business, high visibility is currency in the knowledge universe. Employers and clients are using search engines to check out relationships. You do it. Don’t you?

7. Writing lets people know you as an individual. You become the one and only you. If I never wrote a word on this blog, how would you know who I am? Need I go on?

8. Writing forces you to think through ideas. When you leave your ideas in your head, it’s easy to think you know them inside out. Often after writing something, we know it better than before we started.

9. Writing lets you define the big idea of your brand. Whatever subject you write about will soon become what you are thought of as an expert on.

10. Writing is networking with content. Writing opens doors. People read and answer back. All people tend to see others who think like they do as being smart. Some of those readers will become friends and business contacts.

I can think of so many reasons to write, and I get jazzed about the doors that each piece I write might be opening. Now as I finish this post, I have one more page in my archives. It’s like one more dollar in my promotional bank account. I can repurpose it and use it again and again. People can read it whenever they want to find out more about who I am.

Funny . . . . I’m even more jazzed about writing now, than I was when I started this post.

–ME “Liz” Strauss