Less talking please.
Why? What’s wrong with talking?
There’s nothing inherently wrong with it. Humans need to talk. That’s how we understand each other.
The best predictor [so far] of empathic accuracy appears to be verbal intelligence. Knowing other’s minds requires asking and listening, not just reading and guessing.
William Ickes, taken from MindWise by Nicholas Epley
The problem with talking is that we tend to overdo it. Our mouths open for words to gush out, as they open for doughnuts and jellos to come in. Left unchecked, speaking degenerates into an endless chatter, i.e. more of an impulse and reflex than something we do consciously.
Writing is more deliberate.
It slows you down and makes you think. It creates the space and time for your thoughts to settle into new perspectives, from where solutions emerge. It’s no surprise then that writing is at the core of everything we do here at Server Density.
Our engineering team is spread around the UK and Europe. Most of our communication takes place in PR descriptions, Google+, Slack, and email. Asynchronous written communication is taking over real time meetings.
But there is more to writing than mere necessity.
Just as inviting people over forces you to clean up your apartment, writing something that other people will read forces you to think well.
Paul Graham, The Age of the Essay
Writing is brain hygiene. It sweeps away all the mind-stuff that loiters around in our head. Writing is conducive to sober thinking and better decision making.
Think you have nothing interesting to write about?
Think again.
Everyone is interesting. There is no such thing as a boring person. Not according to Richard Branson. Matt Mullenweg agrees: if you don’t find someone interesting, it’s not them but you.
Everyone has an equal footprint in life. We all extend ourselves in order to breathe. We travel inwards or outwards and explore new terrains every single moment. From astronauts to Buddhist monks and everyone in between, that’s what humans do. They explore and learn.
Great developers are better writers.
There’s a huge difference between code that’s intuitive and code that’s nonsensical. The difference tends to correspond to the writing skills of the developer.
At Server Density we write code for humans to read and understand. A well written PR description will get merged quickly, whereas a badly written one will linger for longer. A clear and concise PR comment leads to code improvements, whereas a badly written one leads to miscommunication or ignored altogether.
We ask all our job candidates to complete a writing exercise at very the beginning of their application. It involves taking a complex topic and explaining it in simple terms. If they can’t, that’s usually the end of their application. Sloppy writing screams sloppy thinking. Typos are non-starters.
Writing is a delivery method.
The writing style of inspirational authors is great not because of some grandiose word you’d need a dictionary to decipher. As a reader, what fascinates you is the author’s message, which is delivered intact. Intact because the delivery kept it pure.
How do you keep it pure? Keep reading to find out how.
1. Acquire the skill.
Writing is not an inborn gift. It’s an acquired skill.
You do not have to be a native speaker. You do not need to be an English major or hold a certification. Stop talking about it, stop taking courses about it and start doing it. Write consistently, until you become good at it. And then keep going. That’s what pros do.
2. Conquer the empty page.
If you study the habits of successful authors and prolific bloggers, you will find they have systems in place to break through the bone-chilling fear of the empty page. They don’t talk about empty pages, they bulldozer over them.
I sit back down and start (word) vomiting all over the place. Translation: I type seemingly-random words into sentences. I only stop to read what I’ve written until I’ve run out of things to say.
Once done, you go back and read what you’ve written. Much of it won’t make sense. Your job is to delete those parts. Keep cutting and refining until you end up with the essence of what you want to say.
3. Read before you write.
For the most page-for-page wisdom, old fashioned books are still better than the web:
There are a lot of people writing for the web today; but there aren’t that many at all who are trying to do great writing for the web.
John Gruber, On Writing, Signal v. Noise
That’s not to say there is no good writing on the web. Here are some of our favorite blogs. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you read as much as making the time for it.
Great writers treat their reading the same way they treat their nutrition. Reading has a way of finding its way into their daily routine. Every single day, they stand on the shoulders of giants, they learn, absorb, assimilate, and become better thinkers.
There are some great classics about the craft of writing, and you should read them all. Those books do not prescribe a “right” method or approach. Writing is a liberal art, which means there is no process or instructions to follow.
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Good news is, there are some common pitfalls and mistakes, errors you can avoid once you become aware of them. When you eliminate those errors, get rid of the repetitions, cliches, and superfluous cruft, what you end up with is the essence of your message—the useful nuggets that serve your reader.
4. Cut down on syllables.
Why implement when you can carry out? Why endeavor when you can try? Why consolidate when you can combine? Why commence when you can begin?
Reserve longer words for those few cases when the actual term is part of the message. Make sure any extra syllables add value, context, and nuance that would otherwise not be there. Comedy, for example, or sarcasm, euphemisms, and so on.
Some extra flair might come in handy every now and again. When used in moderation, audiences will notice and appreciate this added texture, as long as it happens occasionally and deliberately.
5. Treat writing as a product.
There comes a point when writing—be it blogging, fiction, nonfiction, whatever—stops being an art and it becomes a product. A product that you iterate until it reaches the desired level of quality.
Start by reciting what you’ve written. Sleep on it and try again. Iterate.
One of the skills you gain, in time, is the ability to know when your writing is done. You know that at some predictable point in the future (near or far), your draft will no longer be a draft. You can even estimate how many iterations it’ll take you to get there.
And that’s great, because your readers expect you to show up every week. That’s how readership and audiences are built. Slowly and consistently.
The writing’s on the wall.
You don’t need to know gerunds, split infinitives and absolute modifiers to be a good writer. Writing is not about terms. The true value of writing is not measured in word counts, post frequency, and Facebook likes.
It’s what underlies writing that makes it so important. Writing thrives on ideas and problem solving. Writing is about taking the time and creating the space, away from the distraction and superficiality that plagues our modern lives.
Clear writing is indicative of clear thinking and a disciplined approach. In that respect, writing is a framework, a vehicle, and an impetus for the best parts in each of us to grow and manifest.
Writing is human potential. We should do more of it.
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