New Strategies (for Me) in Writing

Earlier this month I published my first article that I felt proud of on a blog in my organization. My only other article I've published was so short, and it ended up being half-written by someone else when it was edited. So I felt like it wasn't really, totally mine and that my writing was too short.

But for this article I found I had much, much more to write about. And another one is scheduled to go live next week!

So looking back, I see that I've found three good strategies to gain motivation to write more:

1. Find my own article ideas. I used the "news" and "blog" feature on Google Search trying different key words. The articles that most drew my attention from the search gave me a lot to write about. I usually only can write about three or four paragraph, but I found myself writing more when I found my own article ideas.

2. I realized how news articles often work. Back in April I was following the news, reading almost any and every article I could find, about Sony's Playstation Network shutting down unexpectedly and for over a month. I quickly found that many news sources cited and reported only what other news articles and press releases said--and only that it seems like--nothing new to add. How easy is that? Just re-state it in your own words. But I really liked the articles that said new information or an opinion. So when writing recently, I've used an approach of finding a news article, summarizing it in my own words while thinking of how it relates to my audience, and then adding on the end what resources and articles my organization has to help readers learn more about the topic. Fortunately, my organization has a wealth of that sort of thing, and I pick what news to talk about based on what I can point to from my organization.

3. Blogs fit me well. I don't like reading lengthy articles. It just seems way too long to me. So I found that the shorter, one page at most, blog articles that link to other places is what I enjoy a lot. I like that companies have taken on blogs, so that they can have professional writing on it.

I know that the biggest question for most people is how to even get a chance to be noticed and published. I work in office support in a publishing company--so for me my experience is "getting your foot in the door." But even then the opportunities aren't right there. For over a year I haven't been asked to write anything for work, but in one week two different people asked if I wanted to write! I feel like this shows that we don't necessarily control everything. It's really up to God's timing when and if that door will open for a time. So I'd say wait patiently and do what you enjoy--whether or not people see your name in a by-line.