The writer in you
We write everyday using a pen or type on a keyboard. You are a writer. There’s no big mystery about being a writer. However, you have to take time, efforts, and practices to be an effective and powerful writer. Being an effective writer requires you to follow the same course of actions as Chris Botti did to become a renowned trumpeter – practice, practice, practice, and be friends with Sting. Okay, okay, it’s not music business, so you don’t need to consider the Sting ingredient in the success formula. Then, I suggest you replace the Sting thing with IDEAS. That’s right. You’ve got to be friends with IDEAS. This does not simply means that you need to be open to others’ ideas. It means you’ve got to share your ideas successfully with others. Many writers may have the same topics to write about but each writer must have his or her own ideas about each topic. Your ideas are what will make your writing different from the writing of others. Don’t simply offer readers information they already know: share your unique ideas and insights.
David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who died in 2007 by a car accident shared his last piece of advice on writing in Telling True Stories. Below are some excerpts from Halberstam’s chapter in this amazing book.
To write good narrative you must be able to answer the question: What is the story about? The idea, the concept, is critical to narrative journalism. Moving the idea from genesis to fruition is what it’s all about. [...] Once you have the idea, it just flows out. This is perhaps the best advice I can offer. Taking an idea, a central point, and pursuing it, turning it into a story that tells something about the way we live today, is the essence of narrative journalism. [...] The idea is vital. Telling a good story demands a great conception, a great idea for why the story works – for what it is and how it connects to the human condition. You must be able to point to something larger. [David Halberstam, The Narrative Idea, pp. 10-11]
