When I first started this blog, I was “assigned” it.  Of course, every new post needs to be submitted on Sunday, they need to be a certain length, etc.  But once ICM 501 was finished last fall, I found myself missing writing (or typing) down my thoughts each week.  I grew to enjoy writing each post and it no longer felt “assigned”.

Through this same process, I also started realizing that my purpose for writing each blog post was shifting.  It no longer felt much like work to write a few hundred words.  It started to feel like an escape instead.  I have found that any type of writing has always been an outlet for me to express what I never could in words.

Instead of creating a new post solely for the grade, I began to write for myself.  This is what William Zinsser mentions in one of his chapters in On Writing Well.  His exact phrasing is “You are writing for yourself”, which truly resonated with me.

Why does it matter what someone else thinks about your own thoughts, feelings, opinions?  Who are they to tell you what is right or wrong?  The ART of writing is to some people what typical ART (paint, dance, sketch) is to another.

The perfect balance is to keep the reader engaged just enough so that they continue to read and not get distracted while at the same time pretending like you care what they think, just enough so that they begin to believe it themselves.  If they continue reading for long enough, sooner or later they actually will start to care and become invested.  As Zinsser put it, “readers don’t know what they want to read until they read it.”

Not a lot of authors have mastered this practice, but the important thing is that they keep trying until they learn what works and what doesn’t. In the end, write what you want to write and everything else will fall into place.  If you won’t take my advice, take the advice of Kevin Costner: “If you build it, they will come.”