How I Write

A lot of people ask how I write so much.  I answer a substantial volume of email, try to post to my blog regularly, and send periodic messages to the community.  I came across this piece today, and the author's answer is remarkably similar to mine:

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130225170136-8451-my-secrets-how-i-became-a-prolific-writer-and-learned-to-get-beyond-school-essays?ref-email

I just write everything like it's an email message to a friend.  I try to be factual and honest and without being emotional, I don't mince words.  I'm not as good as I could be about being succinct, but I struggle with the nuances a bit, so my writing tends to get longer than I'd like.  I squeeze in writing where I can- over lunch, on the train, at an airport, or at home late at night.  Any time and place is good as long as I can think for a few minutes.


No commentary on my writing would be complete without recognition to a few folks.  I learned a great deal about style and editing from Ms Bryson, my 11th grade English teacher.  Mr. Picking (8th grade English) exposed me to writing from a variety of authors.  And Howard Bush (6th grade) taught me that other people's expectations of me weren't as important as what I expected of myself.  (He taught my small 6th grade class in a rural community all about Latin America by lecturing to us from college text books.)

Not unremarkably, they're all public school teachers.  My thanks to all of them.