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What Is Writing All About?

On the very first day after Easter Holidays, my 7 year old daughter said to me:

– Daddy, teacher asked us to write about our Easter Holidays and I had the best dissertation.

Briefly, here’s what she wrote:

During my holidays I went to Lisbon with my mum. I enjoyed travelling by train and going to McDonalds as well. I also visited some relative’s house, and there was a large swimming pool…

– Well, pretty good. But, honey you should never lie! Let’s try to make this a true story. At the very end just write – “This was only a dream“.

– Daddy, it was not a dream. I’ll be lying anyway.

Needless to say, she made me smile (almost laughing), while feeling so proud about her. Suddenly, she seemed to be somehow embarrassed, and I felt so bad about that.

For my surprise and sadness, hours later I was browsing her notebook scripts again, and noted that unfortunately she had erased the whole story.

My conclusion; – As adults, we are not always prepared to deal with creativity, particularly when it turns to talking about children. They are constantly surprising us, simply because they act instinctively. They let emotions fly naturally.

The above story made me stop and try to figure out: What is writing all about?

Writing (I mean, writing emotionally) is probably all about going back to our childhood. Children simply talk and write. They do not judge, and of course they do not want to be judged. In fact, criticism literally destroys inspiration.

There’s only one thing separating us from shooting a simple e-mail to a friend. It’s the same thing that separates us from writing an inspiring article, and it’s also what separates us from offering the world a bestselling book. – That “difficult thing” is simply being courageous enough to put the first word on paper. We don’t even need a title. That very first word entices our emotion and it literally explodes.

A simple word on a sheet of paper, computer screen, or even “flying” in our mind, awakens our natural state of asking. Yes, our mind is always seeking answers, in its effort to deal with our day-to-day challenges.

Soon our mind is challenged and put into “asking state”, it literally starts “downloading”. Information starts to flood our souls at a speed we cannot even manage, particularly because we are too serious and concerned about perfection, literally judging ourselves.

When I talk about downloading, I’m not trying to compare you to a computer. It used to be said that a super computer looks like an ordinary toy when compared to a human’s brain. – Yes, I believe that our brain (or probably our subconscious mind) is capable of elaborating the content of a bestselling product in a fraction of a second. However, as our activities are largely guided by our conscious mind, we are not able to process the information in a time effective manner.

In today’s world, writing is unfortunately about SEO (Search Engines Optimization). As we write we are wondering what Google is going to “think” about our content. – Crazy world!

In fact, when writing, it’s our responsibility to be concentrated on “ranking” in people’s minds and hearts. I have no doubt that we can literally touch every single heart in this world, by simply sharing an inspiring story, as short as it can be, even without a single “friend” on the social networks. People all over the world are always looking for something interesting to share with their families and friends. – Do your best to position yourself in front of this audience.

Here are some simple writing tips you should always follow if you want to deliver something of value to your readers:

1. Choose the best time to write. – I personally find it more easy to write early in the morning, as I normally feel more relaxed. In addition, silence inspires me.

2. If appropriate, start with a story and/or reveal your life experience. It’s your chance to share something really new in this extremely competitive world. By the way, how engaged are you with my little girl’s story?

3. Whatever your story is, write it with passion. Let the words rise and spread from the bottom of your heart.

4. Always write for your readers. Do not worry about being ranked on search engines. If your article starts being ranked on the first page of Google, but nobody likes it, what’s the point?

5. Always allow your mind to shift from writing to the “reading mode” before sharing your content with your readers. Now I have to ask for your patience, because this is of utmost importance for your success and reputation. And by the way, here’s what happens to me quite frequently; – Whenever I write an important e-mail, as you can imagine, I read it carefully over and over again in order to find and correct any single error. However, there’s always something wrong, sometimes embarrassing mistakes I cannot figure out before hitting the “send button” and then opening the e-mail from the “sent folder”.

On our day-to-day job there’s always reason for rushing. Otherwise we might be compromising the business of someone else.

Fortunately, if it’s our own writing, we have always time to calm down, (yes, we feel excited when writing), going out for a cup of coffee, or even sleeping before doing a final review and publishing our content.

6. It’s always a good idea to have your content checked or even proofread by someone else.

7. Finally and above all – Always be yourself! At this point I would like to reinforce the importance of your life experience. Whatever the topic you decide to write about, you have always new ideas to share. Take advantage of your wisdom and innate creativity.

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