How Did I Come Up With That List?

Before diving into the elements of the list I just provided, a good question to ask is - how did I come up with the list. The answer is that I took a piece of paper, jotted a few things down, thought for a minute, scratched a couple out, and added a couple more. There is no magic in it. And the more often you do things like this the easier it will get. And, I should mention that if you want your list to be perfect and read by everyone, then you should probably stop right now. Your list will be one of thousands of writing exercises. And out of those thousands of writing exercise a few gems will emerge. But, you won't know, as you start out, which will be the gems and which will be practice writing exercises.

So, I have a list and the next thing to do is to try to make it work. This is what I will be doing over the next few posts. I will create as good of an argument as I can for each of the items. At the end, I might get rid of an item. I might merge two items. I might add one or more items. But, the purpose of the list is not to be right or perfect. The purpose of the list is to get you started.

Once you have started on the list, and tried to make a solid argument for each, you will find that your cognitive juices are flowing. New ideas come to mind. You see existing ideas in a new light. You decide some of the ideas weren't as good as you thought. But, you are rolling. And that is the purpose of the list.

I attended a writing workshop many years ago where the instructor said that the reason you get writer's block is that you don't have anything to say. If you have something to say, the words will flow. So, if you don't have anything to say, you need to get something to say. There are many ways to do that. But, a tried an true way that I use a lot is to make a list and get going with it.

Keys to Good Writing

There are thousands of books on writing and nobody has a preferred position on it. I have some favorites that suit my style (both my cognitive style and my writing style), but different books provide different things because different people need different things. In this piece, I thought I would provide some ideas off the top of my head, expand upon them in the next few posts, and then follow up with a revision. That is, after all, how I write and I thought that allowing you to see the underlying evolving thought processes might be useful. Here are the keys to good writing in no particular order:

1) Curiosity - You need something to write about, and something that interests you may very well interest others.

2) Reading - Hearing the voice of others will help you craft your own voice as well as giving you ideas on useful techniques.

3) Need for Expression - Once you have figured something out or created something, you must have a desire to share it with others.

4) Writing Practice - Just like learning to play a musical instrument takes a lot of practice, learning to write takes a lot of practice as well. Nobody ever just picked up a saxophone and played hot jazz without years of practice. And nobody every just picked up a pen and wrote the great American novel.

5) Writing for a Target - Different kinds of writing require different styles. You have to know who you are writing for and tailor your writing for that target.

6) Determination - You have to stick with it way longer than you would ever imagine. And if that is daunting, you might want to consider something else.

This is my working outline. Over the next several posts I will elaborate on these and we will see where this little writing exercise goes.

Self Publishing

Here is something I am thinking about a lot these days. We have seen both a dramatic rise and a change in kind with Self Publishing since Amazon got in the game. It used to be, not so many years ago, that self publishing options were call "Vanity Press". The idea was that if you had to pay to have your work published; if you couldn't find a publisher to publish it; then your work was not worth publishing. And, if you paid to have it published then you were doing so to satisfy your own vanity. Most people who did this landed up with boxes of their book in their garages which they gave away to friends and relatives.

That isn't to say that nobody made any money on self publishing. Some did extraordinarily well. But, there were very few. This was because publishing houses controlled the means of distribution. So most self publishers could not get their books to the public. And they sat in boxes in the garage.

I have been carrying on in my Patterns and Predictions  blog about Dying Hegemonies of Access . The premise is that industries who primary role was to provide access to a resource that technology can provide better access to do not have a bright future. Publishing is, in my opinion, on of those Dying Hegemonies.

Any body can publish a book these days on Amazon. There is a bit more to it than this as there are Kindle books and hard copies. Of course, one must have writing skills and something to write about. But, But of all the writers who are capable of cranking out something worth buying, only a tiny fraction of them saw their books in book stores. Now, with these new options for self publishing, the marketplace is wide open. And Amazon is not only vehicle for self publishing. It just happens to be more well known.

I also don't want to imply that everyone who publishes this way is going to be successful. But, historically, publishing houses controlled which books were published and which books got into book stores. This is still true for a majority of books published today. But, that is changing and it is changing very rapidly. Self publishing is beginning to challenge traditional publishing in the same way that bloggers and people using their smart phones to make videos challenged traditional journalism. More about this to come.

Things are Always Exactly the Way They are Supposed to Be

I was writing a post in my Patterns and Predictions blog about the Dying Hegemonies of Access. In this particular post, I was using journalism as an example. Access to news has changed dramatically from the old days of daily newspapers and evening news shows to our current access to blogs, forums, online videos and social media. As I was writing the post I found myself tempted, at several points, to evaluate the change. There were good and bad things about the old way and good and bad things about the new way. Ultimately, I avoided the issue by saying "it will all work itself out over time". As I wrote that, something that I used to say came back to me. And that is "Things are Always Exactly the Way They are Supposed to Be" I didn't want to get into that in the other post as the point was to provide an example of a Dying Hegemony of Access. But, I thought it might be fun to explain it here.

First, I need to make a distinction between the natural and the artificial. This distinction is not nearly as clear as I am going to make it. But, consider the following. A band of early humans go out for a hunt and bring back some prey for food. That is natural. They are following their instincts for survival. Then, say, they capture some animals, put them in a pen, breed them, and use that as a source of food. That is artificial. When we take the world as it is, that natural. When we modify the world to suit our needs, that is artificial.

When a natural disaster occurs, we may be very upset that it occurred, but we accept it because it is natural.  So, when a hurricane wipes out a coastal town we are upset. But, since it was an act of nature we are inclined to accept it as just the way things are.When an artificial disaster occurs, such as an airplane crash or an explosion at a chemical factory, we are much less likely to just accept it.

When artificial things are not to our liking we tend to stress about them and feel like something should be done. And it may be true that something should be done. But, it is not true that we should stress about it. Does anyone stress about the fact that water flows downhill? Of course not. That would be silly. Does anyone stress about the fact that a mountain range prevents rain in a valley? No. They may look for ways to get rain. But we don't have the added stress of feeling that things are somehow wrong.

The point of all this is to so that it is natural for people to create things that are artificial. Sometimes, when we do, it works out great. Sometimes it doesn't. But, it is part of our natural to tinker. Hence, even our artifacts are natural. And we shouldn't stress about the things we do. If they are not to our liking we can try to change them. But, if you step back a bit and see our attempts to modify our environment it is not different than a beaver building a dam or bees building a hive. Some times it works out and some times it doesn't. No need to stress about it. Everything is always exactly the way it should be. If it doesn't suit our needs we can try to change it. But, it is just our human values that make it wrong. The word wrong simply does not apply to nature.

One Last Thought - Avoid Riding the Wave

When waves of change come along, one can adopt one of three strategies: get bowled over by the wave, adjust to the waves, or ride the waves. Getting bowled over is not a good strategy but it is the implicit strategy of those who are in denial about the change. Riding he wave sounds like a good strategy and while that is seductive, it is fraught with problems. Of all the people that ride the wave a very, very small number become very, very successful. Most just get dumped off and crash. It takes special talent to ride the wave. And while we know about those notable few who do, we never hear about the tens of thousands who did not handle it all as well. Even if you do manage to ride the wave successfully, you will be defined by the wave. When the wave subsides, which it always does you will be left having to redefine yourself anyway.

Adjusting to the wave is the best idea. Acknowledge that change is coming. Accept it and incorporate it into your  life. Try to create a new vision of yourself adjusting over time to the changes that are occurring. Take small steps to respond to the changes. Over time as things begin to calm down again, you will be in a good position to take advantage of the new situation.