The importance of creating something that you love.

There are millions of writers in this world, which means that there are even more books! If we look even further and dissect a book into the several paragraphs and even sentences that were created to build a book. The amount of content to read would take an eternity to read! To compete with the everlasting flow of content, it is crucial to have an audience in mind before writing. However, what exactly is an audience, and who are we writing for really? 

William Zinsser’s book “On Writing Well”, discusses the topic of audience in Chapter 5. Zinsser argues that when writing, the primary being that we should be writing for is the author (ourselves). Every reader will be different and bring a unique scope and opinion of the written piece. So it’s best to not worry about if a certain reader will “get it” and instead only worry about if the author truly enjoys the piece that they have written. However, this does not mean that an author can just write “willy nilly” and have a true and complete piece written. A true maestro focuses both on the strength of their craft as well as their own personal touch. 

There are two distinctions that a writer must have in their repertoire. One is to develop the basic tools such as grammar, structure and transitions and master them. Without training, it is difficult to convey your voice through paper in a clear enough manner where the reader won’t get lost. Confusing writing makes any piece difficult to read through even if the material is solid and interesting. The other step to take is to imagine writing as a creative process. The act of writing is flexible and malleable, you have the ability to truly express who you are when writing while also accomplishing whatever sort of goal you imagined to get through by achieving the piece. 

Although this advice from Zinsser may seem contradicting at first, they are completely separate processes. It’s important to note that the first step about developing basic tools is strictly to help smoothen the flow of a piece and how it will be read. Every piece of writing was created in order to be read, and it would be beneficial to make that piece more readable. The other tool is a reminder to all writers to embrace your thoughts and unique way of expression. If we make something that we find interesting, others will find it fascinating as well. One’s voice and flow takes time to develop and is the sole aspect that makes all of us writers different. For example, the voice of a book written by President Obama would read entirely differently from one from Albert Einstein. Both are notable figures but specialize in different backgrounds and bring their own perspective to their writing.