For me, the motivation to blog actually stems from a recognition that after 20 years of a technical consulting career I find myself with a kind of literary disability! I've been trained too well to think and write like this:
-
- Background
-
-
- Early years: enjoyed art. English teacher voted me "most likely to write a novel"
-
- Shift to science/math high school major
-
- 4 years of engineering/computing degree
-
- 20 years in IT - development/project management/consulting
-
-
- Understanding of the problem
-
-
- Think in bullet points
-
- Focus on logical presentation of argument/point-of-view
-
- Descriptive and narrative writing not needed
-
-
- (may be spoken)
-
- drop adjectives - except for sales-related like "best practice", "open standards-based", "agile"
-
-
-
- Solution
-
-
- Start a blog
-
- Start writing full sentences again
-
- Focus on story-line, experiment with techniques for getting a message across
-
- Cover wider range of topics and subject matter
-
- Form of Remedial Writing Therapy (RWT)
-
-
- Benefits
-
-
- Rediscover vocabulary
-
- Build story-telling skills
-
- Rekindle interest in broader range of intellectual pursuits
-
- Even with a small audience, some chance of feedback
-
-
- Not in scope
-
-
- Won't help learning how to use a real pen again!
-
-
So is it working? I think so. The first effect I noticed is an almost immediate improvement in my ability to sit down with a topic, get into a flow and quickly produce a finished piece. Remember essay writing at school? Yes, like that.
I will leave you to be the judge of whether what I have to say makes any sense or is of any interest!
NB: Yes, you may have noticed my homage to Aaron Swartz' Powerpoint Remix, which is included in Joel Spolsky's excellent anthology The Best Software Writing I