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Go Figure
by Skip Maloney
I think the fact that the urge to write is universal and as
old as cave drawings by human beings who never had to worry
about re-booting a system to finish the work, speaks to a
hidden measure of inspiration for all of us who ply this
trade. Point being: never question your innate ability to
tell a tale or its significance to your fellow human beings.
It is an integral part of who we are and each time the urge
to put pen to paper (finger to keyboard) strikes, you should
give in to the urge and do it. Probably one of the few urges
left that doesn’t come with an FDA warning or a 12-step
program to suppress it.
Not five minutes ago, I received a phone call from a friend
who’s been taxed with a presentation assignment that will
encompass a degree of writing and the first thing she asked
me was “What do I write about?” One tries to suppress another
innately human urge to bark back “How am I supposed to know?”
altering it slightly to ask, “What do you want to write about?”
It’s at this juncture that a lot of would-be writers stumble
and never quite get themselves off the canvas to keep trying.
As simple as it seems – write about what interests you – it
can often set up a circular thought pattern that arrests
development of an idea. “Well, I like to knit, but a lot of
people like to knit and a lot of them are already writing
about knitting, so who’s going to care about what I have to
say about knitting, so back to the drawing board with what
do I want to write about.” You should intervene in that
process, altering it to read, “Well, I like to knit and
there are a lot of people who like to knit, so where do all
these knitting people go when they want to read something
about knitting and how do I get there?” This should lead you
to a variety of options, the simplest of which is your garden
variety Internet search under the word “Knitting.” Subscribing
to this newsletter doesn’t hurt either.
The other path to answering the initial question regarding
what to write about is one that requires a degree of self-
confidence in one’s own ability. It changes the question from
“what” to “for whom,” and establishes as a premise that you
can write about anything that any editor from here to
Cucamonga wants you to write about. I’m a little more
mercenary when it comes to answering the common question of
“what do I write about?” Anything anybody will pay me to
write about.
I’ve written an essay for a PMS issue of a women’s magazine
(Underwired), about kiteboarding in Wrightsville Beach, NC
(Wrightsville Beach Magazine), and am at work on a tale about
a collaborative effort between labor and management in the
sheet metal industry (Partners in Progress). I found the
first assignment in this newsletter, the second, locally
(Wilmington, NC) and the third, through an unexpected
contact with a friend in the board game hobby. Go figure.
Take those two words separately as a bridge between your
desire to write and the opposite shore where you’re actually
doing the work.
Go (move, get off your hindsight).
Figure (what you need to do).
BIO
Skip is a full-time freelance writer, currently plying his
trade on Cape Fear – Wilmington, NC. A native Bostonian,
with a 15-year layover in and around Manhattan, he writes
for a variety of local, regional and national publications,
including Florida Designers’ Review, GRAND Magazine and
Celtic Heritage; a magazine out of Nova Scotia. He’s an
avid pool player (and has written about it), and an ardent
fan of traditional table top board games (pretty much
anything Except Monopoly), about which he also written
(frequently, for GAMES and Knucklebones Magazine).
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