Page 42 - Social Media Musings

Social Media Musings – Part III My Reflections on the Practice and Life
Try creative writing periodically - writing
a poem, short story, a character sketch, perhaps some humor. Doing so will exercise your creativity and improve your overall writing.
Writing is 80% active verbs.
The first article I wrote sucked. The second sucked. The third sucked, but sucked less.
I stopped sucking around article 10 or 15. I hit my groove around article 50. I was on auto pilot around article 150. This writing laid the foundation for writing books. My first book took six months. My second took four. My fifth book took two months. My last book, my 13th, took three weeks. When I started writing, I sucked. Now, I can write on demand. Start with sucking. Stick with it. Keep sucking. Eventually you’ll master it.
If you’re a young lawyer looking to get published, there are hundreds of magazines, newsletters, newspapers and websites seeking your content. Don’t worry about not finding a home for your article. You will.
Writers write. If you call yourself a writer, you must write. Commit to a daily word count (250, 500, 1000 words) and write that many words every day.
When writing a book, understand that readers want to learn about your big idea and how to apply it to their lives. I would rather read a 50 page book with one big idea that changes me than a 500 page book
with no big ideas that simply move from one story to the next and from one anecdote to the next. It’s the idea a book shares, not its length, that captures imaginations.
If you’ve been wanting to write a book, write it. We’re not going to be self isolating forever. The time you would have spent with family and friends, at the game or golf course, at the mall or at the movies, use that time to write.
Avoid adverbs and most adjectives. Rely on active verbs and precise nouns.
When proofreading, read out loud. Our eyes often gloss over typos. Our ears do not.
I wrote my first book in 2007. I didn’t
write my second one until 2016. The years between were long, tough and challenging. But I came out the other side. We all have periods of wandering in the desert. Periods of pain and anguish, periods of loss and sadness. But you will make it out, you will get to the promised land and you will find your way back, your way home.
Writing
36
©2021 Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel