On writing
I mentioned in a LinkedIn post about writing being a goal for me this year. I started it to achieve mainly 2 things:
- Learn: passing knowledge forward is a very effective way of learning about it. Additionally, I want to learn about communicating specific topics that matter to me both professionally and personally. I want to learn about writing.
- Giving back: I love learning, and I'm very privileged to have been able to learn a lot from great schools, tutors, friends, books, etc. Knowledge has been transformative in my life, and much of it came from willing and generous people that decided to pass their knowledge on. I want to be part of this virtuous cycle.
I'm happy that both this goals are being achieved, in different ways. I'm not yet satisfied, of course, but I'm on track in both of them.
What I learned
- The first step in writing is knowing who you're writing to. Who's your audience? Writing for your self is journaling, very different from writing to an audience.
- Even though I had goals for the act of writing, initially I lacked them for the texts. If you have an audience, you're aiming at something. What is it?
- Beta readers are the best people on earth. They donate their time and wisdom to make you improve — be thankful!
- A corollary: writing is an iterative process. Your first draft will suck (specially from your first texts), and you craft it until it becomes something you like.
- A second order corollary: you'll be embarrassed by your first texts. Embrace the learnings, and move on.
It's likely you got these learnings in other sources — they're cliché! But there's a big difference between acquiring an information and acquiring the knowledge beyond words. Thus, my greatest learning so far is: you only learn about writing if you write.
What I gave back
- Summarized knowledge on subjects I'm comfortable with. This was my first goal, and from kind feedback I got from different people, it was achieved in most of what I wrote.
- Honest points of view on matters sometimes filled with fancy bullshit. I'm always keen on going straight to the point, and also got feedback that it resonated with my readers.
So far, I gave way less than I got from this experience. It's humbling, and keeps me motivated to keep writing and improve at it, to try and give back at least as much as I'm getting.
What's coming
I'll keep writing and publishing. It's a privilege to do so, and one for which I'm quite grateful by now.
Thank you very much.