3 Writing Questions

There are 3 writing questions you need to answer for your writing project. And if you can answer these questions effectively it will also put your writing career onto a good foundation. Though I suspect that you will be revisiting the answers regularly.

The 3 questions are:

1. How do I write?

2. What do I write?

3. How do I write what I want to write?

Let me explain the questions with a fictional example.

Bob the mechanic always wanted to write but one day he made the decision to give it a try. The last time he held a pen for something else than filling in a form was in school so he has to figure out the writing thing from the basics up. He finds that he can't write on his bed like back then because his back is killing him. So he gets a good chair but settles for a door frame as table top. Then he gets pencils because a pen feels intimidating and a legal pad and of he goes. He has good days and bad days but he is putting words on paper. Recently he found that he works best early in the morning and that coffee makes him write too fast. Bob is busy answering the first question: 'How do I write?'

But after filling three legal pads Bob finds that he is running out of things to say. The idea of doing exercises and rewriting every essay topic he could remember from school was a good idea to get him started so he decide to start thinking about what he wants to write. He decides to set himself the essay topic: 'When I grow up I want to write...' and spends a week writing another stupid essay. He must admit that he sucks as an essay writer but he realizes that he wants to write about the inspirations man can get from machines. Bob realizes that it is not fiction because he does not want to make it up but it is not autobiography because he will use his own life but won't write about his life. On a new legal pad Bob starts writing what he want to write?

Then he finds out that it is hard. Sitting outside one day drinking a beer and having a break he tells a buddy about his book idea. His buddy says he has heard of it. Somebody wrote a book like that about motorcycles. So Bob goes and find the book and a lot of similar books and he starts reading. And he finds out that there is a way to put the thing together. And slowly Bob starts figuring out how to write what he wants to write. As he progresses on his book he eventually figures out that he is getting to some kind of 'zen' with this writing thing. Maybe he should next try a book about mechanics and writing.

Your answer to the 3 writing questions is not a word or a sentence. It is in the way you change your life and take action that you answer the questions. You cannot answer them standing still. The answers will come to you on the writing journey as long as you keep traveling.

Gerhi Janse van Vuuren

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== Gerhi Janse van Vuuren is a writer. Read more of his articles at 2 Write a Book.com or visit his personal site at Gerhi.com ==

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