Writing

On Twitter, I came across someone saying that you can market before you're done writing your book.

This might work if you already have fans for previous works. This is NOT something that seems worthwhile to new authors who are pouring their souls into new books unless they are doing their books collaboratively on the web with their audience.

The cat is out of the bag; I'm back to work as of... today... in a new role, in a new company, doing something that I'm good at in a company that I expect will challenge me. It's not that I gave up as much as I adapted - a few people have commented on the web or in person that I 'sold out'. Well, hell, entrepeneurs are sell outs as well. It's the nature of being an entrepeneur - selling what you're good at.

But I didn't get good at writing overnight - and it isn't as if I can't improve. Sometimes I read old things I've written and cringe - I don't know anyone who writes seriously that hasn't encountered this. It took decades of reading and decades of writing. It took lots of miserable people who think they communicate well to teach me that they didn't, it took few people who did communicate well to teach me how they do it right. It took self-absorbed people who are too stubborn to avert disaster. It took people consistently not listening to my advice and words, particularly my parents, to make me try to constantly improve upon my communication skills. The technical background is a no brainer for me. The ability to understand the web is intrinsic- you can't be afraid of something that you saw when it was young and didn't wear pants. In fact, there are parts of the Internet that still don't wear any pants. No kidding.

The real lessons here are adaptation, perseverance and doing what you love - even when what you love changes. When I was 11 through 16, my dream was to be a professional computer programmer. At 17, I was gainfully employed and writing code for this new-fangled technology then that is already outdated now: Laserdisc video training. From there it has been not programming as much as what sort of programming.

Back in 1999, I first got paid for programming in English. Since then, I wrote some articles that were published in magazines, an eBook on SecondLife and a whole bunch of other stuff that resides in a database backup somewhere amidst my electronic paraphernalia. And now I'm a Communications Manager, something I expect I'll have to grow into a bit. It's also why I haven't been writing for a week - and I do have much to write outside of work that will be showing up over time here and over at the re-re-purposed KnowProSE.com.

The curse of the writer is not to be read - be it an obscure blog on the Internet or in a letter to the editor of a newspaper or even a simple fax. To sit and write anything while trying to convey ideas, information and emotion takes not just an effort but a hope that someone will understand what the writer is trying to convey.

The simpler things can be conveyed through a small amount of words - enough so that they can suffer the textual limitations of a Twitter update or a Facebook status update. The more complicated things take a bit more.