F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction Author

Technical writing

All Writing Helps All Writing

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Writing
Don’t Write Yourself Off! Write, My Friends, WRITE! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

All Writing Helps All Writing

I use this in my e-mail signature block, but I also recently used it in response to a discussion on fellow blogger/writer/ex LA book reviewer Joe Ponepinto’s blog, The Saturday Morning Post. However, in my discussion of its meaning, I didn’t do a really great job in explaining it’s origin. I’d also thought I’d already written up something on it, but didn’t find it in my search of this (my) blog site. So, thought I’d go in to better depth here.

When I say this trite little phrase, though I do mean some of the obvious conclusions that many would take issue with, I actually meant on a Zen level. There is an energy to all things, and writing is no exception. But, let’s take Life as an example. Everyone’s life has an energy to it. The driving Life Force behind all of life and the Universe. It’s that energy that powers Life, to beat that dead horse. But it’s up to each individual to wield that energy in their own, unique way. Each of us has a personality, a specific feel to it each and every individual of us out there. So, it’s up to us to wield that energy, to live our lives, as we do…but behind it all is that driving Life Force.

This is what I mean by All Writing Helps All Writing, and my response to Joe’s post that behind all the different types of writing out there, the one thing all those different types of writing has, is (anyone?)…writing.

Writing, the high concept definition unapplied to technical, long or short form, et cetera, is its own energy, and it is up to the writer to apply that energy, that driving Writing Force. Sure, there are obvious structural, mechanical, and ideological considerations to consider between the different versions of writing, but it’s all still writing, and my point was to use the driving Writing Force to our advantage by understanding this “fine line” definition concept. Just because you’re doing tech writing doesn’t mean all that time tech writing cannot still be “incorporated,” “assimilated,” or any other “-ed” word into your other forms of writing, say, as Joe did, in his novel writing. Yes, you are structuring and morphing your novel writing in a different way than straightforward tech writing, but it is the Writing itself (capital “W”) that I’m asking writers to tap into. To tap into the very essence of Writing itself, which is the energy of the scalar quantity, to the sitting down and putting fingers to keyboards, pens and pencils to paper. To engaging the mind and body into the employment of Writing in and of itself, the version of writing to be damned. It doesn’t matter, at this level, what type of writing you’re doing, it only matters (again, at this level of discussion) that you are writing…that you are engaging your being, your soul, into the very act of expression, and what a form of expression it is! You are taking a mental act and transcribing it into physical expression! Just like with any other activity that starts in the mind and finds its way into physical expression (art, construction, etc). So, in doing this, you are allowing the Act of Writing to become second nature to you…able to wield the power and mastery of Writing in all its forms in whatever form of Writing you chose to employ.

Now, you can also use the various techniques of each form/version of writing to other forms, also in my humble opinion, if you allow yourself to do so, and by this I do mean using tech writing skills in your novel writing.

To just pick a couple tech writing skills, for example, consider these: usually in business settings, tech writers are not only asked to create straightforward descriptions, they are also asked to create them yesterday, using the least amount of words, and not usually given ample amounts of time to polish said words (I find many do not give tech writers—the words—the credit they deserve; all you have to do to see what I mean is to [try to] read your manual on how to use your DVR, toaster, or what-have-you). So what I’m saying here, is to transfer those skills to all of your other writing: learn to write more efficiently! To write faster, but not so fast as to suffer the outcome. If you write faster, more efficiently, you can therefore write more, your output increases, as does (as is the intent) your overall ability. Since one has to always pick and choose their words wisely, any writing should and will improve this capability. Does it really matter what words you’re picking, whether in straightforward tech descriptions, or in creating a piece that gets a novel to think and consider the world around them? No, not at this level of discussion…all that matters is that the writer is doing this. That this particular capability is being exercised.

It’s like any repetitive exercise that is done for sports. Doing weights strengthens the body so that when the body is employed in running or throwing, or whatever, the basis of weight training is realized through the creation of the conditioned body (and mind—weight training and everything else I can think of are always mind/body) and the employed act becomes ingrained and second nature.

I hope this helps better explain my position.

All Writing Helps All Writing.

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