Invention is not an only child
It has been said that “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
If that's true then I think invention has some siblings. Namely determination, enthusiasm, and fear. Actually, I imagine it's quite a large family, but I'm just going to talk about those three.
Since DevCampus contributers have still been few and far between, I've resigned myself to thinking that I am going to be doing quite a bit of writing in order to meet my personal goal of having 50 articles posted when DevCampus goes live on the web. Definitely not an unattainable goal, but definitely not easy for someone with my writing experience. You see, it's not the technical knowledge or technical experience I lack. It's the writing knowledge and writing experience. Sure, I've written dozens of technical articles for a few different magazines and websites. However, with the DevCampus content I feel that my own name and reputation are on the line and will be out for the Internet to examine. And in most cases, I'd have no problem with that. I'm a real life hermit and an Internet socialite.
As I began working on a few articles, something just wasn't right. I had enough content to write about and I was making progress. It definitely wasn't writer's block. It was something about the flow or organization of the articles that bothered me. Likewise, I didn't like the wording of many of the sentences I had written. I went to bed and slept on it, letting the thoughts weigh on my mind.
The conclusion I came to was that as a writer, technical or otherwise, my own personal standards of what I consider good writing have changed. I'm no longer happy with what I usually write. It doesn't cut the mustard for me anymore. I feel it is necessary that I write better. My thoughts need to be conveyed more clearly in what I write. I need to consider different approaches to saying the same thing and choosing the best fit. In many ways, I feel this is analogous to the stages I've gone through in my coding career. As time passes and I gain experience, I'm no longer happy with the designs I came up with or the code I wrote. In the end, I think this is a good thing. I hope it is a sign of some growth and maturity in me as a writer.
So, in keeping with that I said before; In the past week, my determination to be a better writer has grown much stronger, and I'm committed to doing a better job. My enthusiasm for writing has also risen to new levels, which I'm thankful for. On the other side of the fence, my fear of failure has increased beyond the amount I normally feel. I attribute the majority of this fear to sticking my neck out there with DevCampus. I do find some comfort in thinking, “time will tell”. It's too bad foresight isn't 20/20.
This had led me to want to ask other writers, have any of you gone through something similar to this? As Queen asked, “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?”
I thought I'd share some links with those of you reading this that might feel like learning a little more about writing. (Feel free to post your own favorite writing links to in my comments section)
Mike Gunderloy's Advice For Writers Series
Melanie Spiller's Blog (via Mike G)
The Elements of Style - William Strunk Jr.