During a training break I pulled out my laptop and starting drafting an article. About halfway through, I noticed people around me laughing. They joked about how I was torturing my laptop with the hard and fast pounding on the keyboard. Like a staccato gunshot, I fired out the words. Most people have to think when they compose, said one person, instead of just whacking out the writing.
 
As I thought about that comment later, I realized no one had taught me the process of writing. I learned by doing. Maybe you're interested in writing but just see the process as too painful, time consuming or just plain hard. In this blog post, I'll share my writing process and explore why your writing is important for marketing your business. 
 
Writing can be a wonderful way to get clarity about what you are thinking, experiencing and exploring. And it's a fantastic way to connect with others in a real and authentic way. The world is full of slick marketing messages. Very few take the time to market--or connect--by writing. The world's fast pace lends itself to Twitter-sized messages of limited characters. You'll stand out when you take the time to present a full idea instead of a cliff-note version. 
 
Here's a real life example. I received this email the day after I sent out my other e-newsletter called A Minute for Me:
 
I just want to say thank you for your newsletter.  I opened it this morning to unsubscribe...I just have too many email messages to read them all.  Instead of clicking to the bottom, I was intrigued by the photo and read your thoughts.  "Experiencing" was exactly the idea I had contemplated on my cushion this morning.  I breathed in your Carl Rogers quote and felt the resonance this practice engenders between those on the path.  I wondered, how many great connections do I miss in my daily rush and resistance dance through email?  I will not unsubscribe from your newsletter.
 
Isn't that great? It is a marketer's dream to have people personally connect with what you are saying. Above and beyond the marketing stuff, though, it is just plain wonderful to write something heartfelt and have someone else read and enjoy it. That reading completes the writing--when it finds a home in someone else's heart.
 
So here's how I write. When my friends at the training session saw me pound violently on my laptop, they were watching the vomiting stage. In this first draft I do not care what the words look like or how the sentence is structured. I do not care about typos. I do not even care if it makes sense. The typing is just coming from a vague idea that's floating around in my head. I'm vomiting that vague notion out onto the paper. It's messy, all over the place, and loud. And it stinks.
 
Now there's a nice, vivid description for you to enjoy.
 
Next is the clean-up stage, which may happen right after the draft is spewed out, or it may come later. This process is more thoughtful and reflective, and it's very interesting to participate in. The unfolding story takes me completely into the writing. I lose a sense of myself and just pay attention to the words. What message, key phrases, or structure wants to come out? It may be only a little bit of the original draft remains in this stage, or it may be that a large chunk of the initial writing stays. I never know. The writing informs me, not the other way around. 
 
Writing is slower here. You would not see me slamming the keyboard. You would see me stop and think, close my eyes, read and reread, change and modify. I use the delete key more--trimming and cutting superfluous concepts to encourage the main theme to grow. 
 
The last step is the editing. I read the writing again and again (and again and again) to fix sentence structure. I want to dress up the writing and make it look nice. The writing is getting ready for its coming out party, and I want it to look good and well-cared for.
 
I notice this step is never really done. When you respond to my writing by sending me an email or making a blog comment, I read what you write and then I re-read my writing. That's good, I think. Or that word doesn't quite work. The little things get my attention. I re-read the phrase "I was nabbed" and change it to "I was busted." Doesn't that sound better?
 
The editing stage can drive you crazy if you let it. It can be the judge and jury that stops you from sharing it with others. If you wait for the writing to be "done" you'll never share a word. As you grow and change as a writer, your writing changes. So your writing is never done. Share the writing as it is now, just like letting your children be who they are at a given age without forcing them to "grow-up" (as if that's even possible). 
 
I never set out to be a writer. In fact, "writer" is a word I very seldom use to describe myself. Yet here I am writing. You are a writer whenever you engage in writing. The world wants to receive what you want to give. Use the power of words to give both to yourself and to others.
 
Wood warms you twice--once when you cut it and again when you burn it. Writing is like that. It warms you once when you weave the story, and again when it is read and savored by another.