Writing a nontechnical book was never one of my life’s goals. Whenever people found out that I was a technical writer, they would inevitably ask when I was going to publish my first book. Apparently, in their minds, technical manuals are not “real” books.
Though my life is chock-full of unusual experiences, I did not think that I had anything to write about or that anyone would be interested in what I had to say. Perhaps that is why I was hiding my writing skills behind the third person, imperative voice used in technical writing.
I started a personal blog about ten years ago. I wrote about topics that were important to me. My style was succinct, logical, informative—but without soul. Once again, I was writing in third person, never letting down my guard to reveal me or my inner most thoughts. In fact, I made every effort to remain “unbiased” in my discussions. My blogs were more like news articles than personal observations and opinions.
When I started writing Women of the Way, Embracing the Camino, I chose the familiar third person. After several months and hundreds of pages, I decided to change to the first person. This was a daring change for me: for the first time in more than thirty years of writing, I was exposing myself in my writing. I felt vulnerable. Initially, I was scared and only gave glimpses into my personal feelings and thoughts. As I became more accustomed to this shift in my writing style, writing in the first person become easier, and my book became for interesting.
One of my beta readers commented that I was not very present in the book. This surprised me very much; after all, I was writing in first person. She said reading my book was like going to a restaurant wanting a thick, juicy steak, and getting only sliders. I returned to the book and added thirty pages of my inner thoughts, feelings, and conclusions—I bared it all. At last, I was finding my voice!
Becoming comfortable in exposing me and my thoughts is the first and most drastic change that writing my first book has inspired. The second was to transition from writing to inform to writing to entertain.
Until writing my book, my purpose in writing was to provide the reader with needed information: how to set up a site for an installation; how to maintain equipment; how to…whatever. As my audience changed, so did the purpose for my writing. I had to learn that I could be informative, but in an engaging way. This became most obvious in my blogs and is something I am still working on.
Thirdly, writing the book has taught me discipline: not in writing, but in not writing. For nine months I spent most of my day pounding the keys and subsequently gained about ten pounds. I am still learning to parse my time so I can exercise, enjoy nature, and do more. Each day, I create my To Do List and include Me-time in the list. Learning to do something just for me is new and, without vigilance, can become the first thing eliminated when time is tight.
Finding my voice, identifying and engaging my audience, and learning to include time for myself are three lessons I have learned from writing my book. Certainly there are more, but, at the moment, these are the most immediate and high-impact changes to my life.
Has your writing changed you?
