Most is not all of us write because we get some joy out of the process of crafting a written piece.
Writing allows us to express ourselves in a way which talking does not.
Often this is because we can say a lot more in writing than we can verbally. But writing also allows us to be poetic, creative and concise in a way that is hard to achieve for all but the most accomplished of speakers.
Writing is also a way of finding out about the world, of improving our understanding, for it’s only when we review our own writing, which we begin to see some of the contradictions in our own thinking.
It’s quite clear that some writers are better than others. However there are a diversity of high quality writing styles, and the world would be a poorer place if we all wrote the same style.
It’s also clear that writing is to some extent a creative process, the pace and energy in writing is something that flows from the heart. You cannot teach that, though you can teach someone to write from the heart.
There is also a craft to writing, a way of honing down and cleaning one’s writing, making it flow and making it pointed, which is something that you can learn to get better at.
So, over the coming weeks and months, I’ll be writing a number of review pieces on the reviews that we post on Vanguard Online, and asking open questions, provoking those who are interested, to consider ways in which they might have developed and improved their work.
The questions are genuinely open; to the extent that they imply a way forward, one might equally argue that they do not.
We’re happy to accept any thoughts and contributions on writing in general, from your lived experience and any constructive commentary on existing articles on Vanguard Online.