Writerly Musings

Friday, July 28, 2006

Must we be Interested in a Topic in Order to Write?

I’m not a seasoned veteran by any means. I’ve been writing website content for about 6 months. I can tell you however, from my limited personal experience, that it is quite possible to write intelligently about things that have no interest whatsoever to me. These topics may feel a little more like work than say a group of articles about vacationing in Alaska or Maine, but I can still write and research these pieces with the same dedication I would devote to a group of articles that I actually enjoyed the research process.

Money, it seems is an excellent motivating factor. At least that is what I keep reminding myself as I’m desperately wracking my brains at 2 am for a cohesive reason to insert key phrase “X” into paragraph “Y” when I feel it would accomplish much more without it. Seriously I wonder where they come up with some of these keywords. At any rate, I think each writer has his or her own purpose for writing and different talents within that purpose. Some writers are weavers of excellent prose and great fiction. Others of us, can only retell stories that really happen, we lack the inventive creativity but create we do, in other forms.

I do not feel that I need a PhD in architectural design in order to write an informative and entertaining article on the use of arches in the interior of your home in order to make your space seem more open and inviting. Nor do I need to be a fitness expert in order to write educational articles on weight loss. What I really need is the ability to research and write in a voice that presents itself as authoritative and knowledgeable. You do not have to be an expert in order to write website content. You only need to be willing to do the research required to educate yourself in the subject matter you are writing about.

Some writers specialize and I don’t knock that at all. I know that that would never work for me. I have ADHD and can barely sit still to type the articles out. When researching and mulling over the material I wander around the house with legal pads in hand and sticky notes all over. I have random thoughts that occur to me in the dead of night about various topics and I write about many. I actually enjoy learning a little about a great many topics. Some of them I have found enlightening and entertaining and some I have struggled to make sound engaging (simply because they were not at all exciting for me—I’m remembering 30 articles on designer jeans).

The point I’m trying to make is that a content writer doesn’t need to be an expert in the subject matter in order to do a spectacular job on the content. At the same time, an expert in any subject matter might have a difficult time making the content entertaining.

Posted by Andrea :: 3:14 PM :: 0 Comments:

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