Eventually we’ll look back on the pandemic lockdown a lot of office workers are going through and notice a) a baby boom; b) a divorce boom; or c) a manuscript boom. Heck, even when I did have to trek into an office every day for eight hours, I managed to do a lot of writing on the job. When I started working from home all bets were off, as I suspect a lot of aspiring novelists are discovering today. There’s something magical about being able to nip over to an open document and write three sentences in your WIP while waiting for everyone to get their shit together on yet another conference call.
There’s also something magical about doing those calls pantsless, and having beers for lunch.
But I digress! I came here not to make lame pandemic jokes or even lamer pantsless jokes, but to talk about how writing is a valuable skill.
Not Everyone Write Good
The first thing I ever published was a joke that appeared in an issue of Highlights for Children when I was, I dunno, eight? 10? Forty? Who can remember such things. The joke was terrible (and forgotten) but I showed that fucking Highlights to everyone. It was my first taste that writing can actually convey power.
As a freelance writer, I know how easy it is to think that no one values writing. We get offered pennies for our words, are often the last people brought into a project, and it sure isn’t uncommon to have someone heavily imply — if not outright state — that the writing part is something they could easily do themselves if only they had the time for something so trivial.
This, of course, is bullshit. If you’re someone who knows how to write, you’ve no doubt experienced the sort of semi-literate, incomprehensible emails that many people send on a daily basis as they do the work they have been paid to do. So, so, so many people out there — grown adults with degrees from prestigious institutions — have no fucking idea how to write clearly and effectively, despite the fact that this is a skill that can, in fact, be acquired.
And writing is foundational. Everything begins with writing. Behind every business idea or corporate project is an email, a memo, a report, a white paper. Behind every comic book, film, and TV show is a treatment, a script, a bible. Legislation, marketing, scientific and medical research — it all starts with writing, it all requires writing. More importantly, it all requires good writing.
Anyone can learn how to write competently, but based on the shit I receive via email every day, no one bothers. And I finally come to my damn point: The world needs us, kids. It needs writers. Never forget that.
It also needs whiskey, and a lot of it, these days. Stay safe, everyone.