Not posting since August seems absurd, and anyone avoiding, not paying attention, or ignoring these posts agrees. I’ve learned a lesson: write what matters to me. That seems risky at times because I wonder if what matters to me matters to my readers.

So, here’s what I’m going to do. This blog format will change within the next few weeks. The focus of entries changes with the upgrade.

Echievements.com is an article directory. Authors submit articles to demonstrate expertise and to advertise their service or product. Echievements offers authors and webmasters one place, among many, to spread information and to get links back to their sites. 

Some articles are well-written; some are distracting. Echievements will provide writing-tools for authors. We can all learn to write better. As my undergraduate Greek professor said, “Results increase as efforts decrease over extended rehearsals.” The Greeks had a saying “practice is everything”.  

Sometimes I wonder what I’m practicing, and what the Echievements authors intend. There’s a lot of grasping on the Internet. Grasping for ideas, a quick buck, and internet marketing secrets. Few of us have an inner understanding of what makes us tick. The folks who do succeed (both online and offline). 

Emerson said, “Masses of men (people: men & women) live quiet lives of desperation.” For what reasons? Many people waste hours in traffic jams; only their bumper sticker reveals a common motivation. “I owe, I owe; off to work I go.”

Not many get excited about their daily commute. Their single solace is knowing each day brings them closer to retirement. How come most of us don’t get too excited about our work (the one place we spend most of our life)? 

I think most of us don’t know what makes us tick.  The Echievements Writer’s Bin/Blog will now focus on how to write clearly. Every tool provided will give you writing resources. Writing is work and work can become joyful rather than drudgery. 

If words, content, article writing, white papers, blogs, and copywriting mean something, then check here often. I am commited to improving my writing, and you might benefit from some of what you find at the Echievements Writer’s Bin.

Mike Lawson lists the distinguishing marks of ”great writers”. Great writers do instinctively what most writers don’t, no matter how hard they try. Lawson thinks you have “it” or you don’t.  If you don’t have “grand master” writing talent, (he lists the literary legends: Shakespeare, Hugo, Steinbeck”) you should put that pen down, get your fingers off your keyboard, and find something else to do. “You either are one (a writer) or you are not. It is not a learned skill or acquired trait. You cannot make a master out of a really good writer any more than you can make a bass fiddle out of a drum.”

Lawson’s analogy works; a dog is not a cat, and a grape is never a watermelon, but a hack can become a writer, and maybe a “literary legend”.  If not a legend, a “hack” can improve spelling, grammar, and content.  Use a dictionary. Increase your vocabulary. Grammar is learned not innate.  Content comes from our stories; we can be taught how to research.

Lawson shifts his thoughts to mission: “Before you ever pick up a pen or type the first word of a project, you should have a mission statement committed to making you a better writer. It doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out, complicated matter. Maybe just a paragraph or so that lays out your personal creed as a writer.”

Your creed as a writer is simple:  ”Just do it”  Mediocre beats failure.  Who knows you might write a brilliant, life-changing sentence. That sentence might not change anyone’s life but yours, and that alone makes
your writing worthwhile.

Your passion drives your mission statement, no matter what you do. If you want to write, then write. Never give anyone permisison to dissuade you.

Helpful books:

The Elements of Style by E.B. White (original by William Strunk)
On Writing Well  by William Zinsser
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Read Mike Lawson’s article.  I disagree with his views, but he writes them clearly.