52: A Writing Project
Week 1, 3/27/08
My name is James Christian Parent. I am a 26 year old, self employed creative professional. My training lies in the realm of audio production. Other areas of work include video production as well as web development. As I progress farther into the world of thought work, I find that the glue which binds all these disparate activities together is writing. At some level, my ability to write impacts my work, whether that be drafting a proposal, writing correspondence, story boarding a video shoot, etc. As far as bang for the buck is concerned, improving my writing skills should be an easy way to improve my life.
I hereby embark on a year long writing project. Fifty-two. That is, 52 written works, one a week, posted publicly, in whatever their current state at the deadline. These aren't to be novels, or ground breaking research. At this point, I envision these works to be in the 1000 word range. But whatever the length, I have one week to write. That includes any research, editing, revisions, and/or word smithing. I fully expect to have many failures over the course of the next year. I hope that one or two successes isn't too much to ask for.
Since I was very young, my father has told me, "If you speak well and write well, you will go far." I have been told by many people that I am a halfway decent writer, and when I speak slowly, not a half bad orator.
I pride myself on my ability to write a grammatically correct, and generally coherent sentence. Fortunately for me, grammatically correct and coherent is about all you need to stand out these days. Few of my friends are able to write well, and surprisingly enough, that extends to those who read voraciously. It helps that I touch type, and do so quite fast.
My freshman year of college, I had the opportunity to see Homer Hickam speak. He was on a book tour for Rocket Boys, and spoke at UMBC. I hadn't read the book, and only had a cursory understanding of what it was about. However, one of the things he said stuck with me; it seemed to echo something I had heard much earlier. He said that while he was never a very good engineer, never a very good rocket scientist, he was a good writer. Because of that, every project at NASA wanted him on board. Because of his writing skills he could effectively communicate to those who held the purse strings.
Of course, that is exactly what my father had been telling me since before I could read and write. And while I always knew he was right, sometimes it helps to hear something from another source.
I am embarking on this writing project for a number of reasons. First and foremost, to become a better writer. Writing is like any skill, it gets better with practice. Second, I have been telling people for years that I want to do some writing, maybe get some articles published, "once I get some time." Well, I'm self employed, so I have no excuse anymore. Third, I do have ideas for things I'd like to write...and maybe even get published. But they will remain just that, ideas, until I actually start writing them. Other reasons include, I have to write short snippets of copy for various web projects I'm working on; the people I admire on the internet, the Merlin Mann's of the world, all write well and often; I'd eventually like to have a blog, for search engine optimization reasons.
