The main reason I continue to write these blog posts is because I see it as a good way to practice writing. The act of expressing your ideas on the page is not something that comes easily to most people. We have to practice to get better at it.
While I did complete some useful writing practice during high school, I did not get nearly as much writing practice as some people do while I was in college. The reason is because I went to college to study physics.
Sure, I took some humanities and philosophy classes; however, I spent MOST of my time solving physics problems.
I would never give up the many hours I spent learning how to solve physics problems. I’m forever grateful that I got good at this skill. Having said this, learning physics does not necessarily make you a better communicator. Granted, I’ve written a few scholarly articles on physics topics. Unfortunately, this doesn’t translate to being able to connect with a general audience.
Throughout my career, I’ve also learned how to write software. C++, Java, C#, and Python are great languages (for different reasons). They can be very expressive and powerful. Nevertheless, writing software is simply not a good way to practice connecting with a general audience.
So, I’ve decided to keep writing these blog posts.
At various times, I’ve attempted to write a few different fiction and non-fiction books. It’s not easy to complete an entire book. The reality is that I’ve never been satisfied enough with my results to want to publish any of this work.
While I still like many of the ideas that I chose to write about, having good ideas isn’t enough to complete a book worth sharing. It takes more than good ideas to make a book engaging and compelling.
It takes learning to become a better writer. Practicing the craft of writing is how we can do this. It may not be the only way. But given my experience, it’s a way that makes sense to me.
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