Your Best Writing Comes When You Turn the Computer On: and Your Ego Off.
Posted: Monday, August 17, 2009
by Mike Fak
http://mikefak.com
This weekend I was asked if I would Emcee a town hall meeting. Over 100 good paying jobs are in jeopardy at our local prisons and the Chamber of Commerce is calling this meeting with a dozen or so state legislators and area officials giving a few minutes each to the crowd.
They wanted someone who is known to give a few opening remarks and then to introduce each dignitary. I told them I would have to check with my bosses as I intended to cover the story.
I was reminded of the cardinal rule by them and so I bowed out of the offer.
I then groused all afternoon. I had some neat sentences I could have used and I'm sure I could do the job as good as anyone in the town.
But then I thought about it and realized this isn't about me. This is about young men and women losing their livelihoods. I know I can report this story as well if not better than anyone in the area so shouldn't that be what I am enthused about doing? Yes, my ego temporarily got in my way.
I have been starting the buzz' about helping the entire community write the memoirs of an iconic Route 66 building in Lincoln and I am excited to be a hub on that project but again I needed to be reminded of what I am supposed to be doing and where to check my ego.
A friend handed me a dime and said, "Here, this is to pay for your work on writing the Mill book."
The point he was making was I was spending too much time telling people I wasn't going to make a dime on the project and now thanks to my friend I can't say that anymore. The book should be my reward, not my Philistine aggrandizement that I am doing it for free.
When I started writing columns many years ago, my mentor and forty-year newspaperman used to keep me in check with some good quick barbs. "Can you get your head through the door or do I need to knock out a wall?" was his favorite.
Now, everyone who writes has to have a large ego. You have to have one in order to say, "Hey world, this is what I think or this is what I have created and I want all of you to read it." That takes an ego, but the ego needs to be passed on to the work and should not remain on the author.
There is far too much ego in the media news, especially cable. The program hosts spend more time telling us what they think than the story and what was actually said or actually happened.. Yes, they have to have a huge ego to sit in front of television cameras for the world to see. But their ego should be directed to making their stories the best they can be without comments or punditry.
I receive many chapters from new writers asking me for my opinion. Often I see too many huge, rarely used words. Often I see overdone metaphors and waxing on and on poetically to the point I can't follow the story.
I send them an explanation and remind them that the book, the story is what they are supposed to be concerned with and not telling the world, "Hey look at how smart I am." Or, "Hey don't I write well?"
I think that if there is any one tool, or personal skill that can make a writer be the best they can at what they are doing, it is the skill to understand that "Everything is just words. But the words are everything." Writers ego not included.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Wow. Amazingly written article.I see what you mean, and not only will I take that into account when writing my book, but I will with my next few articles.
Great article. I know that just keeping my ego aside, will incorporate better writing skills. It keeps the story from being so opinionated.
Great article. Well done.I agree.
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