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In my experience, I have found that most people simply do not enjoy writing articles and papers. The dislike can go right to the pit one’s stomach where they feel physically ill at the very thought of having to do it. Where does this emotional and physical response come from? For the most part, I believe it comes from two primary things: 1.) Fear of Failure and, 2.) Lack of Understanding. If both of these can be overcome, the results of writing a good article or paper can be rewarding and satisfying. Let’s take a look at these two “biggies” which seemingly prevent people from enjoying writing and making it interesting to the reader.

Fear of Failure - Almost a cliche phrase, I have even heard it abbreviated “FOF”. He has FOF…she has FOF…almost like it’s a disease of some sort! Oh, we’re good at abbreviating “diseases.” Having taken a straw poll here in the office, and by no means should it be considered scientific, the consensus of the group suggests that most of us are pre-conditioned to FOF from a very early age. If we think back to our first real English composition class, what did the teacher do and say as you attempted to put into literary practice what he/she taught. Images of having my knuckles smacked with a ruler by a mean Nun for mispelling the same word twice in a 10-page paper…oh, wait a minute…false memory…need rest. Now I’m starting into that Captain Kirk thing. At any rate, my point is this: Our teachers over-corrected most of us before we even had the chance to write any words on a page. “Do it this way,” or “Don’t do it that way,” still ring in my ears to this day. And then we all had to learn the different types of composition, i.e. persuasive, expository, creative, etc… having our knuckles blistered at each and every step, so-to-speak. For most of us, we didn’t even get our pens to paper before our teachers started correcting us. No wonder we have “FOF” when it comes to writing! This leads me to my second point.

Lack Of Understanding - FOF is inexorably linked to “LOU,” for the lack of understanding resulted from becoming so frustrated while learning to fear writing (see above), that many of us never had the chance to develop any true writing skill, whatever the genre might have been. And now as adults, we find ourselves tacking a little bit of guilt on top of both of these, since we really “ought to know” how to write…right?

Maybe the above hasn’t been your experience, but I thought it might ring true at least for some of us. All of this to say… if you’re having problems writing, there are many useful resources to which you may avail yourself. You’d be surprised what I was able to glean from my son’s 9th-grade English text book! There really is some good information in it! Then, just start writing. I bet you can surprise yourself and come up with something interesting. After all, isn’t this really the goal? Again, write what you already know something about and give a few tid-bits of information that aren’t so well known. This will keep the reader’s attention long enough for you to be able to communicate your written message…and keep it interesting.