While it probably doesn't show, I was trained to be a journalist. It just didn't pay enough. I had to pay bills. So, I went another direction.
It's been 30 years since I wrote anything that was meant for other peoples eyes. I was good then. I'm working on it now. I'm hoping what I've lost in technical skill I can make up for in life experience.
I was raised on a turkey farm and I went to college. I never took an art class. I never took a graphic design class. Balance was something you needed to keep from falling over, not to make a room look nice. I am the most uncredentialed person to ever do what I do.
Writing is less about sentence construction than it is about observation and critical thinking. It is about balance. It is about the appropriate word. It is about not being too wordy. It is about feel. It is about point of view.
Some people write with lots of adjectives. I don't. Some people write with lots of fancy words. I don't. Some people want to be impressive. I don't.
My objective in writing is to convey my thoughts clearly, sometimes with humor, sometimes with seriousness. But, never do I want the words to get in the way of the message.
And then it dawned on me. Writing and design are the same thing, just with different tools.
And then it dawned on me. Writing and design are the same thing, just with different tools.
Actually, your journalism training shows more than you probably think it does. You do a fine job of it, so the work you're doing to be a good writer is actually working.
ReplyDeleteI think writing and design are very much the same things. You pick and choose arrangements that are a reflection of your particular voice, and what you present the world with is a written presentation/sometimes representation of a piece of you. Of course, I think makeup is an artistic endeavor too.