Writing Styles
I love to write. I always seem to have something to say, and words generally comes easily for me.
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I write almost all the time.
I write on my blog.
I write comment on other people’s blog.
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I also write for work.
I write reports. I write a lot of reports.
I write letters, memo’s, meeting agendas, public communication notices, meeting minutes, emails and even sticky-notes.
And when I’m not writing for work, I’m in meeting about writing reports, letters, memo’s, etc. In fact, I have literally been in meeting about writing sticky notes.
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But, writing for work and writing for my blog are completely different styles of writing.
On my blog, I write whatever comes to my mind. Some days I talk about serious stuff like miscarriage and adoption. Other days I talk about our dog or our latest adventure. And other days I spill my heart out about something going on in our personal life, often at a level of detail that I don’t share with most people in my real life. There are no rules dictating how I have to write. I get to say what I want, how I want and when I want. I am the author of my story, and I seem to have a receptive audience.
At work, I’m very direct. I am completely emotionless. I am concise and to the point. I am structured. I am logical and clear. My audience is likely to be technical, but will also include the average person – it’s an interesting challenge as I have to be able to move seamlessly between my audiences and reach everyone. And yet at the same time, I do not write for magazines or newspapers and I know very few people will ever read my professional work.
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Now that I’m working again, I’m finding it an interesting to flip between styles. I started my blog within days of starting my medical leave from work at the start of our 4th loss, and then I didn’t go back. So, now to be constrained by my professional writing rules part of the time and then to embrace the freedom that comes with writing for my blog is very different. To move seamlessly between the two styles is proving to be a bit of a challenge.
And the point of this today? I have absolutely no idea, its just what I’m thinking about tonight. I’ve been working really long days lately and spending a lot of time at my computer writing. And so I guess, writing is just on my mind.
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I wrote all day too and can relate to the need to switch styles. Sometimes I wish I could add a little humour to my corp. communications…but I think everyone would think I was off my rocker!
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I think it would be great if you added some humor, yet I know it would never fly. 🙂
I have often thought about adding a random lines into 50 page report just to see if anyone ever reads it! I’d never do it, but it would be funny to see how long it takes. 🙂
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I love to write, too. When I was a teenager, I suffered from depression, I just didn’t know it at the time. I spent a lot of time alone in my bedroom writing…I guess they were novels? They typically took up 3-4 single subject notebooks. I also got a typewriter eventually, and wrote a book that was I think about 150-200 pages. I still have that one, but unfortunately the notebooks I had to leave behind when I left my abusive husband years ago.
Anyway…it has always been a release for me. I think that’s why I enjoyed Myspace and Facebook so much, because I could use it as my sounding board for how I was feeling at the time. Now that I have a blog, it’s like my therapy. I feel so much calmer and a lot less stress when I can get my feelings out…and know that I have all of you here that will understand and support me! It actually makes me uneasy when I haven’t blogged for a few days, I feel out of touch and sort of trapped inside myself. I guess that’s just how some of us process through things and find our peace! (Sorry this is long, I obviously haven’t written in while!)
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I loved this comment – I feel like I got to know you a bit better. I’m sorry you struggled with depression, but I do love hearing about how you wrote through it and still write today. I really do get the idea of blogging for therapy, it’s so important to my mental health to be writing and yet until I started my blog I had never, not once, written in a journal or done any sort of writing for “fun” or just for me. I started blogging for others, but it turns out it was probably the best thing I could ever have done for me too.
And now that I’m working so much I’m finding that I’m struggling to have the time to write and respond to comments, and I’ve noticed that I’m feeling more anxious. Which is a good indicator of just how important this therapy is for me.
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Writing is an outlet. I am not the best writer, never have been. I am notorious for run on sentences. The thing is I write what I am thinking, most of the time it leads to me being all over the place. I love reading what you have to write about. It makes me smile.
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I love your writing! I laughed at the run on sentences comment – my issues is basic spelling and I cannot for the life of me remember the difference between their and there. 🙂
And thank you for your kind comment. I too love reading your writing.
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awe thanks 🙂 Let me tell you it was not always easy to write my papers for my Doctorate degree… I had to do A LOT of editing!
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I hear you! I hired an editor for my master’s thesis to help with my their/there problem. 🙂
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Stupid English.
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Haha, well, I’m enjoying your writing! I have a similar juxtaposition: my work writing is very specific, each word chosen intentionally, and my blog writing is free flow blabbing about nothing in particular!
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Thanks for sharing! I think it’s so interesting to hear that others have the exact same situation in that work is very prescriptive. It’s nice to be able to just say what we want, how we want on our blogs. 🙂
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My last professional role before I had Monkey was a reporting manager for a big govt infrastructure program. My team collected data and wrote reports and like you my style in that role was very succinct and specific. I haven’t written like that in so long!!! It is a real skill to write like that, take out the fluff.
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Thanks for sharing! After my break from work, where I focused on blogging, I found it pretty hard to go back to my professional writing. It seemed to be taking a conscious effort for me to be succinct again. And at the same time I’m finding myself drawn to my blogging writing style whenever I can, probably because I enjoy it more. 🙂
P.S. How are you doing?
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I’m doing great. Things seemed to have calmed for now. Phew 🙂
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You do seem like a natural born writer. Did you like writing even as a kid? It’s interesting to hear about the two different writing styles you move between.
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Oddly, outside of school, I never wrote. I always achieved high grades for my writing in school from grade one through to my master’s degree. But, until my blog, I actually never wrote for myself. Not once did I keep a journal or write notes or anything.
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Love to write! I journal in addition to my blog. Seems a bit silly but writing is like therapy for me. Except I hate writing reports for work…
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It sounds like writing is like therapy for a lot of us! I have never kept a journal, but in so many ways my blog is just like a public journal.
Like you, writing work reports just isn’t as satisfying as writing for myself. 🙂
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I also started my blog within days of taking my medical leave for my last loss. Im heading back to work now and can already see the freedom slipping away as far as my blog goes.
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Yes, this is so true! I’m all the sudden really struggling to maintain my blog in the way I want to – I’m falling behind on responding to comments and commenting on other blogs – it’s driving me crazy but I’m trying really hard not to get stressed by it.
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I really relate to this. Believe it or not I write professionally. I wouldn’t say it on my blog for fear of being outted but my job is in the political/media world. My profesh writing is broadcasted to thousands of people in various formats (speeches, media releases, statements, copy for ads, scripts for video, etc etc). It comes with a lot of pressure to never fuck up and write for another person, in their voice in a way that says a lot… but sometimes says nothing at all. So for me, I don’t consider writing on my blog ‘writing’. It’s purely a mental download that takes the form of the written word. I go out of my way to break CP/ap style, to have shitty grammar and typos etc so that I don’t censor myself. Because I write all day for others, and because like you, I have a professional mask for work, the blog is my only chance to blurt out all the things that churn and roil in my mind – it’s like a stream of consciousness journal, with readers whom I cherish. 🎉💕
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