After reading a rather babbling mind-flush I had vented into a friendly design-related forum I contribute to, someone asked me how to get started writing articles.
To be honest, I don’t know.
I realize that may sound incredible considering the fact that I write four regular online columns and I’m writing a book. The truth is, I’m still trying to find the time (and a knowledgable resource who has the time to answer a few questions) to learn about how to begin getting articles published in newspapers and magazines.
I’ve done things kind of backward with regard to writing, which is typical of my entire career in and around the design field.
People who are familiar with my life/career (all the same, really) know that I don’t have a degree (despite a longing for one, just for the sense of accomplishment), but that that didn’t stop me from going freelance at age 14, owning an agency that serviced the likes of Time-Warner and Playboy by age 24, and being tapped by Adobe for a job teaching the design business and Adobe software to their Tech Support people a few years ago.
Somewhere in just indulging my passion for design and trying to be a good designer, I did or said something that got people calling me an expert (according to a Florida tech recruiting company this past Monday, some “big name” people are still saying I’m the expert in certain existing and new design and print technologies like VDP). So, when I approached a startup blogging-for-business company with an idea for two design-related blogs, they signed me up on the spot. Together we built the Magazine Weblog and the Design Weblog, which later led to staring the (Unofficial) Photoshop Weblog.
Since my greatest area of interest in this carnival we call the design business is designing for print, I’ve always had a fondness for page layout software like InDesign, Quark, and PageMaker before them. Being, at the beginning, an Adobe employee and Technical Lead to Technical Support for InDesign and InCopy (as well as several other core products), I had terrific insight into InDesign. So, I started writing about the titanic battle between Quark and InDesign on my personal blog, which, a few months ago, officially spun off into its own branded website/blog. There again, people started calling me an expert.
I get quoted and interviewed frequently, and the company that books my training assignments uses my blogs to establish my credentials to prospective clients. Funny enough: Even people who never worked with me at Adobe Tech Support refer Adobe customers to my columns/blogs!
Years ago I started writing a fiction book, and I did research on the topic of writing for that purpose. The single most frequent piece of advice I read was “write what you know.” It never made much sense to me, pragmatically, until this moment. I know the design business, workflows, the tools, the market, and the designer’s mentality. So that’s what I write.
Moreover, I write for me. I write what I choose (mostly), what excites me. Because the subject matter is my favorite hobby and has been my career for many, many years, I write articles, tutorials, and, now, a book (or two, but we’ll talk about that further down the road), for my own entertainment. I love sharing my knowledge in the hopes that it might prove helpful to someone, but I also enjoy the hell out of writing about my passion.
I just write. As ludicrisly simple as that sounds, I simply write. Writing has brought opportunity to me. I’m writing an Illustrator book; for the most part, the publisher came to me, not the other way around.
I’m an intelligent person, with solid marketing acumen and a 1950s-esque work-until-I-drop work ethic, but I’m not an aggressive professional. I don’t go out and pursue career opportunities with anywhere near the fervor many would think. If I did, I would probably be in a very different place. When an opportunity comes along, I’m smart enough to recognize it and make the most of it, though.
For now, I’m just enjoying the ride, loving every new challenge in this fantastic carnival ride I call a career.
Hopefully in my experiences above is an answer or a clue that can help address the original question. If anything stands out in my mind it’s the old writer’s mantra: write what you know. That’s all I’ve done, and it seems to work for me.
So, if the question is: “how do I break into writing?” I’m sorry. Contrary to the fact that I’m a professional journalist who writes (among other things) for a living, I don’t know the answer.