#100 Days Writing Challenge, the first 7 days, Episode 1.

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Finally, we arrived. My Name is Daiane Caroline a woman, student, researcher, networker and complexity thinker, and Writer, yes. A Writer indeed. But what is necessary to become a Writer? Can I call myself one? Or do I need others to give me this title? To be a Writer is something static, you write once and already become one, or become a writer is a process? The more you write more you become a writer?

Well, a lot of questions arose in the process that I decided to start to become a constant Writer because I believe to become a writer, just like becoming a good stoic, a good complexity thinker and an observer is all about the process. Therefore, repetition of actions and cumulative experiences.

So, I want to start sharing some things I have learned in my training process to become a writer and how has been the process of applying the principles.

First of all, we need to be clear about the genres of writing we are interested in, since fiction stories, journalism, and web writing have common principles, but also possess their own particularities. So, I decided to practice web writing and in order to do that, I started reading books about writing and courses, which made me arrive at the principles of readability and the theory of the reader expectations. This is pretty much some consideration that minimizes readers cognitive load in the process of reading, it’s them:

• Divide the paragraphs in Aristotelic deliberative structure: Exordio, narration, evidence, peroration (commentary or conclusion)
• Construct the sentences focusing on topic sentences and stress positions.
• Make sure the verb follows the subject of the sentence as soon as possible.
• Prefer active verbs rather than passive ones.
• Choose simple words, cut long and complicated ones.
• Prefer short paragraphs.
• Focus on the reader and on the purpose.

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This last one I learn with Professor Larry McEnerney from the University of Chicago Writing program (he is incredible). In his theory, if your writing is clear, original, persuasive, objective but doesn’t produce value to the reader.

Then, all of the previous qualities are useless. So, the main focus of any type of writing, even academic ones, is to create value for the reader. But how do you do that?. Well, according to McEnerney, there are various ways to do that, but above all, the value depends on what your readers doubt. Thus, you need to discover what they doubt to create value and change how they think about the world.

Surely not a simple task. But with research and a lot of reading and paying attention to the community you want to write for. This can be achieved.

However, in order to apply these principles, you need to WRITE. Just after being trained to become a writer I learned that writing is a process and this process can and must be systematic if you want to become better, and who knows, a professional writer. So, here is the process I have learned and that I am following:

• Pre-Writing, here you need to choose a topic, read, make research, find data, and narrow the topic.
• Outline. Story structure, logic flow, order, paragraphs, thesis statement, etc.
• Drafts. Develop the “scenes” story, write the paragraphs following the deliberative structure.
• Revision and Edition, you perform the operations of addition, subtraction, substitution in order to polish your writing.

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Have I followed this process? Yes and no. What do I mean? Well, in order to follow a process of writing, when you have never done it before, takes a time to become automatic and easy. That is because all of us already had previous random savage ways to write.

So, at the beginning of the 100 days challenge, I jumped to just start writing before outline, but with time, I perceived that outlining makes difference. Of course, if you want to be clear and create a more logical and pleasing flow to your reader and more value. The outline is necessary and the part I most struggled with in the first days, because writing randomly is easier.

However, I don’t believe such a complex task as writing can be a linear process. Pretty much nothing that is complex is linear. So, I do make an outline but it is not necessarily my first step. When I have good ideas for paragraph construction I just make free writing to let the creativity flow in my first drafts.

After a time, I make an outline check how the already written parts ” fits” on it. In these 2 weeks on the road, I can tell you: outline matters. If you want to run less risk in not being clear and create a better story strategy before “filming the scenes” of your story, makes difference.

The most important part: the revision and edition. I heard some writers saying this is the most important part. I agree. Because a good piece of writing never comes to life in the first draft, This is a pity. I wish it could emerge in the first draft. But that is not a reality when it comes to a creative process.

It is this last part of the process that the stories get polished after various operations of addition, subtraction, substitution, and a lot of judgment about your own writing. In this part of the process, I revise the titles and subheadings. I heard a big writer friend of mine told me that he writes around 300 titles until finding one that is really good.

Well, I believe this illustrates well the notion that to come up with good stories and titles requires various editions and try and error. I could really realise this after my first 2 texts. I had to revision plenty of times. Depending on the text, I revise and edit 3 to 4 times. Because I feel if I revise 100 times I will want to make editions in all of them. There will always have something you think can be better. So, putting a limit is necessary in order to create stories in less than one year lifetime.

So, what I can say is that until making the process natural, automatic and easy you need to Write! Write! Write. That is the “secret”. But forget linearity.

For the last, despite being the owner of Network Pole, I won`t be the only writer the idea is this platform to give “voice” to different thinkers and writers around the globe. Some of the themes we are going to write about are:

• Complexity science and System thinking in the context of economics, politics, climate change, cities, supply chains, etc.
• Network theory, relationships, and connections.
• About the Art of Writing.
• Rhetoric and oratory practices: the art of persuasion and influence.
• China and its culture, language, economy, and politics.
• Creativity process according to scientific discoveries.
• Stoicism Philosophy, practice, and virtues.

Therefore, if you would like to become a better writer, better human being, well informed, think in systems, learn about how to connect and enter in networks, become more creative, and practice ancient philosophy.

All by reading extraordinary thinkers and writers who will write, not for something we can't control as money, but to help you to get more knowledge and gain more ways with which you can perceive the world, increasing your potentialities with only few minutes of your day.

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