Who is a writer?
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” Those are the words from Toni Morrison, an American novelist, editor and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. However, those were always the words from professor Robert Kalm this semester. Write an essay, write a script, write a wiki, write a pitch, write a social media strategy, write, write, and write.
I was never afraid of writing, but I wasn’t sure if I was really up to the task of writing so much, about so many things.
So who is a writer anyway?
Writers are storytellers. Writers are historians. Writers are filmmakers. Writers are novelists. Writers are disgruntled readers. Writers are journalists. Writers are policy makers. Writers are people who shape the world and experience. Writers are dreamers. Writers are meaning-makers. What they all seem to agree on, however, is that writers are people who have something to say to others. So who is a writer? A writer is anyone who has something to say.
For a long time, I believed that you had to be born a writer, that you should show promise at an early age, be in love with the process of writing all the time and never feel fulfilled unless you were writing. I know better now. Writing, like most things in life, is a skill you work on. I should quote these lines because as I write them, I can actually hear them from my editor, I mean, my professor. Almost everyone isn’t a good writer when they start out, said Prof. Kalm on multiple occasions. Even those who are born with a certain skill at writing aren’t as good as they could be and need to practice their craft to make it better. Writing has less to do with any natural talent than it does with having ideas and perseverance. You write something and that will be your first draft. Then you and your editor will find opportunities to improve that piece and write a second draft. Then the third draft will come, followed by a fourth, and even a fifth. You’ll publish your piece and when you read it, you’ll still think there was room for improvement. In other words, there’s no magic, it’s all about practice. “Writing is a craft, not an art,” said William Zinsser, an ally for the past 13 weeks on this journey.
“Who am I writing for”
That was a question from Zinsser. Right now and following my professor’s instructions, I’m writing for myself. I’m looking back over my work and I see that writing about millennials, is something I really enjoy.
During the past thirteen weeks, I’ve discovered that millennials are an amazing generation, with high potential, and an impressive purchasing power. Those are the ones who transformed the way we communicate; they invented the concept “Social TV”, just because they can’t avoid being multi-tasked. I wrote that in terms of the workforce, millennials no longer value the traditional workplace rules of dress code, reprimands for being late, and the so-called “job-work balance”. They (we) love other intangible benefits such as a friendly work culture, freedom to listen to music. They prefer to work for 12 hours today and only 4 hours tomorrow. Millennials hate monotony. I do too.
When I read my posts, I feel I’m shaping my voice to talk about millennials in a way that is not common in traditional media. I don’t want to talk about them as a weird species controlling the world, but as the biggest age grouping in American history.
Marketing to millennials is both an enlightening look at this generation of consumers and a practical plan for earning their trust and loyalty. I think my blog is a liaison between millennials and companies. On one hand, I understand the marketing industry, and on the other I perfectly know millennials. I know how they feel, what they want and how they want it. I also know what they like, dislike, and hate.
I want my blog to be the key to persuading the customers who will determine the bottom line for decades to come. Millennials are here to stay, and they’re not going anywhere. And I will always be here to write something fair about them.
“The most important sentence in any article is the first one,” said Zinsser and I started with a powerful quote from Toni Morrison, “if there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” I just started the first few chapters of my book about millennials. Who is a writer? I’m a writer.
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