You Know You Are A "Real Writer" When....

How To Tell If You Are Cut Out To Be A Professional Writer 

By Robert Bacal

People write for all kinds of reasons. Some do so because they feel it’s a good business strategy to create blog posts. Others write because the have a passion about a particular subject. There’s one element that will help you sustain your writing efforts over time, even over a career or writing, and if you are lucky enough to be possessed by one particular motivation, you might just be a real writer with a future as a professional. It’s simple.

Do You Feel Wrong If You Don’t Write?

There’s a difference between writing to achieve some end — making money, establishing oneself, or just because, and writing because it’s so fundamental to you as a person that you HAVE to write or you feel out of sorts, or that you aren’t doing the “right” thing for you. On one level it’s a kind of obsessiveness which can drive you a bit nuts, but on another level, it’s the motivation that drives you to your keyboard almost every day. And if you are afflicted by this writing virus, you can’t really stop writing. Ask yourself the questions:

1. If I don’t write, do I feel like I should be writing?
2. If I don’t write, do I feel less comfortable, and wish I WAS writing?
3. Do ideas for articles keep running through my head, even if I’m not actually sitting at my keyboard?
4. When I read the writing of others, does their work cause me to think about what I should be writing?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions you may be on the path to writing as a vocation — because, you HAVE to write because it’s part of you as a person, rather than writing as a task or job.

And If You Don’t HAVE To Write?

Not to worry. You don’t have to HAVE to write to be a top notch writer. Where it helps is in your motivation and “stick to it-ness”. Being compelled to write is valuable for a number of reasons, but it’s not essential. Consider: If you want to eventually write a book, rather than something shorter that can be completed in a short time, you NEED that obsessiveness to be able to complete the project. Writing a book is hard. It means consistent work over a relatively long period of time, and your obsessiveness — you NEED to write will bring you back to the keyboard even on the days when you’d rather be doing anything else but write. It can drive you through the tough times. A lot of people start books, or claim they want to eventually write a book, but few actually complete one, or even begin, because they lack the motivation to stick to it. If you HAVE to write, you will go back. If you are a blogger, or online writer, or someone who writes much shorter material, then the issue is a bit different. If you want a following,  you need to write material in a consistent way, producing material regularly, and once again, you need to get through the times when you simply don’t feel like writing. You get tired of it. If you HAVE to write, because it’s a part of you as a person, you WILL go back sooner rather than later. And that gives you a sustainable advantage as a writer.

Conclusion

Being obsessed, or having to write is obviously a double edged sword, because the desire to write can intrude on the rest of your life. It is both a blessing and a curse, but if you have this obsession, you may be cut out for a career in writing, or in a job that requires a lot of writing done on a regular basis. And if you don’t have the obsession, you’ll have to find other ways to motivate yourself through the times when the thought of putting words on paper or into the electron stream is just about as attractive as a root canal job.

Both Parents And Teachers Make These Five Mistakes When Talking To Each Other

When CNN ran a series of articles about what parents want to say to teachers, and what teachers want to say to parents, thousands of comments ensued, many of them aggressive, and attacking -- going both ways, from parents criticizing teachers, to teachers making uncivil comments about parents.

What jumps out, if you refuse to "take sides" is that both parents and teachers make similar mistakes, not only when talking about difficult issues online, but also when they meet to discuss the welfare of children. It's not so much that parents or teachers are "bad". Its that both groups care a lot, and the issue of how children are to be best educated is an emotional one.

Here are five errors that both parents and teachers make in their discussions.

Quick Jump To Judgment

When things get heated between teacher and parent, each starts to blame the other for the conversation going badly, but the irony is that often BOTH are making the same mistakes that get in the way of solving educational issues. It's time to trash these errors.

When emotions run high, it's easy to draw quick conclusions about the other person (don't care, bad parent, lousy teacher) -- to judge the other person, even if we don't know them well. The problem here is that a quick judgment closes off our thinking, and shuts down our ability to hear what the other person is saying, and notice, not only the points of disagreement, but also the points of agreement. Prescription: First seek to understand, before judging.

Teachers That Make A Difference: The Gift That Lasts A Lifetime! By Robert Bacal

Some forty years ago, I learned that the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. I have to admit that I've never been called upon to use that information, any more than I've been called upon to recite the various classical columns in traditional architecture. There's not a big demand, I guess.

It's easy for teachers to focus on the curriculum, and the syllabus, or even the test scores, amidst the incredibly busy days teachers encounter. Ultimately it's not about the Battle of Hastings, though, or any individual bit of information teachers are called upon to teach.

it's about helping students learn about the joy of learning, the beauty of the subject, and creating lifelong curiosity that will open the doors to lifelong learning. Because this gift that teachers can bestow upon their students launches careers, excellence and successful lives.

Writing Tips: How To Become A Consistent, Prolific Writer

Note: This article originally appeared on Linkedin, and for LinkedIn contributors, but all of the suggestions and tips apply to any kind of writing.

One of the challenges for many writers is how to write regularly while maintaining the quality of the writing, and that applies to both article writing, and writing a book.

Most of us on LinkedIn don't write for a living. We are professionals who do other things and have many other responsibilities, yet there's a strong desire for many to write on Linkedin and for other platforms. To share that hard won expertise.

It's important, whether you are writing an article a week, or month, or want to write more prolifically, to manage your tactics, ideas and routines, because consistent posting is an important and necessary part of being read.

In this #Behindthescenes look I'll share what I do and have done to maintain consistent writing output. Over the years I've produced about 500 articles available online, mostly on my websites, but also for other platforms and organizations. When you add in the frequently asked questions sections of my websites, the number grows to easily over a thousand articles. That's in addition to the twenty or so books I have published for both major publishers like McGraw-Hill, and those my company publishes independently.