Page 40 - July 2020

JUST WRITE

Here’s an Idea (or Two . . .)

Ken Coomes, DTM

You want to be a writer? Sure, you haven’t

done it yet for five reasons and 17 excuses,
one of which is because you don’t know
where to start. I’ll try to help a little.
I’ve given presentations to writing

groups, spoken with authors at book fairs
and signings, conducted workshops on
writing and interviewed writers on The
Write Stuff. A question I hear often is

“Where do you get your ideas?”
My published pieces include technical
articles, poems, short fiction, and novels.
Let’s talk about non-fiction first, because

it’s easier—or is it?
If you are a recognized expert in any
field, that’s probably what you should write
about. Or if you are highly knowledgeable

in an area, that may be where you start.
The subject matter is easy in these cases;
but there is more to it than that.
How will you bring something new to

the field? Will you present a novel thesis,
or a new perspective? Perhaps you have
real life experience to draw from, and
share.

When I wrote technical pieces for an
in-house newsletter at Intel, I started
by listening. If several engineers asked
the same question, or similar questions,

and I knew the answer(s), that led to an
article. One of my articles wasn’t even
technical—I addressed the differences
between dealing with regular customers

40 ONE COMMUNITY