Writing with intention

How does one write with intention?

I am not a writer by training, but I am a creator by spirit. My training has been the thousands of moments of my life that have led me to this one now that finds me sitting in a reupholstered chair that has witnessed three generations of my family, in a corner of my kitchen, writing about writing.

In this moment, I find myself wondering how to answer the call to write and to do justice in my response.

My waking life is filled with thoughts, words, and sentences. They often become a post when I have time to sit down and weave them together.

I have been reading the writing of other bloggers, and those whose writing I admire often start with a question or focus their writing as a response to a common phrase or misnomber.

I recently submitted a piece to an online journal that posts writings on the subject “the mindful life.”

The response I received was so very loving, it warranted sharing.

———

Dear Marieke,

I love your voice and I’d like to consider this for publication but right now it feels like several pieces bunched into one. Can you narrow your topic and focus on it?

Here are some questions that might help:

1. Does your article have an attention-grabbing opening?
2. Does the opening give us an idea about what is to come?
3. Have you given us the relevant background information?
3. Does the middle stay engaging?
4. Do you stay concise and to the point?
5. Does the ending tie up with the idea you started with?
6. What does this offer the reader? What are you giving them to walk away with?

——–

I have a new focus, to write with intention rather than simply to write.

From now on, I will try to choose a topic to focus on and to fulfill numbers 1-6 above.

Here I go!