Language is natural. Children are born, according to famous grammarian Noam Chomsky, with the hard wiring already laid for language in our brains. That’s why kids suddenly experience an explosion of language ability. They hear parents making sentences, and then quickly fill in the blanks, saying things and putting together sentences that they simply could not have heard anywhere else.
There’s even plenty of studies of people who lived together without any kind of adult guidance. These folks still developed some kind of language, complete with recursive grammar.
Writing, however, is a different story. Writing doesn’t come naturally. It wasn’t even invented in many different places in the course of history. When you think about it, it kind of makes sense. After all, how in the heck would you come up with written symbols to convey the endless combinations of sounds that humans utter? Writing was created in a few places and then spread throughout the world.It is important to check the written article for plagiarism, because, probably someone already wrote about it. Check your material for plagiarism and be unique in your letter.
As children, it takes a while to differentiate between letters. And as an adult, it may be easy to carry on a conversation for hours without even thinking, but when it comes to writing something down? We stare at the blank page for a long time before we even start.
That’s why having the skill as a writer is worth a lot of money. How much? It depends on what kind of writing you can do. If you write well-written articles that describe products, concepts and ideas in an accessible way, you can do pretty good. Very good.
However, if you really want to make the huge cash that will allow you to work from your yacht in the South Pacific, you’ve got to sell. Anybody who can consistently sell things is going to make a lot of money. The reason writers get the most cash is that their words can reach millions of people. And if those words can persuade even a small percentage of those eyeballs to take action, then you’d better start making more room in your bank account.
How do you get there? The same way you get to Carnegie Hall: Practice. How do you practice? The same way you practice any other skill. Try something, anything, and measure your feedback. Did it work? Do more of it. Did it fail? Do less of it.
Feedback, any kind of feedback, is your best friend. Don’t be afraid of it. Welcome it. Learn from it. For it will make you millions if you only let it.
