What I'm Learning from Writing Daily Press Releases for Maharishi School

The writing isn't much different than what I've been doing for five years on my own blog, nor is it much different from the two non-fiction books I've written.

What is different is what most journalists experience: get it the way you want it now. (And the way your editor wants it.) Not next week or next month--now!

That's providing me with the opportunity to work on my focus--moving through rough draft to revision to proofreading, all with the intent to get the article finished ASAP. Not a bad lesson in self-discipline for any writer.

Here are my challenges (and successes):

• Keep it new. I have to keep reading my words as if I've never read them before, not assuming the words I wrote are correct, but ensuring they are by close attention.
• Using active voice. Short articles have a point, and the subject should move through the transitive verb and reach the direct object. (Some writers say this should be the case always, no matter how long or short the piece.)
• Editor or beta reader. I'm lucky! My boss is a good editor and finds needful places for me to revise. My personal challenge is to lower her suggestions for revision to as near zero as I possibly can. (Corollary to this is to learn from her suggestions.)

For years I "larn'd the kids good." Now it's my turn. Go, Tom!

Copyright 2014 by Thomas L. Kepler, all rights reserved