“I’m just going to write because I cannot help it.” -Charlotte Brontë

This post is part of the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge hosted by WEGO Health. I will be writing a post a day for all 30 days. You can learn more about it here:http://info.wegohealth.com/HAWMC2012.

 

Today’s topic:

Writing with Style. What’s your writing style? Do words just flow from your mind to your fingertips? Do you like handwriting first? Do you plan your posts? Title first or last? Where do you write best?

 

I do sometimes plan my posts, in the sense that something will happen and I’ll think “Oh, hey, this would be an interesting thing to blog about. How could I write about this?” If I don’t have a topic sorted out, then I often won’t write a post until I do. That means that sometimes I don’t post an article about a topic until months later.

Once I’ve got the topic fixed, though, that’s the end of my planning efforts. For the most part, words flow directly from my head to my fingers on my keyboard. I usually go back and make a few edits, but mostly for spelling and punctuation. I almost never change the content or rearrange anything. Sometimes I won’t write a post on a topic until I can figure out a slant that more people will relate to.

I absolutely never handwrite any of my posts before typing them. This is sort of interesting, because people who know me in real life know that I love to send handwritten notes and cards.

Title writing is a constantly varying procedure. Sometimes I’ll think of a title that I like and write a whole post from there. Other times I’ll write an entire post then fail to post it until I come up with a title a few weeks later. If it’s a post for a blog carnival, then I often end up just coming up with something quickly, since the post has a due date. A lot of times, post titles are play on song lyrics, phrases, or various book/play/movie titles or quotes.

I invariably write sitting up in bed. It is definitely where I feel most comfortable and able to write a post that involves opening myself up.

Despite everything that I have written above, a large number of my posts are written in one rapid sitting. Sometimes I just have the urge to write, and I can’t help but write. Those posts get the most reads (according to WordPress’ stats) … maybe that should tell me something!