In more than 20 years of freelance writing, only a handful of assignments have been written in my voice. Primarily writing about outdoor recreation from a business perspective, my personal opinions about the potential success of new fabric technology, a product’s change in positioning or a specialty retailers launch of an e-commerce strategy didn’t seem appropriate. Over time, as my experience and industry knowledge increased to a place where I could offer intelligent commentary, I still refrained. Who am I to pontificate about the chances a new product will succeed or fail? Many of my interview subjects held C-level positions, advanced degrees augmented by years of real-world experience and were backed by the resources of multiple-million dollar brands.
Don’t worry, this essay isn’t leading you to “I told you so” boast. I’m not pointing to any lofty predictions shared with a small group of colleagues that came true to some degree.
My approach to writing is fundamentally changing. Starting a new assignment still excites me. Digging into a topic, forming a point of view about how to present a story that holds a reader’s attention rekindles the passion that led me to write in the first place. Now, though, I’m becoming more interested in writing what I want to write about. Tell stories that have a deeper meaning to me. My notebooks are filled with nonfiction outlines, raw summaries of fiction written to serve as book flap pitches. The first words written for a current book contract were written far longer in the past that I want to admit. Would the timing have been right? Would the media’s coverage of the topic when I first started writing convince an editor to offer a contract?
What if I did pitch the book 5 years ago? The answers aren’t necessarily clear and in this case, hindsight isn’t helpful. Can’t change the past, only the future. As a younger writer, I claimed success exploring an idea long enough to open a word document and fill a page with notes that I could return to later.
That later is now. Life is finite. Who knows how long we have to spend on this earth? I need to spend the time I have left writing about ideas that inspire me.