Don’t try to impress people; just tell your story.
Sixty years ago, Dan’s high school English teacher convinced him he was no writer. Throughout his business career and into his retirement, he’d lived with her assessment.
Then he realized he had a story he needed to tell. So Dan sat at his keyboard and pounded out an account of how, with the help of many friends, he had built from salvaged Model A Ford parts a “doodlebug” tractor like the one his father owned when Dan was a child.
The account he sent me, as editor of a national Model A Ford magazine, wasn’t perfect. But it had plenty of potential. All the elements were there. It needed only some routine editing.
Without realizing it, he’d done everything required for a successful writer. He had a topic he cared about, and he knew what he wanted to say. Then he’d presented that information in a straightforward style. He didn’t try to impress readers with a lofty vocabulary and elaborate descriptions. Instead, he provided clear, specific details, and he wrote from the heart.
His response to the edited article revealed the obstacle he’d overcome. “I am just proud,” he said, “that an article written by me would be published in one of the finest automotive magazines in the country. My high school English teacher (Mrs. Haviland) would never believe it.”
English teachers may know a lot. But they don’t necessarily know everything, especially about writing informative, entertaining accounts for ordinary people.
