Hello,
Writing fulfills our quest for professional worth. It gives voice to the core of our philosophies. Our words can be powerful. They allow us to make an impact even if it’s just to share our treatment concepts and perspectives with others in our industry. It is our right to express our professional convictions – a right few of us in the field exercise regularly enough. If we decide to make it so, it can be a quintessential platform for our career. Writing takes us beyond the role of technician giving us a greater breadth of range. It permits us the opportunity to take pieces of our professional experiences and place them in sequential order to create memorable lessons for others that they can either relate to or to learn from. It gives amplitude to our feelings about a subject that we are highly passionate about.
Writing opens up all kinds of windows for self-analysis and simultaneously, gives us a chance to explore new worlds of study. It increases our knowledge of things that are well beyond our comprehension and expands our scope of understanding of the current topic we are researching.
Writing is more to me than a habit, more than a hobby and more than a chore. For me, it is my true vocation and I have chosen to use my writing as a way to help others further their work performance and to feel more comfortable with who they are. After twenty years of writing every month for industry journals, the field has left me with a soul-life sustaining gift – one that has rejuvenated me and brought me back to my senses more times than I can count.
No matter, how commonplace a topic, gloomy or sad, writing allows me to inject hope where I originally discovered despair. For me it is more than an art form. It is my friend. It is always there ready to mirror my thoughts and to share them with others who have less understanding about my opinions. Writing has brought me honor through the industry’s recognition of my articles and books making it possible for me to encourage others to devote their skills and efforts into doing the same.
Even my unpublished work has certain significance. It waits for its time to be of relevance. In a way, it is like a savings account, it holds more value as time passes. Everything I write has a life – a beginning, middle and, an end, but the beauty of writing is that it never dies – it can always be reincarnated. I started my career as an industry writer focusing on a specific topic that at the time was of little interest to the beauty or health care industries. I wrote about the “shock factor” of wounds and the insecurity and chaos that imperfections and disfigurements cause in the lives of those with scarring. It was not easy to convince the editors of our journals to embrace my work but I somehow managed to persuade them eventually, believing that “cosmetic rehabilitation” was worthy of knowing and by embellishing on its processes, they finally conceded that it was worth the read. As it turned out, I was not the only person who had a deep interest in the subject. Once I begin to reveal the lack of social consciousness surrounding disfigurement and how these dynamics cast shadow on individuals who are disfigured, professionals in the beauty industry and members of the medical community started to take a closer notice of this newly developing sub-specialty. I personally believe that writing a column and a textbook on this topic is what gave the work and those of us who were performing it at the time, more power and greater representation so that we could grow it into what camouflage therapy has become today.
Writing is only as difficult as we make it. It starts with having something to say and taking the time to say it by putting your thoughts out there. The minute that you make this commitment you begin what has the earmarks of the most incredible professional journey that one can ever take in one’s career. The Internet and your local library is a wealth of information covering all aspects of writing. Community colleges’ offer classes concerning the process of writing and there are local and national associations that you can join as well.
Writing is the ultimate way to better discover the logistics and themes that define our work. It provides a platform for thought for those of us who are sometimes at odds with the strictures of aesthetic convention. It releases restrictions and inspires the further evolution of the field by making way for the creation of other significant applications that we envision. It is a vehicle for “freedom of speech” especially for those who wish to have a presence in the profession as an expert in an area of specialized knowledge. In turbulent times as these, when every area of innovation seems as if it has been discovered and inundated, I have thought of professional writing as the last frontier for originality because it helps us by providing a medium for more atypical approaches of our work for the purpose of shaping and reshaping our profession.
Copyright©2010 All right reserved – Victoria L. Rayner
Valuable Resources:
The Writing Process Personified – (humorous overview)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ_-TOJhXXk
Online College for Wannabe Writers and Wannabe Better Writers–
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/11/01/100-inspiring-educational-videos-for-writers/
Income Generating Tips for Freelance Online Writers
http://www.fastcashfreelance.com/2010/05/tips-for-beginner-writers-3-ways-to-write-more-profitably/
http://www.ehow.com/how_5377652_make-money-freelance-writing-beginner.html
Videos, Videos and more Videos Related to the Various Aspects Involved in the Writing Life
http://www.freelancewriting.com/videocasts-for-writers.php
Writer Support – Chat Room and Newsletter for Writers and Aspiring Writers –
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