Adam Blatner

As you might gather, I write easily and for fun, while many others find this daunting. I also advocate for the values offered by this medium—i.e., setting down in a stored form what you have learned. For some this is obvious, yet there are many who do, who act, who are involved in non-literate ways. I certainly don’t object to this, but their work doesn’t get retained for later review or disseminated —two of the functions of writing. And it is through this medium that many goals are achieved:
   – writing encourages others: “If they can do it, I can do it.” Or: “Hey, I’ve been doing that for ten years! I should get credit, too!”
  – writing gives others ideas: “Maybe I could use that technique” “Maybe I could apply that with my clients.”
   – writing is easier than ever. It used to be that your self-expression or reports had to go through peer review editing. For some purposes that’s still so, but you can also post your work on your blog, your website, write email to the forum, and in other ways get it out there. The internet has opened all sorts of interactive potentials.
   – writing opens the horizons of your work beyond your own in-group. You may feel that others already know about what you’re doing, but that’s in fact a rather select group. Most people don’t know the potential in your work, or don’t appreciate what it’s about. Don’t take your work for granted.
   – nor should the idea that you know stuff others don’t know seduce you into a sense of entitlement, the illusion that it’s the other people’s job to seek you out. This is a subtle and often unconscious cop-out that protects you from the sense of realistic obligation that what you know needs to be organized in your mind, written up, and go through what it takes to get it published.
   – if you don’t write easily or naturally, find an ally who does and let that person become a co-author!
   – don’t get distracted by—well, distractions—and consider that what you’ve learned as part of your experience might be useful to others. The excuse, “too busy,” may interfere with your long-term goals of having what you do respected.