 The ability to write is such a mixed blessing.
It is an integral part of who you are and you can’t do without it. A friend of mine who edits a magazine in the US told me once that only when she writes she feels that she is doing real work.
I have this nagging feeling sometimes when I am in meetings that I should not be there… I should be at my computer instead….writing. As if I had to report everything I experience… every day… ever minute.
To complicate the matter, the business communication profession is often misunderstood. Why do companies need professional writers and story tellers, given that everybody can more or less knock a couple of sentences together?
Next time you are asked this question, you can quote Colonel David Scott.
Scott was the commander of the Apollo 15 mission to the moon. Ever since his lunar landing in 1971, Scott spent much of his time talking to people who wanted to know how it was like to walk on the moon. He slipped into an unexpected role and became the mission’s story teller.
Scott realised that flying to the moon had been such a pivotal experience in the history of humanity that it wasn’t enough for people to see a couple of minutes of filming on TV. They needed to hear the story from somebody who was there. They needed another human being to tell them how it felt. It was important for them in order to be able to integrate this event into their consciousness.
This is why Scott is calling for the crew of future missions to the moon or Mars to include non-scientists, people able to describe the splendour of the cosmos. “It could be an artist or a poet or a writer - or even a songwriter”.
What a great endorsement for our profession!!!
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