What really matters…A more important kind of New Year’s Resolution

I took a second tonight to check-up on my blogs to see if any of you had questions for me. To my delight, there was a great question–that will be the topic of the next posting. I also noticed that you helped me to achieved my goal of 10,000 views a little earlier than my goal of New Year’s Eve.

I’m very thankful for all the support from those of you that have read my postings, but I noticed a disturbing trend regarding the most popular blogs:

1. When I went on vacation

2. When I posted someone else’s blog

3. When I blogged about blogging

Your interest seems to have very little to do with QC, QA or Regulatory Affairs. It seems to be quite personal. Maybe there is more to life than reading and writing about medical device regulations. This sort of sounds like a line from my favorite cartoon, at the part of the story where I cry every time…

Here’s a few things that might be more important:

1. Staying warm in my cave,

Yes, I’m wrapped up in a girly pink blanket trying to stay warm while I write this post on a Friday night.

2. Being around for my daughter’s eighth birthday, and

Wow, they grow up so fast.

3. almost everything else other than what I typically write about.

So while each of you watch this music video, please think about what your New Year’s resolution will be for 2013. Instead of strategic business planning, let’s all try to think about how we can help others first.

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How to write a blog every day–without getting lost.

I recently received a comment regarding one of my older posts.

The person asked a question that has nothing to do with QA/RA, but I thought some of you might enjoy my response. Here are the question and answer reproduced:

Question:

I was curious to find out how you center yourself and clear your thoughts prior to writing. I have had a hard time clearing my mind in getting my ideas out there. I truly do take pleasure in writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are lost simply just trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas or hints?

Answer:

I highly recommend reading Stephen King’s Book: “On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft”. He covers this question in detail. The following Youtube video of an interview with Stephen King might help too. Just don’t tell Stephen that I haven’t never read one of his novels. I love his writing, but it’s not my normal genre.

I personally never experience writer’s block. My “secret” is that I do my creative drafts at night when I’m tired. Then I do my editing in the morning. My work requires writing many pages each day, so a 500-word blog is fun and games for me.

One of the things that many great writers do is write 2x what they intend to publish. Then they edit their work down to size. By taking this approach they can just let their work flow without worrying about technical aspects of writing.

My next evolution will be to teach myself to write using dictation software (i.e. – Dragon Naturally Speaking). I can write at 80-100 WPM now, but that will increase my rate to 130+ WPM (we’ll see if that works out as planned).

PS – Stephen King also says that a writer must always read. I’m addicted to reading. As one of my mentors said, “You’re a bibliophile.”