The Write Road 001 - On Getting Started

Getting ready to trek on down The Write Road with Steve Maurer

Beginnings … are hard

A blinking cursor on a fresh blank page can be intimidating for even seasoned writers.

Yeah, I know.

That’s the placeholder text every Substack writer sees when they create a new post. Almost deleted it, honestly.

But then I thought, “That really might be the best way to start the inaugural post for “The Write Road.”

So it stays. For the most part, anyway. And I kept some other stuff, too.

I’m not a newbie writer by any means.

Seasoned? Maybe. Grizzled … more likely. Grumpy … ask my kids.

Uh … on second thought, maybe you’d better not.

Feels I’ve been writing for eons. My first “computer” was a Texas Instruments TI

99/4A. Pretty much a funky little keyboard attached to a black and white TV. Data and code was stored on a cassette tape player. A dot-matrix printer completed the ensemble.

No worries if you don’t know what all those things are. There won’t be a quiz at the end.

Or will there? Hmmm …

Before that, it was pencil and paper. And crayons. Still is sometimes … only the electronic version instead.

(Except for the crayons. Still wax. You need to keep some childhood memories intact, you know.)

More on that in a future issue.

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Why this, why now?

Tell your readers why you are launching this space. (Look familiar? Template again.)

That, my friend, is a very good question. Why in the world would anyone want to start a newsletter, including me? And why now, for Pete’s sake?

Well, to respond to the first one … the answer is two-fold.

Partly for me and partly for you.

“Why do you want to do this?” the muse queried.

For me, it’s kind of selfish, honestly. The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary defines selfish as:

: being a usually repetitive sequence of nucleic acid that actively replicates within an organism but is not expressed phenotypically and serves no known function.

(Nucleic acid? Phenotypically?? What the … )

Oops! Wrong definition. My bad. Let’s try again.

The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary defines selfish as:

: concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself : seeking or concentrating on one's own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others

Yep. That’s the one. Much better. Except the “without regard for others” part.

I’m writing this newsletter, in many respects, for my own good. Some reasons are:

• It helps me hone my writing chops to a razor-sharp edge.

• It keeps my grey matter from, I don’t know, atrophying?

• Sometimes I get a little bored writing about motors and bearings and gears,

• Oh my!

And who knows, I might try to monetize it someday. Not necessarily this newsletter, but the offspring that shall inevitably spring forth from its womb.

Oh yeah, the Why Now part. Well, let’s face it. I ain’t getting any younger.

None of us are.

So if I’m going to leave some sort of written legacy, I’d better get … uh …legacycizing.

Is that a word?

It is now. You can do that when you’re a writer, you know.

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But, more importantly, I’m writing this for you, my friend. I know you, even if you’re just getting to know me. I’ve been in your shoes.

The thought of writing something people would read … it absolutely mortified me!

Maybe it scares you, too.

Deep inside, you have a burning desire to write. But you don’t know if you’re good enough (by the way, you are). Nevertheless, the fire in your belly persists.

At times it may feel like the blaze of your inner desire is cooling to mere embers, even dying.

I’m here to help you stoke the flame.

Don’t let the fire die.

Ever.

You also may not know all the mechanics of writing. Yes, writing is a creative endeavor. (Or endeavour, if you’re of the British persuasion.)

Either way, it’s an awesomely creative undertaking. And even awesomely creative undertakings have mechanical elements to them. Elements you need to know and understand.

We’ll discuss those while we’re traveling The Write Road.

Maybe even stop at a roadside tavern and discuss them in depth.

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Thinkin’ of reposting some of my old tomes here. Some of them weren’t too shabby. But you haven’t had the chance to read them yet.

You can be the judge.

Every now and then, I’ll tell a story from my life. It could be about writing. But often it won’t.

I’ll do that, not so much to give you a glimpse into the “Life of Maurer.” But to show you, believe it or not, that you have stories inside you as well.

Important stories.

Stories worth telling.

Stories the world desperately needs to hear.

So along The Write Road, we’ll sing and dance and tell stories. We’ll learn and share and grow.

And write.

Sometimes it will be quite serious. Other times, not so much. I do love to have fun.

Serious fun, of course.

And I do like to bend some rules, even break them.

In the wild wonderful world of writing, you can do that, too.

I’ll show you how.

What kind of community are you looking to build here?

You are not just starting a newsletter when you start a Substack, you are starting a community. You are inviting people to subscribe to your thinking. What kind of space will this be?

Okay, I realize I used another templated text. (Dude! They really need to learn what contractions are!) But I retained it for two reasons:

1. I do like me some community. It gets kinda lonely, sitting here in the little green house on the corner of Anne and Florene. Just banging away on my keyboard like a monk, sequestered in a dark, dank catacomb, laboring under the waning light of a flickering candle.
   
   I sincerely hope you’ll chime in. I don’t want to do all the talking. And if you have something you’d like me to write about, let me know! As my wife often told our kids … use your words!
   

2. The other reason I kept it is because I don’t totally agree with part of it. I’m not inviting you to subscribe to my way of thinking. Too often, we let others think for us. I want you to learn to think for yourself.
   
   Expressing yourself—in your own writing, in your own words—is powerful. It’s been that way down through the ages … and it’s just as powerful today.
   
   It always will be.
   Amen.

Are you ready to rock? Let’s roll.

The sun is high … and the time is nigh.

Well, it’s time to get going. Grab your rucksack and we’ll head on down The Write Road. Don’t worry if you overpacked. Or didn’t pack enough. We’ll get rid of some of that excess baggage along the way.

And give you some shiny new tools for your kit to make your writing better, too.

Somewhere along the road, our paths may diverge. I’m a B2B copywriter and content creator.

You may discover you’re a poet and don’t know it!

(See what I did there? Rhyming Rhocks!)

Always remember (and never forget) …

Whatever you choose to scribe or scribble, whatever your dream of a writer’s life might be (or become), we’ll stay in touch.

The internet is a vast wonderland. Some say it’s a wasteland.

But it’s also the great connector.

I won’t be far away.

See you in the next issue!

Steve M.