"I" question

Although I am not a "real" writer, I do have to write stuff!

How do you get out of the habit of not starting a sentence with "I"? Realizing it's sort of a 'no-no' in writer-eze, I just need some tips.

Anyone have any??

Using the quote in your signature:
"I am not afraid of tomorrow; I have seen yesterday and love today!"

......and hoping I understand what you mean, I've reworded it, eliminating "I" as requested (struck through the "me," because it can be left out, too... only needed if the writer wants "I/me/my" to be understood.)

Tomorrow brings no fear to me?; yesterday's memory is still in sight, and but I love today!

There are other options, but this will give you a starting point... this is a good exercise for everyone.... I'm not a writer... the wonderful writers @ BWS are sure to have better scripts... OK, now you give it a try.

Ahhh, thanks gims! Seeing how you did that, I believe I can work through it.

Gims, that was an excellent response! The use of "I" is expected in memoirs and auto-biographies.
I often use the word "It" to start: "It saddens me beyond my tears that love was lost within the fears."
But I don't know if that is correct grammar.

I have to throw another opinion here lol...

I'm a long time technical and marketing writer. Di's question really doesn't have a straightforward answer since she really didn't state the purpose of what she was writing. "I" statements are PERFECTLY acceptable if you want to put out your experiences and opinions in any setting or if you are writing biographical materials. For some reason, many writers feel it is being egotistical, but it isn't. You are simply stating your truth and putting it in your own words with the word "I" does lend your truth more strength. In other words, you are teaching the world about yourself and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

If she were writing procedures or policy for her company, then no... it's probably a bad idea to use the first-person point of view. Procedures and policy are typically written in second or third person. ("You must submit your expense report each Friday by 5:00 p.m." or "All employees are expected to be punctual.")

Or if Di were writing someone's memoirs, it would be unacceptable for her to state the person's points of view and experiences in first person, unless of course she were quoting them. That too I suppose would depend if she were ghost-writing them or presenting the material as a biography and weaving her own interpretations in there.

For me, I love it when I see writers put personality into their writing. I used to test newbie tech writers in a previous life. One of the tests asked them to write procedures on how to make excellent toast for breakfast. Mundane topic, but look at how it was modified, we "teased" the applicant's personality out LOL. Some of the BEST tests I got back from applicants were those who wrote them in first person ("I recommend you try honey butter on wheat toast because it's scrumptious.")

As for starting a sentence with "it," that is perfectly acceptable grammar-wise. I MIGHT edit you though if it were a vague reference within a technical document or a business document though lol!!! That would all depend upon the idea or the thought you wanted to emphasize with your statement. Saying "I am saddened" lends a bit different of a point of view and emphasis than saying "It saddens me that..."

Dang, I can't even edit myself. I meant to say if she were writing auto-biographical materials LOL. After all that windiness too...

keyholes, I recommend you teach the next writing class at BWS! Great response.

Hi Keyholes!

Great to hear this description from another technical writer. I've been writing for an IT environment for about 25 years...although I'm now moving into motivational speaking and coaching (my passion, even tho' I was too chicken to go that route until last year...my husband gave me a great 50th birthday present by saying "go for your dream!).

Hi Dotsie...as usual LOL my mouth gets me into trouble

I'd love to teach the class...but right now I am swamped with work and a few side efforts. I'm also a volunteer adult ed instructor and also am involved in Moose Charities. Fall is a busy season for me and unfortunately I have to work full time to pay the bills at the same time

Would it be ok to delay this until winter? Post holidays are usually my slow time of year.....and it sounds like something that a bit of time would need to be devoted to it.

Hi MamaRed! I love that name, it does convey passion alright.

Tech writing has pretty much been my life...I've been in it for nearly 20 years now. I have to say though I work with a bunch of young'uns and they keep me young and on my toes. I don't know if I could do motivational writing/speaking...I'm such a geek and homebody. That is a great birthday gift...go for it! Good luck

keyholes, absolutely. I was thinking of a possible teleseminar which is only one hour, but our writing topic deosn't come up again for quite a bit of time.

Thanks...my life is a little looney right now. I did not know you held telesminars!! I'll need to join in on one and get myself informed. I was thinking a regular class...like every week or so with a longer time commitment. I come here, read, post...and then I'm off again for days...

Hi Keyholes

Thank you...and I'm glad that is what it conveys...whoo hoo!

Working with younguns will do that for ya, won't it? And a great thing too. I'm so glad you enjoy what you're doing and have the patience to work with younger folks. Sometimes that can be a real challenge. Do you work with, teach, both? Something else altogether?

I'm a "split" personality...half geek, half out there personality. When I used to attend STC conferences, people were forever confused. I did great "Type A, Press B" stuff or FrameMaker presentations, then turned around and did a presentation called "Can You Come Out to Play: Winning with Creativity". People were never quite sure what box to put me in (which I loved...suited me just fine).

What is funny is I feel I could write a 200 page software manual faster than I've been able to come up with bios, copy, etc. Arghghgh....I just want to get up and do my thing and have that stuff magically appear. Since that doesn't seem to be happening, despite all my dreaming, I'm learning how to do a completely different type of writing. And boy, has it been interesting!

MammaRed, I couldn't agree more. I want to just write/speak. I want to get to the point that I can turn over all the PR stuff and the bla..bla..bla. to someone else, for Pete's sake. The marketing takes up sooooo much time, am I right?

Now ladies, I didn't want to cover up this great discussion with my own "stuff," but I wanted to get these calls for submissions to you.

See below:

Watershed: Literary Journal
Details: http://www.csuchico.edu/engl/wshed/guidelines.html

Watershed is a magazine of our environment and culture. By investigating the intersections between man and the environment, we address the question: "What is natural?" Informed by a need for cultural change, its pages provide a forum for provocative, creative and critical work that engage issues pertinent to the natural world in which we live.

Submission Deadlines--Fall issue: October 4th
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Call for Submissions: Tarpaulin Sky

Details: http://www.tarpaulinsky.com

Poetry / Prose / Transgenre work: Submissions are accepted throughout the year.

MamaRed, most technical writers are like you. For me, once the "geek" day is done, I don't want to look at or touch my computer. Many many many tech writers I have worked with or known through the years have that capacity to go from geekdom to having the creative, free-spirited side. It's a quality that does make us successful in this career. You are able to pull yourself from the nitty gritty details to be able to make something terribly dull, boring, and detailed exciting and come to life for a non-technical person.

The truth be told, I haven't been to an STC conference in five years LOL. I'm still active in the org, but basically enough to maintain membership and contacts through SIGs and two Ohio chapters.

I work and teach. I work for pay by writing documentation for a firm that does virtual reality and animation/simulation for training, conferencing, and commercial purposes. By night I am an unpaid adult tech ed instructor for a local church/United Way organization. It's an organization that provide free or low-cost job skill training and GED education for underprivileged individuals/families.

I often find myself gravitating towards non-profit volunteerism. Before I moved to Columbus, I was a SCORE volunteer and did the PR/marketing/promo work for a chapter of SCORE in SW Ohio. I have a very "business" like management-type side to me and SCORE was just one of those very worthy organizations that appealed to me that way...they counsel, assist, help finding funding for, and promote small businesses through retired executives providing all of the free counseling and assistance. That is a great organization, but I'm also fairly schizo in some ways. My education in college was in English/comm and in marketing, so that for me was my "release" of creativity. I just never "felt" the need to do the motivational/creative/spiritual type writing. Creativity for me comes out in other ways...cooking, photography, arts/crafts. If I have to even LOOK at a computer when I'm not working or volunteering, I wanna puke

Hi JJ

I sooooooooooo know what you mean. Although I did have a salesperson for my techie business (www.simplywritten.com) at one time and boy, I'm not sure which was harder...helping him learn the ropes or doing it myself! 'Course I was a rank newbie at sales, employees and all the rest (oh, now that I think of it, that hasn't changed...grin). My coaches have been after me for months to write bios, articles, and topic summaries and I managed to brainwash myself, until last week, into believing I a) couldn't write them and b) couldn't afford to have someone else write them for me (and, of course, no one else could possibly write for me...giggle). Moving to this side of my personality has been a journey in transformation and easing up on myself negative self talk. I help others stop that...guess that is what I need to learn, eh?

Hi Keyholes

They are, eh? Boy, to hear others talk, they think I'm an "oddball". I have a degree in marketing (in my presentations intros I used to say I have a BS in Marketing...and yes, I know that is a redundant statement...got some good giggles from that one). I also had a minor in Marketing Research...although I tell you what, most of what they taught me is so old, so out of date, and so not applicable to a one woman show that I wonder if I imagined getting my degree! One of my gifts was making technology interesting...maybe because I have a very quirky sense of humor and often made fun of the technology we were learning.

I haven't been to an STC conference in quite a while either. I keep my membership active because if I don't I would need to start over if I want to move from Associate Fellow to Fellow and that seemed like more work than I wanted to do!

So, you're in the Buckeye State, eh? I was originally born in Columbus and still have a lot of family around the Columbus, Cincinnati, Mansfield area.

It sounds like you have a HUGE heart given the nonprofit volunteer activities you're involved in. I was the beneficiary of several SCORE consultants many years ago and always appreciated the time they put into help others. Sounds like that is your gift too. My thanks to you, on behalf of those learning about business, for sharing your gifts so willingly.

I keep saying I'm going to do other things...and used to do cardmaking as a fun thing. However, for whatever reason, I seem to come back to talking...whether as a speaker or a coach and am now choosing to convert the old tape of "Jerilynne talks too much" into a way to make a living!