Writing is Expensive

[AI generated]
Dear Hive,

I am ranting again.

Today, I feel like pouring my heart out regarding the enormous cost of writing. A lot of times, it is easy to take for granted the fact that when we read a piece, an article or a book that has been so crafted beautifully, a lot of blood, sweat and tears has gone into making it so.

Writing is expensive and I am not talking in terms of money- although that is the case sometimes, but in terms of brain power, energy and time consumed.

The mental demands of writing.

A good piece is not a product of stringing words together. It is a consequence of processing ideas, structuring thoughts and creating a form of coherence that ensures that the language, the tone and inflection used are comprehensible to the reader.

This requires a mammoth amount of brain processing power to engage various parts of the brain for language, critical thinking, creativity, memory, etc.

Writing stages.

• Idea generation-- before you write, you have to come up with something that you want to write about. Sometimes, the ideas come to you while you are having a shower like the famous Archimedes, or you have to read through things around or simply think deep in other to get a subject you are going to write about.

Most times this is not the hard part of writing. Most people who sit down to write already know what they want to write about. But if you are like me and you aim to write about a lot of different things, you find out that on some days, a cloud covers your mind and you are unable to synthesize thoughts that would culminate in a writing piece.

• Structuring Thoughts.-- it is not enough to generate the thoughts and idea. You have to arrange your thoughts in such a way that you are able to write a coherent piece on it. I know that I am writing about writing, however, I am still making sure that there is a structure to the writing.

This makes it easy to flow from one thought or idea to another. All of this involves massive brain power, time and effort. It engages the parts of the brain involved in critical thinking because as a writer I must decide the best way to get my thoughts out.

• Word choice and tone-- I can say the same thing in 2 different ways. One way provokes a more emotional response, the other one simply keeps people informed. The difference is the choice of words. The words I choose to use ultimately determine the tone I set for my writing.

• writing, rewriting and editing- after choosing my choice and penning down my words, I still have to engage in fine tuning the piece. I need to make it look presentable. I need to correct errors in grammar. I may need to cut out some sentences and replace them with better and richer ones. All of this involves cognitive power and in the end, it is can be exhausting.

Time cost of writing.

[AI generated]
You may be able to go through this piece in 5 mins, or 7 mins. But it took me hours to get these words down, in the way they are at the moment. I remember that it took about 5 days to come up with the well researched article on breast cancer that is on my blog. If you havent read it, I urge you to read it.

It took 5 days to get that article ready, but you can read everything in less than 10 mins. Writing swallows an insane amount of time. Why? Because you cannot write on something you do not know...therefore there is a necessity for research.

Research--

the kind of writing I do-medically related content, means that I am constantly reading and looking out for up to date information. I am constantly looking for ways to reduce medical terms to layman terminologies. I am constantly stretching my imagination to explain medical terms in very simple to understand language.

That is a lot of brain power as well as time and effort going into it. I have made it a point of duty to ensure that the information I put out in my posts are factual because when it comes to medicine, people's lives may depend on it.

Wrap up

Writing is expensive. It gulps a lot of time and effort and occasionally money as well. Whenever you see a good piece, one that is factual and clearly took effort to create, dont just read through and disappear. Take some time to appreciate that blood, sweat and tears went into producing that piece for your consumption.

Until I rant again...

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I am Covenant, a Medical Doctor with a passion for holistic medicine-( fancy word for treating a patient as an individual and not just addressing their symptoms).

My focus lies in the deep connection between mental health and overall wellbeing, and I create content across various medical topics with an emphasis on mental health. Follow me for insights into holistic medicine and approaches to health and wellness.