How To Write Anything: The Format Of What You Write May Change But The Process Of Writing Anything Remains The Same

Book excerpt: How To Write Anything: The Format Of What You Write May Change But The Process Of Writing Anything Remains The Same This book is called How To Write Anything, and I confess there is some ego involved in the title. But then I've been a professional writer for over 40 years. As one of Canada's most successful writers and authors, I have written hard news articles, soft news and feature articles, advertising and promotional copy, media releases, reports and proposals, case studies, research papers, email messages, website content, tweets, blog posts, and other online content. I have also written over 20 books on business, promotional and online writing and other topics, such as writing articles, memoir writing and living with Multiple Sclerosis, a disease that I have, but one that has not prevented me from writing or training. I've also written a collection of short stories, poetry, and a couple of plays. So while I haven't written everything, I've written many things. The fact is that you can't read this book and go forth and write anything if you are not familiar with the format or structure of the document that you want to write--be it non-fiction or fiction. For instance, if you want to write a report, you do so using the methods in this book. However, you have to know how to structure reports. The same is applicable to email, social media content, articles, promotional content, case studies, reports, white papers, PowerPoint presentations, speeches, website content, short stories or novels. So some of you reading this book might still have some learning to do. However, I suspect most of you know the structure of the documents you want to produce and you will be able to immediately apply the methods outlined in the book to writing any document that you need to write.