Goodreads.com shares a great quote from William Faulkner: "I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately, I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning."
That’s not my case. Granted, I am not a real writer. I’m not even a pretend writer. I’m an editor that aims to help content experts share their brains with our readers. Editing for content is fun! Writing is not.
The monthly task of sharing my thoughts with you in this Editor’s Note can be painful sometimes. I’ve written 240 editor’s notes over my career — but at this moment, I’m not inspired at all. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. This lack of inspiration pits my desire to write something decent against my desire to just get it done.
Ever been there? Maybe you haven’t experienced writer’s block. But, have you ever experienced engineer’s block? Or manager’s block, or technician’s block? Or, heck, even CEO block?
It ain’t pretty, right?
Still, we gotta get stuff done. So, the best thing is to look for inspiration somewhere. Typically, I spend a bit of time exploring real writers’ writings or other editors’ notes or blogs. When I have the budget to do it, I might go to a publishing conference that forces me to network with my peers, so we can commiserate and problem-solve about the unsavory challenges in our line of work — editor’s block being one of them.
At other times, I just go for broke and don’t even try to be interesting or clever. I simply say what I need to say. Like this:
If you need inspiration, or want to learn from experts in YOUR field, mark your calendars for ISE EXPO 2018, August 14-16, 2018, Colorado Convention Center, Denver.
At ISE EXPO 2018, more than 30 speakers will share their knowledge with you and these keynote speakers will inspire you:
Opening Keynote
• Jack Waters, Chief Technology Officer and President of Network Solutions, Zayo Group
Closing Tech Talk Panel Presentation
• Ken Paker, CTO and SVP of Information and Network Technologies, TDS Telecom
• Lee Hicks, Vice President of Network Planning, Verizon (presenting with Brian Trosper)
• Brian Trosper, Vice President, Global Maintenance Engineering, Verizon (presenting with Lee Hicks)
• Buddy Bayer, Senior Vice President of Transport Engineering, Windstream
Sure, it was shameless. But, if you’re not inspired, why not just be frank?
Follow Sharon on Twitter (@svollman) and LinkedIn (@SharonVollman) for further conversation and insight.
