(IJCH) Does Written English Intimidate You? Does it Keep You From Posting on Steemit? This Will Help.

IJCH - Inside JaiChai's Head (meaning: My warped, personal opinions and musings)

From the Author

Salutations.

I am JaiChai.

And if I haven't had the pleasure to make your acquaintance, it's always nice to meet a fellow Steemian.

In the very short - and exhilarating - time I have been on Steemit, several of my fellow Steemians have honored me with their kind words of praise for my posts.

Many said they enjoyed the quality of content and my "unique, entertaining" writing style.

And I am sincerely grateful for all the heartwarming feedback.

Many precious thanks placed at your feet, Sahibs.

Post-a-phobia

Similar to being deathly afraid of heights, public speaking and say, a 30-year mortgage, many people would rather run and hide than to expose themselves to (what they believe as) instant public ridicule if they try to submit their thoughts in writing.

In their mind, a public forum is a dangerous place where there's a critic lurking in the shadows and behind every corner, just chomping at the bit to have a heyday on the unsuspecting neophyte author.

That's why I suspect that many of my Steemian friends - especially the one's whose English is not their native tongue - hold themselves back from posting because they feel embarrassed about their level of written English skills.

What a shame.

Writing can be such a joyously cathartic experience.

Every writer gets a great measure of self-satisfaction when someone comments kindly about their original written creations.

Even negative feedback is still evidence that the writing evoked a response of some kind and should definitely be regarded as positive, free publicity.

Been There, Done That

I must confess that as a consumer of written media, I am not in the norm.

I did stints as an English teacher, an article writer for several online mags/news media, a ghost writer for a couple of well-established authors, a proofreader and editor of governmental, military, technical and socially diverse official documents, and personal letters, memoires, speeches, etc.

I automatically cringe when I see glaring errors, misssppelled words (did you frown, blink or at least do a double-take on that?) and transposed or double word entries. It indicates to me that the author was probably exhausted, in a hurry or just plain didn't give a shit.

Yes, I may have a hypersensitivity to grammatical, syntax and spelling faux pas, but I'm not entirely a reader snob.

People Who Live In Glass Houses

Whenever I'm getting too big for my britches (meaning: arrogant, sporting an inflated ego), all I have to do is remember all the bonehead writing mistakes I've committed in the past and immediately the PSI hisses out of my ego.

"Always be kind. And if you can't, don't make it worse!" - The Dalai Lama (14th), Tenzin Gyatso, truncated from his proper name "Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso".

Sweet Buddha on a cracker! That's a mouthful, no?

But blatant errors will certainly diminish my enjoyment of the rest of the article from that point forward - if I continue at all.

My advice for hesitant Steemit Authors?

First off, submit your posts anyway!

Don't suffer from analysis paralysis.

Even the lowly, but wise, turtle never gets ahead without sticking his head out of the shell.

Writing is just like any other endeavor, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

But be advised:

Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice does.

For Buddha's Sake, Use The Spell Check!

No excuse.

'Nuff said on that!

If At First You Don't Succeed...

It's the persistent writers that keep on writing and learn from their mistakes over long periods of hair-pulling (and violent, displaced anger directed at the keyboard), candle-burning time that eventually become good - oftentimes, great - authors.

Think of it.

Think hard.

It's not uncommon for some authors to pen a novel over the course of several years. Surely you can understand that a far shorter piece, say a quality Steemit post, will undoubtedly take some time and many revisions to do correctly, no?

Fact: Writing is HARD WORK; especially if you want to get paid for it!

Believe me, I KNOW.

But one day, it will all pay off and magically, "work" becomes "play". Now that's Nirvana, my friend.

And if it doesn't pay?

Who cares?

You had fun!

Imagine that?

Google Translate - A Double Edged Sword

Google Translate, although being a great technology for basic translation and transliteration (to transcribe a word or phrase from one alphabet into the best matched letters of another alphabet), in the end, it is just an algorithm.

It totally sucks at singular and cross-cultural linguistic perceptions, most slang, the art of double (and triple) entendre, emotional tone, context clarification, etc.

Use Google translate if you must, but do not make it a permanent crutch. Besides, it becomes an old, motivation-draining, tiresome task very quickly.

Read, read, read! It will make you a better writer.

If possible, have a native English-speaking friend look over your creation.

Note:

Take all suggestions and criticism with a humble spirit and an open mind.

You can always follow or ignore it later. And at least you didn't squash the chances of asking that person again in the future.

Listen to Your Writing

Listen to your post via text-to-speech programs.

They will alert you to mistakes much more quickly than constantly rereading the same material - a guaranteed recipe for missing a lot of errors.

Chill Out, Then Finalize

If possible, I always recommend to separate post completion and post submission with a cool-down period.

Why?

If you're excited and basking in the glow of writer's bliss - You know what I mean. That's when lightning strikes and you were so inspired that you couldn't write your ideas down fast enough!, you are in no state to subjectively judge the legitimacy of your content, the technical merits or even the logical sequencing and grammatical soundness of your piece.

Ponder this:

Writing is a creative, emotional activity. Proofreading and editing is not.

Effective proofreading and editing requires an objective, analyzing and critical mindset - the antithesis of how your brain is functioning while creating.

Again, cool it, man. Go get some beverage.

Try not to think of your writing for at least 10-15 minutes (I usually ignore my potential posts for at least an afternoon), perform a final proofread and edit, then pull the trigger.

Lastly, if you are at your wits end.

Give me a holler at: [email protected]

Yes, that email address is for real!

I'm almost certain I can assist in one fashion or another. At the very least, I will read it and provide some kind of feedback as soon as I can.

Namaste (I recognize the divine in you, my friend),

JaiChai

Many thanks for reading my post. And if you enjoyed it, please: Upvote, Follow, Comment and Resteem.

- JaiChai "My mind was a terrible thing to waste..."

About the Author

He is a retired U.S. Military veteran. Believing that school was too boring, he dropped out of High School early; only to earn an AA, BS and MBA in less than 4 years much later in life – while working full-time as a Navy/Marine Corps Medic. In spite of a fear of heights and deep water, he freefall parachuted out of airplanes and performed diving ops in very deep, open ocean water.

He spends his days on an island paradise with his teenage daughter, longtime girlfriend and three dogs.

Parting Shot -

" I wonder if he remembers how to get home? I'm hungry, damnit!"