Rick Watson headline
I envy people like the late Steve Jobs, who was one of the creators of Apple. It was not his wealth, or health that is enviable, but his ability to understand with certainty what would resonate with people. Having this gift would be handy. It’s what made him wealthy.
Jobs realized from the beginning that not everyone is a computer nerd. Some folks just want their computers to help them be more creative and productive. They don’t really care about bits and bytes, RAM, silicone, or transistors. They just want to sit down at their computers and work. That idea resonated with a lot of people.
Later when Apple developed the first smartphone, no one even knew they wanted or needed one. But Jobs knew a device that could play music, take pictures, send texts, check addresses, record messages and do a thousand other functions would resonate with the public. As it turns out, he was right.
Steve wasn’t a writer, but I have a feeling if he had been he would have intuitively known what people wanted to read.
These thoughts wandered through my mind this past week because I’ve been in a rut. Everything I’ve written seems as thin as a bony finger.
While beating myself up, I Googled - where writers go when they’re fresh out of ideas. It was good to learn that most writers struggle at times with creative droughts, but it seemed my drought made the Sahara Desert look like a rainforest. But simply knowing that the condition was only temporary made me feel a little better. It didn’t put any words on the page, but it kept me from jabbing a pencil into my eye.
A recent column, generated a ton of feedback on my blog, on Facebook, emails from people across the southeast, and a grunt from my sister. It resonated and I’m not sure why.
Perhaps it has something to do with shared experience. When I write about doing something goofy, some readers will smile and say, “I can name that tune in one note,” because they’ve been there. I actually hear that a lot from readers. “You’re writing about me.” Who knew?
The dictionary defines resonate like this -- to have particular meaning or importance for someone: to affect or appeal to someone in a personal or emotional way.
That makes sense, but it’s much easier said than done. It would be invaluable to know in advance what things will resonate, and what will sit there on the page like a fly on a biscuit.
I talked to one writer at a conference last year. He worked for a large publication and he said that sometimes he struggled with fresh ideas, but when that happened, he just wrote something down.
That was an option for him, but I feel that I’ve built a relationship with the people who take the time to read my column. Simply writing something down just to be done would be like cheating a friend.
Every column might not be an iPhone, but it won’t be because I didn’t try to write something that resonates.
Rick Watson is a columnist and author. His latest book Life Changes is available on Amazon.com. You can contact him via email: rick@homefolkmedia.com
