How To Find A Topic For Writing

How To Find A Topic For Writing
By George Rusky,
August 2004

In his article “6 Tips That Make “How To” Book Writing A Snap” Jeff Smith recommends: “Pick a topic that people want to read about AND that you are passionate about.”

So, what can be a better advice for writing?
Write, right?
O.K. Let’s pick a topic people want to read about...

Suddenly I caught myself on thinking about writing as a human activity, when and how it was born, for what purpose and, what topics ancient people wanted to read about.

According to Microsoft Encarta 98 encyclopedia, Writing is “Method of human intercommunication by means of arbitrary visual marks forming a system.” When and why and how was this ‘system of arbitrary visual marks formed’?

I imagined a group of people living on a separated territory, thousands years ago, using for communication only their voice and body language… What might have been a motive, a need or any other stimulus for recording words or pictures people used every day? From our own experience we know that writing is directly connected with reading.

A winged maxim: "Write for someone to read" is known to anyone who had ever embarked on a piece of writing. Who and why and how could need a new method of communication, as an alternative to already existing one, verbal?

Speculation One.
a) Sending a written message to someone. (No mobile phones, no telegraph, no radio or TV. No pigeons.) Hardly so. Messengers were widely used for delivering good or bad news (extremely dangerous mission: in some cases ended deplorably for heralds of evil news.)
b)Sending a secret message to a distant correspondent who knew the language in which the message was penned. Sounds more or less probable. But how often could such correspondence occur?

Speculation Two.
While some men-warriors spent time hunting and fishing or, perhaps, fighting, others could depict the deeds of the first, say, on the walls of their caves. In fact, hundreds of cave drawings were found here and there to prove this theory. Let’s imagine, for a moment, someone, who saw the picture on the wall, where his exploits might have been portrayed.
What could be his natural reaction? Of course, to try to notice a resemblance. Cave pictures, however, did not bare a high level of mastery, were performed quite primitively, and thus could hardly looked like the original.
A natural question:”How to place a name of a personage next to the drawing?” An ancient painter had a home work!

Speculation Three.
I guess, writing as the way of recording events or someone’s deeds could not emerge in a primitive society, where all members had equal rights and therefore no one claimed a privilege to occupy a special place or position in the tribe. Most probably writing appeared when there was a demand to document life stories of outstanding people of those days.
It is not incidentally that most of ancient graphic arts depict heroic deeds of emperors, tsars, kings and pharaohs who may have ordered to invent an extra way of describing their unique role in the life of their people.
So, as a result and logical continuation of fine arts, followed written comments. The final speculation is about a significant role of clergymen who in all times had been the most educated group in any ancient human formations.
Serving gods led the clergymen to inventing the way for recording everything connected with their ministry.

Resume.
1.Writing came into existence as a result of natural development of human society and since the early days of human history, has occupied a prominent place in the row of most significant inventions of all times.
2.At the outset writing was a privilege of a limited group of learned people who wanted to remain their exceptional status.
3.Writing met the needs of ruling classes, primarily for the records of glorious deeds of reigning dynasties.
4.In ancient Assyro-Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, civilizations literature had a vast variety of styles and genres, long lists of bright names of authors, founders of classical drama, comedy, poetry, prose, religious, historical, philosophical writings.
5. For the last 5,000 years the list of most wanted topics had not been changed at all. (I’m not sure, if ancient wordsmiths wrote much about marketing, say, in Athens of 2004 BC :-) )

Conclusion:
Write about evergreen topics:
-family,
-health,
-human relations,
-business,
-love,
AND you won’t fail to win your audience!