Real Words

I believe that we should all do what we can to be a little bit more eco-friendly in our lives. Recently I wrote a post about how writers can be greener in their working lives (8 Ways to Green Your Writing). The main way of doing that, of course, is to use your writing platforms to educate others about green issues and ideas.

Here are some tips for doing green writing:

• Write about green issues. The biggest way that you can be green in your writing is to write specifically about green issues. Articles and blog posts that are related to pro-environment issues are a straightforward green writing topic. For example, I recently wrote a green guide to mobile phones.
• Write for green companies. Every business needs a writer whether it’s for their web content, blog posts, newsletters, promotional materials or company speeches. Although this doesn’t directly inform readers about green issues, it does help to support the businesses that use green practices.
• Encourage recycling and re-using. This doesn’t have to come across as a “be green” message. There are many great reasons that you can suggest re-use of something. For example, you might be writing an article about art and creativity and one of your tips could be to look in the trash for ”found art” supplies before they head to the dump.  Similarly, you could do a profile on a “junk artist” (my current favorite recycled art artist is Brian Dettmer). As far as non-art topics, whenever you mention the use of any materials at all, remind readers that they might be able to find used materials at a low cost.
• Review green books and websites. Reviewing things is great for a lot of reasons. For one thing, you’re supporting the work of other people. This helps build relationships in the art/writing community and those relationships bring more readers to your work. Besides, it’s an easy way to share green info with others. (My favorite green site to point people to these days is Ideal Bite.)
• Mention your green habits in passing. If you ever write in the first person, you can easily mention the things that you do that are green. For example, you’re putting up your blog post later than usual … in your intro, you can say that you spend a busy morning taking out the recycling or researching solar panels or whatever you were doing that was a little bit green.

You don’t have to be a green writer. However, if eco-friendly issues are important to you, it’s fairly easy to include green tips and articles in your writing. This helps spread the word and set the tone for a writing world that has eco-friendly habits as its foundation.

Question of the Day: What other ways should writers consider for writing greener?

[Tags] writing, green, eco-friendly, environment [/Tags]