Real Words

As you may have noticed if you’re a regular (or semi-regular) reader of Real Words, this blog places a big emphasis on the art of green writing. This refers to any and every thing that writers and bloggers can do in their daily work to be a little bit more eco-friendly. It is a foundation of my career as a writer that I think we should only do with our work what we find to be good for our lives. And one of the things that I think is important is living a green life.

Here are some of the really basic reasons that I think green writing is important:

• The earth needs it. When it boils down to it, I think that being green is an important way to be in this day and age. We’re running out of the resources we’ve got and we each have to do our part to preserve the quality of the earth around us.
• Writing is education. Writing is the art of organizing and disseminating information for others to use as a learning tool. Whether or not you aim to be an educator in your writing, this is what your writing has the potential to do. As a result, we can use green writing to let others know about ways that they can be green. That’s one of the aims of Real Words “green writing” posts.
• More and more people are writing from home. The work-at-home writer didn’t used to be a significant part of the population. While it was still important to do our part for greening the earth, it wasn’t as significant a few years ago as it is today. With telecommuting becoming increasingly ubiquitous, the work-at-home writing group has a significantly stronger voice than in the past. And that means that our collective actions count for more than they used to. Let’s be green about them!
• Creative lives allow us to merge our beliefs. It’s not always easy to let all of your beliefs shine through in your work, especially when you’re working at an office job. You’re obligated to keep some of your beliefs in check when you work for other organizations. And the simple process of dealing with the daily grind can make it hard for you to enact all of your beliefs. (For example, you want to be green but the business that you spend all day at doesn’t support recycling; it’s significantly harder to recycle at work.) However, when we opt for creative careers like writing which are primarily self-directed, we can choose to let all of our beliefs come through in our work. We don’t just have to say we want to be green; we can take action and merge our work and and the rest of our life to create a balanced existence. In other words, if you believe in green principles then you should implement them in your writing work in order to reflect your whole creative self in all that you do.

If you’re interested in learning more about being a green writer, check out previous green writing posts here.

Question of the Day: What are your thoughts on the importance of green writing?

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