I am an introvert at heart. I create my best work when I have no around. Between us, it’s one of the reasons that I chose writing as my career of choice. After college, I started this internship, and I realized that I was wrong. Writing is more social than I thought. This is when I began working on becoming more of an extrovert. In the beginning, I struggled with having to talk to people without coming across as the most awkward human being in the entire world. Eventually, it started coming to me naturally. Yes, I sometimes crawl back into my introvert shell, but most of the time, I love interacting with people.

Writers, I know. You are probably thinking, “Ummm…what? This isn’t what I signed up for.” Believe me, I felt the same way at first. However, you will become a better writer, meet some great people, and get more jobs if you realize that writing is all about being social.

Interviewing

You will be interviewing tons of people. It doesn’t matter if you are a journalist, copywriter, technical writer, or blogger. Picking at other people’s brains is something you will need to do because they have the knowledge that you are trying to write about. Of course, this isn’t all the time, but it can happen. You will have to talk to them in person, via phone, email, or chat.

What I do is I do a mini-meditation session, and I start smiling. Believe me, it WORKS!

Training or Speaking

You will sometimes be asked to speak or train an individual or group. No writing in the world can save you from doing that! All you can do is prepare your presentation and get out there. I panic every time I have to speak in front of a group. Even when I was a kid, I wouldn’t raise my hand because I was afraid of everyone turning around and staring at me when the teacher called on me. You know what; You have to get over it.

Be well prepared, practice a few times in front of someone or record yourself, and take a deep breath. I still struggle with fillers (e.g. like, um). Slow down your speech.  This will do wonders.

Meetings, Team Reviews, and Analysis Sessions

You will have to get together with a group of people and talk. Even if you are taking notes for your documentation later, you will have to speak. I always say that writers should be called “Jacks-of-all-Trades” because we are pulled to do all kinds of stuff. I’ve become a Technical Writer/Business Analyst/Trainer/Tester in many circumstances. Therefore, you will be contributing to these meetings whether you want to or not.

Mentally prepare before going in there, and don’t be afraid to take mental breaks (less than a minute) while you are in the meetings. Just make sure it’s not right before someone is going to ask you to speak.

What are some ways that you prepare?

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Written by: Shevonne on August 24, 2011.
Last revised by: Shevonne on September 19, 2011.

Tags: how to be social as a writer, introvert writers, writers extrovert