Tag: how to write

The written word: how we present ourselves matters

December 30, 2025
leather bound book
Book with leather cover

Why work with a contract writer-for-hire?

Most of us learn during high school or college that how we dress for a job interview can impact whether we get the job.  How we present ourselves matters. “Dress for success.”

Several years ago, I was dealing with a serious illness and was getting bounced from one medical specialist to the next (appointments initially started with “We don’t know what medical condition you have” and then moved into “We don’t know how to treat this”).    I considered that appearance matters; I took to dressing well for medical appointments to be taken seriously (i.e., “This woman looks important – we need to put in a serious effort to resolve her medical issue.”).   (Side note: it was my cat’s veterinarian who finally came up with a treatment plan. There was no way to see that coming!)

How we present ourselves on paper also matters.  People judge us via the written word just as much as they judge us by how we dress.  How many times have you read something and wondered, “What was that person trying to say?”  Or, “Was that person asleep in their high school writing class?”  Likewise, readers also judge you by how you present yourself on paper.  Your ability to develop and artfully articulate ideas on paper – or not! – makes an impression.  Most people want the impression they convey to be positive.   “Write for success.”

Consider an example of how people present themselves on paper.   During an earlier stage of my life, I would wonder how famously busy people – politicians, actors, etc. – found time to write their memoirs.  Today, there’s an increasing willingness for well-known people to acknowledge using ghostwriters, researchers, editors, etc. for their memoirs.    Just this year, my mother gave me Bill Gate’s memoir – Source Code /> My Beginnings (published in 2025) – as a Christmas gift.  Bill openly acknowledges in his book – by name – the wordsmiths, researchers, editors, friends and relatives, former teachers, etc. who helped bring his memoir to print.  He only has so many hours in a day and writing may or may not “be his thing” – yet, he wanted his memoir to be presented well.    He was variously present during the memoir’s development process – his “writing support team” helped turn his concept of a published memoir into a book worth sending to a publisher and sharing with the public.

Everyone can consider that how we – including you – present ourselves on paper matters.

Those of us who write professionally know how to present you – and your ideas – successfully.   Working with a professional writer means that you can spend your time and energy “doing what you do” while being confident that we writers will competently present your written ideas “for success.”  If you want your ideas to be taken seriously, present them in way that will be taken seriously.  How you present yourself and your ideas matters.  

“Yes, but I don’t have Bill Gates’ budget.”  Yes, well….. Your ideas will be taken seriously if they are presented in a manner that people take seriously.   Present for success.

Kim Burkhardt provides writing services – including ghostwriting, “corporate storytelling,” articles, how-to manuals, and editing – at Burkhardt Writing Services. Contact us about your wordsmithing and storytelling needs.

Writer reflection: could you write this photo?

December 20, 2025
Seattle skyline at night
Seattle Skyline

Seattle has joined the ranks of high-traffic-congestion cities.

When I need to drive anywhere, I look for opportunities to go at times when traffic is likely to be less congested. Last fall, for example, I was commuting to a job that had some flexibility in terms of start times. So, I would leave home at about 6:45 am.

Leaving home at 6:45 am shares something in common with being a writer. Opportunities.

Nearly every situation has some kind of opportunity embedded within it. It’s up to us to find it.

In the case of an early morning commute – before daylight – I spotted the opportunity to take a night-time photo of the Seattle skyline – complete with the iconic Space Needle and Lake Union. People like this photo.

As writers, our writing is likewise well received when we bring appreciable observations to the written page. It is up to us to make insightful observations and find interesting ways to bring them to print.

I was able to bring viewers the photo above by moving beyond the snap-and-shoot mechanics of photography. I had learned what constitutes a good photo – identifying a visually interesting scene and learning how to frame it well with a camera’s lens. I did back flips – of sorts – to find a place to safely pull over to take this photo.

Writing – like photography – “comes to light” when we move beyond basic writing mechanics: “I saw downtown Seattle at night. You would find the scene beautiful if you saw it.” Rather, “Downtown Seattle’s skyline quite literally lights up at night. Anyone who finds themself driving southbound on I-5 at night takes in the collective beauty of hilltop business district towers and shoreline buildings left alight to ward off would-be intruders. Those who have read Katherine Kurtz’s novel St. Patrick’s Gargoyle can – when seeing downtown Seattle’s night time skyline – imagine a monthly gargoyle conclave in Seattle to protect the city equivalent to Dublin’s gargoyle conclaves. Quite striking.” (A personal aside that I would happily work in to a longer article with an opportunity for individual reflection: Dublin is located in the Emerald Isle, while Seattle is the Emerald City…. I had a memorable flight in 2018 in which I watched the sun rise in Dublin and set in Seattle….).

Being a writer is clearly more than mechanically stringing together words. Writing involves observation about the world around us, an understanding of what people want or need to think about, and an ability to bring all of that to the page in readable language. For each type of written publication, there are also genre-specific writing considerations – creativity is needed when writing novels, an ability to be factual and insightful is needed for business publications, an ability to be factually descriptive is necessary when writing how-to manuals, etc.

Kim Burkhardt provides writing services – including ghostwriting, “corporate storytelling,” articles, how-to manuals, and editing – at Burkhardt Writing Services. Contact us about your wordsmithing and storytelling needs.