“Put it in Writing.”

By Robert Walker Cohen

Writing can be spontaneous. Serious writing cannot.

Serious writing demands clarity of thought. It creates structure for nebulous ideas, vague commentary, and disembodied facts.

There’s something inherently delightful about serious writing, akin to organizing a cluttered office until every item is in its rightful place.

The expression “put it in writing” implies this. A thought is neither tangible nor real, only a fleeting possibility, until it is frozen in the amber of the written word.

The substance of publication dictates the weight of the words. The act of publishing a piece of writing under the title of “author” bears far more meaning than an email does, for example, while both greatly supercede a verbal agreement.

The more substantive the medium, the more real the idea becomes. Even a constitution is nothing more than a structure of ideas.

Authored words, widely accepted, can birth an empire.