Pieces of a Puzzle

By Hannah Miller

I write because writing is both challenging and rewarding. The writing process for me is like solving a puzzle: once the facts, quotes, and statistics are carefully selected, I get to fit them together in a way that produces a complete work. While sometimes getting started may prove to be a slow-going, tedious affair, writing gets easier as the writer goes along.

I like to write because not only is writing a challenge to overcome, but writing is an opportunity to inform. Writing gives me the chance to choose which facts I find most compelling, which statistics I think will have the most impact, and which information needs telling, and I get to assemble them all together in a way that provides the reader with insight on a particular topic that they may have had little understanding of before. I enjoy learning a little bit myself in the process.

I enjoy writing about cultural changes, how societies communicate, and the channels through which that information is spread. As a speech communications major, I have a fascination with communication theory, changes in technology, and the “why” behind the ways in which people groups communicate. As my knowledge about my field of study grows, each paper I write is a building block and reference point in my career as a communications professional. As a predominantly research-based writer, I find success in writing for business purposes. I have written several pieces I am particularly proud of, but my greatest accomplishment thus far was a campaign proposal for a non-profit organization in Lancaster, Pennsylvania as part of my final project for completing my major in public relations at Millersville university. The planbook is a comprehensive work the offers research, action, communication, and evaluation strategies for a rebranding effort as identified for the client’s needs. I enjoy the challenge. The harder the puzzle, the more satisfying it is to finish it.

I am inspired by a blank page. A new puzzle is not put together over the top of another; instead, an empty table top makes for the best surface on which to put the puzzle together. A clean document is an opportunity for endless possibilities, and just as I enjoy a quiet neutral room to work in, I need a well-organized and uncluttered collection of thoughts and references to start writing from.

The challenge of writing is that it is all up to the writer to pull from and make sense of a vast world of information and organize it into a digestible piece of substance. The reward is when the reader puts down the writer’s work and has gained something in reading it, or maybe the reward is simply in writing itself. Just as the writer holds the finished product, there is nothing more satisfying than looking down at a finished puzzle after hours of hard work fitting piece after piece in a laborious attempt at ending up with something beautiful.