Do you write?
There are so many skills associated with developing a first-class proposal: project management, team leadership, facilitation of each stage of the proposal process, design, document management and many more.
But what of writing? The longer I work on proposals, the more I come to appreciate that lots of the best people out there at managing proposals out there are actually pretty mediocre wordsmiths.
So: you work in the world of proposals. (At least I assume so! If not, the web’s full of far more interesting sites for you than The Proposal Guys!). What are you like as a writer? Honestly?
My test, I guess, is whether you write for pleasure. I find that most folks who can write proposal content that really flows invariably also write outside office hours – perhaps a blog, or fiction, or for some society or local journal.
Writers write – incessantly, addictively. And if you don’t – if your skills are in some of the other, equally critical elements of the proposal process – perhaps you need to surround yourself with a few wordsmiths if you want inject a little magic into your proposals.
If you do write cool stuff that’s online, why not add a comment with a link? We’re always on the hunt for cool stuff to read!
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I write! I’ve been coordinating/managing proposals for about six years now. It’s something I stumbled onto by accident when I found a job as a marketing assistant for a professional services firm in 2004. I specialize in mostly federal government proposals now, but I used to do a lot of state and local government proposals in my former position. Writing is actually my favorite part of the proposal process – I love interviewing people that I work with to pull out the stories and examples that will set our proposals apart from the rest…and then put them into words.
For fun, I actually keep a personal blog and a fashion blog. My personal blog has been around since late 2003, and though I rarely update it anymore – it’s humorous record of my existence after college. :) http://vtjerseygirl03.livejournal.com
My other blog is a fashion blog that I’ve had since October of last year. I’ve been using it to dabble in photography and outfit posts, as well as share my tips and advice for shopping and finding good deals. http://www.thecoastalchicster.com
Enjoy! :)
Interesting article. Maybe you hit the nail on the head by inferring writers do so outside of their work also. I have been managing proposals for over 15 years (www.chm.tc) and in the past few have also written a non-fiction book about riding Harley Davidsons (www.badassbook.com) as well as two blogs. I really have a lot of fun with all of it… including the work. The travel is getting a little old but the work itself is great, and my clients are terrific.
I really enjoy the blend of humor and lessons in your blog entries thanks!
You hit close to home this morning! I think I have a team of good writers. The most difficult part of writing for our team is the repetition. I laugh and say that we haven’t written anything fresh in years, we are just recycling and refining existing content. That is a blessing and a curse. The text we write now is far better than it was because our corporate and product knowledge is so much more comprehensive. But, it takes twice the effort to inject newness into the process – exacerbated by poor input from SMEs.
I also write outside of work, but how much time does someone working proposals actually have to write for fun? When I have the chance, I update my blog on topics of philosophy of religion (www.foxholeatheism.com). Fair warning – the subject matter is controversial to some, as you can probably surmise by the site name.
I write all the time. Since I’m not working in proposals at the present, that means I do it a lot. When I’m not writing on the page, I write in my head. It sounds odd, but it’s always there. I think a lot too about a lot of things. It’s amazing what you can come up with in the middle of the night.
When I worked in proposals, I really loved finding just the right words to say something. Also I liked the challenge of page constraints.
I write fiction too (well, you could actually call a couple of the proposals I worked on semi-fictional), but not as much as I used to.
I do a spot of sports journalism on the side, which teaches me a lot about getting all the facts required into a 200-word article – a very useful skill to transfer to my work on proposals.