Seven Reasons for writing by ibn Khaldun.

Ibn Khaldun was a learned judge who lived in Egypt in the late 1300s. Of course, he was Muslim - and proud of it. His thoughts were recorded in a vast tome called "Footsteps". This is just a tiny part of it. Why write at all? he asks.Here are his seven reasons which ought to stimulate anyone, writer's block or not!

1      You have discovered a new idea. You write about it, detailing the different parts of it and describing its finer points in order. You hope that other people will take up the idea and run with it. 

Example: Marx: Communist Manifesto. Charles Darwin: the Origin of Species.

2      You have just come across a difficult piece of writing or a podcast that needs investigating. You bring it to life for people to grasp its importance. 

Example: Hegel is simply impossible to read. So a lot of people have interpreted him and made his relevant today.

3      You are reading something which is just plain wrong. You write a corrective piece, explaining where you disagree. 

Example: I have a friend who writes a lot of stuff about the world coming to an end because of man’s greedy exploitation of the planet. I gently remind her that actually we are living much greener lives in 2020 than we used to do in 1920.

4      You are investigating a subject or a set of rules or even a political statement. You realise that you can take the idea further, examine some of the details, fill it out a bit. 

Example: Ibn Khaldun was writing in the 1300s So I am trying to bring it up to date for you to use today.

5      Some writing, some podcasts, some discussions are, frankly, badly presented and organised. They are a mess! Sort it out for them! 

Example: You! I bet you have written comments on Twitter haven’t you. Go on – admit it!

6      Some ideas are scattered all over the place. You go round and collect them. Then you unify them and present them together clearly so that they form just one big idea. 

Example: Boris Johnson and the coronavirus. He appeared between two real experts and briefly outlined the government’s policy, what we can do about it and what the real dangers were. The two experts then took over.

7      Editing is the final way. Far too long. Nobody will read all that! Or listen to all that! You shorten it down so that it becomes a popular read.

 Example: When the EU was churning out stuff when Mrs May was PM, I shortened the documents so that readers of the blog I was following could sent them to their MP knowing that there was a chance that they would read them.