500 Word Challenge: Day 10
Day 10 - Write about writing.
I have a love / hate relationship with writing. I always liked to write, and I even spent a whole summer writing a Star Trek story with my brother. But I hate the fact that it has recently felt impossible to get anything written down. So far, this challenge has showed me that though I may not be any good at it, it is worth trying, because I really do love doing writing. With more practice, I might even become better. There are so many stories floating around in my head, and I just want to get it down on paper for other people to enjoy. I have loved to read books my whole life. When I get done with an especially good book, I am so impressed by how the author was able to take words and put them together in such a way that it created a world in which I could get lost in. They have both the imagination and the ability to put those creative thoughts to paper.
My greatest frustration with my own writing I guess wouldn’t be so much that I can’t write what I am thinking (though it is something I need to work on), but that my imagination is lacking. Maybe that is why I am much better at writing research papers, because it is facts and opinions. I took a creative writing course in college, and I had such a hard time on the two short story assignments. They were lame and had a lot of holes. There wasn’t really the time to work on storylines and character development. Actually, I don’t really remember much from that class. So it makes sense that I would be better at academic writing, because I had the most practice doing that (high school, college, work), and basically no practice with fiction.
I think everyone should write. Everyone might not want to be a writer, but I still think just the act of writing down our thoughts is a skill more people should have. People used to write long letters to family far away. Then it went to email, and catching up with family became easier so letters became shorter. Now we have text messages and twitter which encourage people to use limited characters. Not only has the length of people’s writing become drastically shorter, but their ability to spell correctly has diminished as well. As a teacher is pains me to see “text speak” show up in students’ writing. I have my reservations about this shortened language, but I use it occasionally for convenience. However, young people today don’t know which situations demand proper use of the English language. I hear so many students tell me that they don’t need to know how to write. They have no idea how important it is to have the ability to express your thoughts verbally and in written form. So whether it is a few weeks or a year that I have them, they learn the different ways that college or a career will require them to be able to write clearly.
WC: 527