It was in the Trunk Presumably
I've been seriously trying to evaluate my skills and priorities lately. I relate the two because I should eventually (read, now) figure out my major, based on some combination of enjoyment and actual ability.
Writing is weird like that. sometimes I really feel the desire to write, when I feel creative and interesting, and nothing ends up happening. Most of the time, however, writing is a tedious chore. To clarify further, writing can be thought of in three ways: the technical aspect, including grammar and spelling; the stylistic aspect, including word choice, sentence structure, and other elements of rhetoric; and lastly the meat-and-potatoes part, the content.
I usually have very little trouble with the first two and can still cruise along on instinct, for the most part, with experience as a garnish. In the ambiguous world of content, however, the more I learn about things the less I have to say. The only absolute is that everything is riddled with grey areas.
I've been told for many years that I need to "think hard" about things: why some author does this here and not there, whether this detail is important or not. And then some other teacher comes along and tell us that those kinds of things are all bunk and the important matter is how we feel about the work. Both things are necessary, in the end, but somehow in all the mash of "learning" about writing, I never really learned how to do it. The sum of my knowledge of writing follows:
-I really liked to write when I was younger.
-I took teachers seriously when they told me to think real hard about things; the methods I was employing, then, must have been wrong and needed to be fixed.
-It was easy to see how some objective things about style and content could be fixed, but I was too young to realize that I shouldn't abandon my whole system of writing about ideas to strive for a more objective and correct one.
-Writing is now a process of serious self-doubt and criticism because I lost myself in striving to please a different teacher each year.
-I don't know how to talk or make judgements about important things
(that was an instance of zeugma, for people who like words).
that's really the crux of my writing block and other issues: I don't really know anything at all. The all-pervasive inability of anyone to say anything for sure. I probably couldn't survive if I didn't know how to compromise with that fact. But compromising is not enough for me to pass these bugger writing courses, and failing in that arena affects everything else.
So, what to do? I already know all the answers, but I don't know how to get there. Or I'm clinging to what I think the answers are and deluding myself even more. That was vague. Oh well.
Oh right, so my major. Well, it's not going to be English.
Writing is weird like that. sometimes I really feel the desire to write, when I feel creative and interesting, and nothing ends up happening. Most of the time, however, writing is a tedious chore. To clarify further, writing can be thought of in three ways: the technical aspect, including grammar and spelling; the stylistic aspect, including word choice, sentence structure, and other elements of rhetoric; and lastly the meat-and-potatoes part, the content.
I usually have very little trouble with the first two and can still cruise along on instinct, for the most part, with experience as a garnish. In the ambiguous world of content, however, the more I learn about things the less I have to say. The only absolute is that everything is riddled with grey areas.
I've been told for many years that I need to "think hard" about things: why some author does this here and not there, whether this detail is important or not. And then some other teacher comes along and tell us that those kinds of things are all bunk and the important matter is how we feel about the work. Both things are necessary, in the end, but somehow in all the mash of "learning" about writing, I never really learned how to do it. The sum of my knowledge of writing follows:
-I really liked to write when I was younger.
-I took teachers seriously when they told me to think real hard about things; the methods I was employing, then, must have been wrong and needed to be fixed.
-It was easy to see how some objective things about style and content could be fixed, but I was too young to realize that I shouldn't abandon my whole system of writing about ideas to strive for a more objective and correct one.
-Writing is now a process of serious self-doubt and criticism because I lost myself in striving to please a different teacher each year.
-I don't know how to talk or make judgements about important things
(that was an instance of zeugma, for people who like words).
that's really the crux of my writing block and other issues: I don't really know anything at all. The all-pervasive inability of anyone to say anything for sure. I probably couldn't survive if I didn't know how to compromise with that fact. But compromising is not enough for me to pass these bugger writing courses, and failing in that arena affects everything else.
So, what to do? I already know all the answers, but I don't know how to get there. Or I'm clinging to what I think the answers are and deluding myself even more. That was vague. Oh well.
Oh right, so my major. Well, it's not going to be English.