Writing

When I was about nine years old, I obtained a typewriter on loan from a family member (yes, I am so old that I remember a time when computers were a scarcity and word processors were Science Fiction). Having a machine of sorts in my possession was a bit of a novelty; such machines were fun. What do you do with a typewriter? Well you write stories, of course. So that's what I did. I spent an entire Easter holiday squatting over a typewriter, fabricating a twenty-page adventure that featured myself and my friends. At the end of the Easter week, I had a complete twenty-page short story, re-written and edited, and I was hooked. I loved to write.

Certainly, a twenty-page story is short by adult standards. For a 9 year-old child, a twenty-page story is a dissertation. I probably have started writing a dozen books over the course of my childhood and adolescence, never quite being able to bring any of them to a formidable conclusion. I would either write myself into a corner, lose focus, become angered with the quality of my work, get writer's block, get some "brilliant" idea for another manuscript, or lose interest in writing entirely.

Growing up, I never realized the amount of spare time I had. I had the luxury of pursuing every creative impulse I had. One week I would be completely focused on writing. The next week I would be completely immersed in building contraptions with Lego. The next week would be drawing and painting, the next week might have been spent building model cars, planes or trains. Let's not forget that I was musically involved in school band programs. Today, being a University graduate, and employed full-time, I don't have that kind of luxury. Having time constraints can make you a little more appreciative of the things you enjoy doing most. I imagine this explains why I am so unfocused, jumping from one hobby to another at the blink of an eye. This may also explain my interest in nearly all disciplines of academia, but not loving one subject enough to fully commit to a full-blown major area of study.

As an adolescent, I found my English courses to be quite a challenge. The majority of my grade was based on my performance in writing essays, and I seemed to struggle writing my papers analyzing the literature I was forced to read. My grades in English were rather average, regardless of my enjoyment of the works we were reading. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed the Chrysalids, the Lord of the Flies, 1984, and even Shakespeare's Macbeth, I couldn't seem to pull a grade any higher than sixty-five. There was one exception though. Between the grades 8 and 11, there were about two or three times that my teachers allowed us to explore creative writing. There were times that the writing was a partnered effort, and others were done in solitude. Some were mysteries, others were of a mythical genre, but each time we were to creatively write, I scored 100 percent. I guess my instructors felt that I had a natural ability to tell a story.

Writing stories are usually a very small part of any professional writer's life. By this I mean that most professional writers have careers in journalism, and are either to report the facts of current events, or provide editorials on subjects relevant to the readers. Journalism often requires you to write concisely, and often on subjects that you have the least interest in. There are a very small number of writers who have the luxury of writing what they truly love, and are able to make money at it. There is a marginally larger percentage of writers who write what sells, but they have little interest in.

Can you imagine the number of novelists out there who write romance novels day in and day out, on the sole basis that romance novels have the largest share of book sales in the Northern Hemisphere? Many of these writers feel like they are writing little more than pulp trash; and they know it to be true. Popular fiction (especially romance novels) have a relatively short shelf life in comparison to the masterpieces of English literature. This often means that there writers have to publish at lease one novel per year in order to earn a living. Writing at this frantic pace must be taxing on any writer. Knowing how much I love writing, the thought of parking my sorry ass at a computer all day trying to conjure up some quality work sounds a lot like punishment to me.

I often snicker at my friends who claim writing a trashy romance novel is an easy task. I know it sounds easy. The romance genre is often written to a formula, and they are generally not much longer that a few hundred pages. There is however, the fine print. First of all, you must obtain a contract with a publishing company. This is not easy to do, since avid writers are a dime a dozen. Second of all, many inexperienced writers are not descriptive enough to maintain a readers' interest; others are too descriptive. Then there is the pitfall of plagiarism. Since there have been countless romance novels written, it is not so easy to come up with a truly original plot for a romance novel, given the limits of the parameters of the genre. To be a good writer, one who is worthy of publication, you have to be good. Really good.

I have to thank a solid education in the Liberal Arts, which allowed me to develop as a writer. The countless term papers, the all-night writing sessions, the courses in nearly every imaginable academic subject refined my writing skills to a point where I could write a University-level term paper worthy of an A grade. Now, I write papers for a living. I am not a journalist, and I don't ever hope to be one; I write technical reports for a local environmental company. The literature I write for my work is quite long-winded, dry, and full of technical jargon. Writing technical reports have honed my command of the English language, though not in ways that I would have expected. What I write is not meant to capture and maintain a reader's interest. Rather, I have to focus on facts and data. I furthermore have to be very careful not to incriminate, accuse, or mislead the readers or any involved party or otherwise the company I work for could potentially face lawsuits. I know that if my company were to be sued over an argument I had written, my position would be terminated in an attempt to rectify the reputation of my employer.

The older I get, the more I appreciate the dynamics, the versatility, and the power of language. Effective communication is an art in itself; some are better at speaking, others are better at writing. I conclude that I communicate best by writing. It seems to me that I am able to better communicate my ideas while I write, rather then speaking, probably due to the fact that writing allows me a little more time to craft, organize, and refine my thoughts. What comes out of my mouth is often fragmented, incomplete, full of expletives, or completely out to lunch.

Critics often argue that literature is often misinterpreted because the reader does not have any perspective on the tonality of voice, or visual cues / body language. I don't consider this to be a problem. The true problem resides in the writers being unskilled in the effective use of language. If a writer was more thoughtful in the grammar, or context, misinterpretation of the writer's literature would not be an issue. This may be why the best writers are the ones who scrutinize every single word in their work. Philosophers are known to spend an outrageous amount of time working on a passage a few sentences long, just to properly communicate their argument.

So why do I write? In one sentence, I would surmise that I feel like I have something worth saying. I have no intentions of filling this blog with useless reiterations of the trivialities of my day. I am hoping that I can come to some conclusion when I am done writing; that I can achieve some answers in the questions that often plague my conscience. I hope that at one time, that I achieve an answer to one of life's mysteries that is worthy of recognition in an academic publication.

On a completely different note, I have added a link to a site called "Life after the oil crash". I must forewarn you, the website is rather foreboding in nature. If you are interested in one's vision of the apocalypse to come, then by all means, go ahead and read it. I wouldn't recommend reading it before bed though.