On writing - again

Don't think, just write. That is what I told my wife. It is not that easy, of course. For some people, writing comes as second nature, but for others it is something to work at. You might want to draw- for instance. Instead of writing. Writing is hard. But you don't know why. You recall that you have been told that writing has many benefits associated. But you remain unconvinced. Even so called experts struggle to explain to you why exactly writing ought to be practiced. Is there a difference between writing with your computer/ laptop over writing on paper with ink? Nostalgia kicks in and you tell yourself that obviously writings done in pen and ink are more personal- more valuable. But are they? After all, the content are largely the same between both of them. In fact, digital writing has benefits in that it si archivable for all history. And it has a speed of delivery that is incomparable to that of pen and ink.

But when you step back and look at the pen and ink, you can see character. That is something that digital strips out. It sterilizes your writing. The writing loses that customization. There are no sentences written slanted and haphazardly because the writer is fraught with anger. There are no happy loops and swishes, and excited exclamation marks. The writing just is. It needs to stand on its own.

That difference is powerful. Even if it is something you've written yourself. Take it and type it out and read the handwritten one and then the printed one. The raw character of the written one feels absent in the typed version. Of course the raw character and imperfection of the pen and ink is valuable in journalling and letters but it is hardly what you'd want in a textbook.

You only care about the information on textbooks. No one reads a textbook to get a feel or deeper understanding of the author's character. In fact, the objective of most textbook writing is to distance the reader and the writer as much as possible. The writer is asked to put their opinions aside and focus on the facts (although you could debate that this is nigh impossible to do, a topic for another day).

The book Write for Your Life by Anna Quindlen attempts to lay out these different methods of writing. The author gives a few examples of different types of writing, their applications by others in history, and ends each section with instructions on the reader may do the same. For the most part, the author does a satisfactory job in introducing new reasons to write.

In my circles, folks often chime in with "writing is a dead art" or "who even writes anymore". But they are almost certainly talking about common core curricular writing. Under its overbearing shadows they forget that their emails, texts, and correspondences all constitute writing. Not only that, they may never have been given the permission to write creatively outside of those rigid fences. They've never been taught to wax poetically in a letter to their lover, nor to explore relationships with strangers in strange places as pen-pals, or to wander around fantastical environments by way of their own words. It just is not a part of their definition of writing.

That's sickening.

But there is hope. Books like these could be antidotes. Maybe not this book but certainly books like these should be esesntial reading in grade school- where students are routinely taught (unintentionally) that writing's only role is demonstration of learning.

Probably would have remained that way had I not gotten outside encouragement to wander differently. There were folks on messageboards that encouraged me to write thoughtful comments. Friends who enjoyed playing long-winded written roleplays. It was sheer luck that put me in a time where these online communities thrived. Since then, we've seen the demise of the communities and a commodification of the internet at an unpredictable scale. Indie messageboards that used to be accessible to everyone, have been replaced with channels and groups in walled gardens run by faceless tech corporations.

But that's for another time.