Questions About Writing

How do you think about writing? What is it to you?


I have always though that writing was a great art form. I have never particularly felt attached to it, or like I was good at it in any way, but I admire people who are quite good at it. I guess I am not as enthralled with writing as I am reading. Reading has always been something I love to do. It opens up your mind to different ideas and worlds which you otherwise may never have thought of. My favorite author of all time is Stephen King. Although I am sure that there are many more writers out there who have crafted much better pieces of work, King has always been able to reach me. He understands the basic fears and vulnerabilities of humans and plays on those weaknesses as much as he can. I don’t know if anyone (besides a musician or composer) who has ever quite moved me and made me feel so much through their work as with King’s The Green Mile. This book has permanently changed the way I think and feel about some things. For example, I can no longer hear the word “brine” without freaking out and having a gruesome image of an electrocution. I can’t get the ending of the book out of my head and every time I think about it, I feel the same intense sting as the same time I finished the book. To me, writing is the connection between the writer and the reader to express feelings. There are a million ways to reach another human being, and if used well, writing can be one of the most effective ways.

What has your experience with writing been like?

I have always had pretty mixed feelings about writing. Pretty much, it dates back all the way to first grade and stupid “creative spelling” or whatever the hell it was called. We were encouraged to spell words how we thought they were supposed to be spelled… but once spelling tests came around, this creative approach made me feel like I was doing everything completely wrong because my spelling was so terrible. So that was the first negative. As I began to get a little older, I was not nearly as easily amused or nearly as willing to do just anything, and writing the 20th story about my family, house, and pets just was no longer interesting. This began my intense dislike for writing in a school sense. Responding to prompts which half the time you couldn’t give two shits about strongly turned me off from writing and the fact that it was always so subjective when it came to grading. It was not until recently that I ever considered that writing could be done without it being required. Within the past couple of years, I have started to use writing as a way to vent my feelings when they are just WAY too difficult to keep to myself, and I don’t want to share them with anyone else. SO, I now keep a journal of sorts that I have loads of yelling, scribbles, and a complete spilling out of my feelings of that exact moment.



What people, events, or experiences have shaped these ideas of writing?

Well, when I was in 3rd grade I believe, I had one of my first prompt writing “tests”. I really had absolutely no clue what to expect, or how these things worked at all. So, I think I can easily say that my best and least influenced writing by anyone else was this one. It came straight from the heart, a story about my dear dog Austrea and her last few hours before we had to put her to sleep. I genuinely loved her, grew up with her, and I think this came through in the writing. So, once I got the paper back and had a grade of 4 (four being the highest), I began to wonder “oh, how do I make sure to get a good grade on writing assignments in the future?” This was the beginning of my crappy and meaningless writing. Since that point, I’ve noticed that some of my most B.S. papers have gotten the best grades and that a lot of it has to do with who is grading it. I’ve been told that I’m very far ahead with my writing skills compared to my other classmates and also told that I should come in before and after school to get extra help on that writing assignment. If it weren’t for music and my belief that if done right, you can express yourself and make others feel the same feelings that you feel, I would have totally said “screw you” to writing years ago. Because of a few books I have read and many poetic song lyrics, I have not completely given up on writing and just assume that it’s all writing to do with school that sucks rather than writing in general!