Dora's Corner: Writer’s Craft: The Art of Writing.

Warning: Long post...dead ahead...

I love writing.  I have been in love with the concept since I was a sophomore in high school.  The tenth grade was when one of my English teachers took notice of my ability to write well; the teacher especially took notice of my affinity for writing.  She encouraged me to write almost all the time, but foolish me, I did not have enough sense to allow myself to believe her…much less to accept her verbal accolades of my writing skills.  I let her praise of my writing ability go wayward simply because she was the mother of my best buddy.  “She had to be lying to me, right?”…that was how I would justify not taking my writing skills more serious.

Through-out high-school as I moved up a grade and into my upperclassman years, I continued to write, but I kind of put the teacher’s words aside; however, the English marm’s words still lived inside of me despite the fact that I remained hesitant, foolish, and scared to heed her positive feedback and perceptions.  The tiny little creative creatures that reside in my head would often, and silently, spew their echoes of what the English teacher had told me on several occasions about my excellent writing skills, and I would allow myself to gradually believe the wonderful teacher’s words of praise and encouragement.

It took several more years for me to believe that I did possess a wonderful craft for writing.  These days, as my love for reading and writing has greatly increased, I pay close and finite attention to what other regular people, similar to myself (non-professional, non-published) are writing.  I am amazed at how other people write.  While some are naturally able to jot down exactly what they are trying to express and convey with a keen sense and style of elocution, other people struggle so much.  Those who struggle often do not have a passion for writing, but then there are those who love writing, yet, they are unable to interpret their ideas into words then onto paper.

The latter type of writer used to be me a long time ago until I decided that it was time to take more serious the very thing which brought out my most passionate side; writing.&nbsFp; Though I struggled with the mechanics of writing, and sometimes with basic grammatical skills, my love for writing never diminished or faded regardless of my lack of proper mechanics and grammar.  I carried onward, and if anyone had issues with my writing, well: “it was their fault - not mine!” – or so I thought.  These days I work hard on improving my mad writing skills because I do care what others think.  English 101 rule #1 is to be mindful of one’s reading audience.  That rule is one that I carry with me all the time now.  Not only is it wired into my brain, carved into my heart, but I keep a tangible copy of it on my person at all times.  I not only know the rule, but I live the rule. 

Words are beautiful…and when done properly, writing opens up a world to everyone where nothing is improbable and the lack of doing something or not being able to make something happen is merely due to the lack of one’s imagination.  Imagine if you will, if someone or something had convinced good writers such as Asimov, Auden, Austen, Bradbury, The Brontës, Brown, Herbert, King, Plath, Rice, Rowling, Tolkien, Verne, or Wells that their works of art where nothing but a bunch of gibberish!  Imagine where our world would NOT be had anyone dared tell any of them such a horrid thing, and worse, imagine if anyone of those writers had listened and not written his or her respective "magnum opus"!  Living in a world sans any of their great works - or without the works of many other writers - is not a world where I would like to reside.  “Love Thy Writer’s Craft!”