Did I mention that I really need to learn how to write? Okay, maybe NEED is a bit too strong. I just want to be able to put my thoughts on paper (or internet) and have them sound as smart as they do in my head. 'Cause every time I try to put my brilliance out there for the benefit of others, it comes out sounding something like "Uh......."
I do know that one way to become a good writer is to read. A lot. I'm hoping romance novels count. Okay, not really. But I've only just BEGUN to try to read stuff that I have to actually concentrate on, like works from famous scholars such as Drs. Aquinas, Pieper, or Seuss. (Actually, I've been trying to learn from that last one all my life.)
One thing I've been told (mainly by my husband) is that brevity is very important. Ahem. Since he's a good writer, I know he's not just telling me to shut up. You've heard the claim: "If I had more time, I'd have written a shorter letter." Well, I need to learn how to get my thoughts across clearly and succinctly.
Also, I've heard that I should write every day. And I'm already trying to do that. I sure hope there's a better reason for that other than torturing anyone who stumbles across my posts each day or causing my Facebook friends to "unsubscribe all status updates" out of sheer boredom.
I know that writing takes a structured mind. I learned in 5th grade English that a paragraph should have a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and concluding sentence. I also learned in 6th grade English that you can take said topic sentence and make it into an introductory paragraph, the supporting sentences become supporting paragraphs, and the concluding sentence can be made into a (surprise!) concluding paragraph. But this doesn't tell me WHAT to write. Like what words to put down in what order and all that.
How can I blame my kids for weeping over their writing assignments, when I still get hives at the thought of taking a single topic and producing an essay that will be turned over to an evaluator who will scribble all over it in red pen, giving me helpful and specific advice like "Too vague" or "Expand upon this."
So I need advice. Helpful advice. LOTS of helpful advice. Hit me.
I do think readers tend to be good writers, but I am also convinced that writing frequently helps significantly. I have only learned to enjoy writing in the past decade. When I was in college, I would look over the syllabus and select classes that were test heavy rather than paper heavy. I dreaded papers. Now, after many years of blogging (I am closing in on my 600th blog article), I love writing papers for whatever class I am in. In fact, I would love to write professionally (the 22 year old version of me could have never imagined such a thing).
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I noticed is that as my Facebooking went up, my blog writing went down. Facebook was causing me to write half as much as I used to. To counter that, I am trying to remind myself to bypass the status update and expand the notion to a full blog entry. Most of my blog posts in the past month started off as status updates. Ya might try looking at a status update you are writing and consider whether that sentence or two could be a more detailed article instead.
Great idea! Thanks!
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