On Writing

My thoughts on those who seek ratings

 

On Writing

 

We are here, most of us anyway, to improve. If you write and post something that is not up to your standard, I have no problem telling you that you can do better, and I hope you would do the same for me, but I think you have done once or twice anyway. Yeah, the badges look nice, the contests are fun but in the end, if we are not honestly doing this for the fun of writing, why do it at all?

 

I admit I want people to read my work, but I also want them to enjoy reading my work. If we make them stop and think about something we pen, then we have done our jobs as writers.  

 

In college, I had a friend who was an avid letter writer. Every time we went to his dorm room, he sat at his desk, paper in front of him, composing a letter to someone, somewhere about what was going on in his world. At times, he wrote to politicians, at times he wrote to his parents and at other times, he wrote to all of us and posted his letters on our doors, in our dorm showers or some other place where we would read them.

 

We started rating his work, making little critiques on form and ideas. He started producing more letters, each one a little better than the one previous. One did not make the grade for some reason and we told him. His next effort was one we will never forget. He wrote the best-penned essay on college life I ever read.

 

The point is this; he wrote for the love of writing his letters. He could have written for the newspaper on campus, but that was not his passion. His passion was writing his ideas in the form of letters. We wrote those letters for the love of writing.

Write for fun, for venting and for the love of writing. With or without the accolades, I will write.  That is why we write in the first place, or is it? To write because we love to write? Some writers carry very heavy burdens, stories of abusive relationships, incest, rape, abandonment abound. This is their therapy. Others are looking for that big break, to be noticed. Placing the emphasis on the badges or ratings as a writer? We might as well join a coalition of writers and crank out stories by the job lot!

Reviews

[TLK]

Yup.