My Personal Theory of Writing

Volleyball is my passion, not writing. Volleyball is something I do, because I love the game. I love the teamwork that is incorporated as well as the team itself. There are dynamics to volleyball that cannot be found anywhere else. Skills must be acquired and rules must be followed. The same can be said about writing. Whether writing be your passion or a pain, it is difficult to learn but good to know.

Some people have the talent and passion for it and I respect that. In my experience I have found that writing is like learning to play the piano. First you must learn to follow the rules, then you must forget the rules and play by the heart. As for me, I am still learning how to follow the rules. Writing is a constant opportunity to learn. Everyday that I am in English 101 I learn something new. There are so many genres, techniques, grammatical rules to explore and master. One of my favorite forms of writing is that of "writing badly". This is the idea that if anyone picks up a pencil and puts it to the paper, an idea will be born. Try it, write your thoughts about any topic onto a paper. Keep writing and building off the last thing you wrote, ask questions and answer them, etc. Eventually you will come up with an unorganized, scattered, somewhat meaningless piece of writing. However, you now have ideas that you otherwise wouldn't have. It is a good alternative to wasting time and waiting for an inspiration. Instead, you can be your own inspiration.
Everyone can gain something by learning the art of writing. Why? Because everyone writes. It is inevitable that you will have to use some form of writing for your career field; whether it be a data sheet, a statistical analysis, an employer review, or a resumé, a research paper etc. Therefore, it is important to learn now, so that you may be able to apply what you have learned later.

I feel like this is an appropriate time to add a warning label. WARNING: writing is more difficult than it looks. If I have learned anything this semester it is that writing takes practice. Practice, practice, practice. I do not think it is possible to emphasize this enough. Think of your favorite author. What do you love about their writing? Why? Unless whomever you just thought of is a prodigy, it is likely that his or her own writing was once as terrible as yours. Everyone has to start somewhere.

As a fellow writer looking to better myself, I would suggest starting with something you like about writing. My two favorite techniques are emotion and visualization. Yes, they can be defined and the concepts can be understood. However, it takes skill and practice to be able and make the reader feel as if their writing, is reality. This is what I love about Stephen King's writing. He is a master at both emotion and visualization, as you can tell from an excerpt in his newest book Doctor Sleep. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/doctor-sleep-excerpt-_n_3980918.html
Do not expect your writing to be at this level, like I said, everyone has to start somewhere. It was always discouraging to receive my paper back from my teacher and see that it is covered in red correction ink. I used to feel like a failure until I decided to look at it from a different point of view. There will always be room for improvement. If you take the help that is offered, and learn from it, your writing can only get better.