Writing now, to me is something I think of as easy to do. It’s very easy for me to review a day and write about it in detail, something that would have been a chore earlier this school year. If I were to explain the course of a day in a written form earlier this year, it would have lacked description and tone; some things that make a story comprehensive and tantalizing. It would have read more like a list of things I had done that particular day, rather than a story.
What I’ve come to notice, is the inexhaustible importance of punctuation. This year, as a class, we read through The Humble Comma, by Pico Iyer. This prose was an essay, revolving entirely around the “rhythm” of punctuation, and how it give a certain personality to an individual’s writing. I learned with out these punctuations (not just commas by the way) I could not make my writing sound like me. My writing never read off of a paper like it would read in my mind, it never rolled my tongue the way it was intended to. Now a’ days, I feel as though my writing has real life and personality; it is a reflection of who I am.
Another factor in my growing as writer is my growth as a reader. Now that I’ve discovered books, short stories, essays, and so on, that I identify with, agree with, or even disagree with but still provoke thought, give me something to write about. A lot of my writing this year has revolved around other people’s writing, like The Stranger by Albert Camus. The Stranger, I found beyond interesting, because it was endlessly perplexing. Mersault’s (the first person narrator, and main character) actions in the novel provoked so many flexible questions that had no real correct answers. It gave me an opportunity to write philosophically, and analyze his character.
I leaned simple things too; things that just sort of fix one’s writing. I had big problems with the whole, staying-in the-right-tense things. Prose, apparently, has to be written about in the tense that is congruent with its own. I used to make neglect that rule, endlessly. But, through Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Wier’s constant and ever-so-irritating reminders, I can finally stick to a specific tense.
As a reader, another way I’ve amassed is recognizing underlying themes. In class during SRDs (Student Run Discussions), thoughts and questions flying around the room have made me read more invasively and intensely; combing through every sentence of a novel, maybe to find the most subtle symbolisms or implications of an author’s opinion. I do this now, as opposed to obliviously skimming the boring surfaces of a books; neglecting its depths.
Reading is enjoyable now, as opposed to laborious. Just purely through reading a bunch, I can read faster and more coherently. The images that I get in my head from reading now, are more vivid and colorful than ever before. I’ve learned how to read so fluently and imaginatively, that I can score parts of action in books. I can play music in my head that I think suits a particular part of book; sort of like a scene from a movie. This proves absolutely entertaining.
I even read outside of school now, something I was never interested in doing. Now, if I crack open a book and start reading, I’m confident it will be finished. I’m not afraid of taking nothing away from literature anymore. I feel I can read almost anything, and take at least one thing away from it; be it, opinion, a moral, or a word.
Along with the reading, comes the vocabulary, something I always though was important. All the words I’ve picked up while gazing at the pages of a book have made my writing much more colorful. Not only have I just picked up words, but learned how to use words I already knew, in new ways. I often used words I would to describe people, like angry or benevolent, to describe situations sometimes. This, is something I would have though of as some how grammatically incorrect on some level.
Reading and writing is significantly more important to me now. I think of writing as creative, and reading recreational. I think literature in general as beautiful. The feeling of knowing I can compose as well as comprehend literature is comforting. I feel more comfortable speaking on the subject, because it’s now a topic that I view as passionate. My growth as a writer and reader, could be considered my new found love for literature.
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