Writing

I've been wanting to write coz I surely miss it, yet what can I write about?

Honestly, I have three drafts and maybe a dozen other things to write about. My aim was to put up another blog site just to detail my rants and cheers to the Orioles but that never progressed due to (gasp!) lack of time. Yes, as much as I am "unemployed", I do not have enough time to deal with all the things I want to deal with. Why is it always like that? Coz when you are unemployed, you are everyones errand girl, you are everyones slave, you hear everyone say "can i ask you a favor?" (and you end up saying, "sure!").

I'm not ranting on those things really, its just that my hopes to put up a new blog was put on the side. I ended up throwing 140 characters (spaces included) on Twitter every 15 seconds. Sometimes, due to time difference, I end up sleeping during live games. Somehow I failed on my aim to practice my writing by pouring my heart out on something I like to do. Its tough being me (a reason that we always hear, right?).

Yet I have been doing writing lessons for kids these days. Wait, change kids to young adults. Its summertime and besides the need to polish my brothers writing, I wanted to gauge my cousins as well. Weeks ago, I asked them to write down five songs that they really like, and later on revealed to them the task at hand. They were fearful when they heard that they had to write. Write a three paragraph review of each song that they picked. I thought it was awesome, they thought otherwise. So I subjected five kids into writing without their permission? What happened afterwards is a nice study/ observation/ experiment for either behavior specialists or psychologists.

The youngest was the only one to accomplish five essays on the prescribed time period. My brother submitted his completed work three days after the prescribed time. My girl cousin finished the first essay right away, the second essay was submitted a day after the needed submission time, and essays 3 to 5 are not yet submitted. My two other cousins did not do anything, sadly.

It is such a hard task to impose writing to kids these days. With all the information on their hands, they do not make use of it by using their minds to analyze information and pour out their opinions about these. They pour out their energy using the internet as a means to play computer games, watch episodes of their favorite shows, and use social networking sites to know what the latest scoop on AI, on show business, or whats the latest emo song. It is tough being older and not seeing them spend their time doodling on paper, reading love stories or detective stories, writing phrases then sentences then essays. It is hard that they do not know how to properly express themselves in writing.

Writing for me is the best means to express oneself, and I do admit that I do get the moods too when writing. In numerous occasion I feel that anything I write does not make sense. It seems like I lack the complete thought or I was not able to equip my essay with words that makes itself understandable to the reader. I too encounter times when I do not feel like I am writing the way I should or that I lack the level of writing that I have put on myself. I always wish to be better, I wish to always improve my writing. But how do I even find out that I want to improve my writing?

BY WRITING, what else?

One of the tips in writing that I kept on telling them was that to know and improve how you write, you must write. There is no other way to know these things but to do it. You have to keep on doing it and have someone read it so you'll know how you fare. Later on you'll get the knack on writing and end up editing your own work because you have practiced it repeatedly. Writing is a trial and error process. Even the best writings can be improved by supplying better words or re-phrasing, whenever the need is there. Not only you exercise your writing skills but you exercise your brain, language skills, analytical skills.

It seems like a dead end task when they don't take things seriously as you do, but I am not giving up. I will think of ways to make them write, to let them understand that polishing their writing skills is important to do now than have their teachers criticize them. Oh Lord have mercy! Please shine the light on them.