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| Owl Man...my first creation...drawn even worse today... |
I'm a writer, because I'm not a talker. While writing, I can sound eloquent and intelligent and remotely sane. While walking around in real life, probably not so much.
The more I think about it, the more I begin to piece together that as long as I can remember and perhaps as long as I could manage a coherent thought (granted, there are those that will make the argument that I STILL cannot put together a coherent thought) I have been enamored with reading and writing.
Since before I could read, I would badger my mother with collections of letters I came up with asking "What does that spell?"
After learning to read and write, I immediately kept complaining that "Please, can't Dick and Jane and Spot do something but play with that stupid ball? Aren't there spies out there or something? A dragon maybe?" And then writing--and extremely poorly illustrating--my own comic books in kindergarten and first grade.
So I have always known that I was a writer...no matter what some publishers have said...nobody has ever said, "Quit it, kid, you're embarrassing yourself." It's always been, "I liked it, I see potential, but I can't really sell this."
Why am I a writer? Why do I breathe? I'm not exactly sure. I think there's probably something written in my DNA or it is notched right in there above my lizard brain. I need to write. I need to create. I need to tell stories and I need to entertain people. I need to be able to turn my eyes inward away from reality from time to time and create galaxies and heroes and monsters and villains and fantastical creatures. I need to delve into what it means to hurt and to love and to hate and to murder and to despair and to hope against all evidence and odds. I need to feel those things and I need to be able to reach into my readers heart and place them there too.
I need them to see what I see in my mind, to feel what I have felt in my heart...to understand and empathize or detest or rage with me or against me.
I am a writer, which means that I am a farmer of ideas. I am a sower of feelings and thoughts, emotions and epiphanies. I am a writer and a story teller, which means that I aim to show the essence of truth by weaving mountains of lies--the definition of fiction.
I am a writer because I have a voice that is best heard through the printed word and echoed in the mind and in the soul. I am a writer, because I have an ego big enough to think that my ideas bear merit.
Why am I a writer? Because it is who I am and how I was built. It is written in the marrow of my bones and the electric pulses of my synapses.
What does it mean to me? Everything.
--Dad v. Autism
Judges Comments:
"You did a good job of explaining why you NEED to write, but at the end, I was kind of left wondering things like 'How would he feel if he couldn't write?' and 'How does he feel when he writes something that he is proud of?' The post flowed very well, and you got the point across, but it wasn't my favorite post from you."
Heather Reese, My Husband Ate All My Ice Cream
"You seem to have gotten lost in your own mind on this post. To me the good bit started and ended with the last three paragraphs.
It read like it was written by someone who had finally figured out what they wanted to say. The rest of it was full of run-on sentences and a very weaving writing style.
Got the assignment but definitely not your best work."
Allison Duncan, SVALLIE.NET: The Nerd Connection
"I did feel that it was a bit long and rambling, but at the same time I got a good idea of how and why you started to write. But like Heather said, I didn't get how you feel when people react to your writing, either good or bad. All in all, I think it is a good post but definitely not one of your best."
Amy, Non-Stop Mom
"I'll be honest, I had to read this three times, and I was just as frazzled as the other two judges. What does writing MEAN to you? "Everything" is too wide open, too vague. Why not start out with what it means to you and build upon that? Why leave that for last? You've lost your audience by the third paragraph."
T. Rojas, from Motherhood: The Definition of Insanity