Pinko Commie

I wonder if writing will ever get easy. I think it's a thing that can always be improved on so it will never get easy for me. Writing is a monster that must be dealt with on occasion but is usually under the bed waiting for a professor to let it out. Still there are ways to get around feeling like I am fighting a beast and to learn how to tame it instead.

I am an artist and I tend to compare everything to what I know. I took a watercolor class for two semesters. We painted on 18 by 24 inch paper and during our critiques, we would cover some parts of our paintings to reveal only the best part. Sometimes that was quite a small part, but we were taught to look at the big picture, to find what we liked, and to see where we could improve.

We can influence our writers in ways that cause them to think and to create a bigger picture for themselves before they "crop" it into a more concise idea that becomes pleasing and cohesive to its readers. Cropping takes an eye for a good product, but to understand what a good eye is takes practice.

Often we don't know how we write, we just do it and it seems to sound good, we get our point accross, and that's all that matters. Of course there are those of us who know what we mean so we think our readers do too. Because of these people, a plan was made to present the writing experience as a formula. This formula guarantees success. Anyone can write anything as long as we follow the formula. There are some flaws to this plan, however. We, as writers, sometimes like to make really strong statements that readers find offensive and/or closed-minded. All it takes is a little work to tame our monsters by using ideas and avenues that help us analyze what's in our writing formula.

We can help each other to conquer our monsters and make a beautiful composition that readers are glad they didn't miss.