Enjoyment in writing...
Posted by Susan , Thursday, June 6, 2013 4:18 AM
What aspects of writing do I really enjoy?
It delights me when I have the opportunity to throw all sorts of thoughts that roil and boil in my brain onto the page. The process allows me to reflect and parse out facts from fictions and ramble from coherence. At times, the act of writing helps me realize that a new thing must be done. I must, for example, talk with the person I am writing to instead of sending the carefully crafted email.
Using words is another part that I really enjoy. There are a lot of great words out there and picking the right one at the right time is key. Knowing your audience is part of this. Just this spring at school I sent an email to the entire faculty under the auspices (see?!? that's a great word) of thanking them for their help with a large scale project. I began, I thought, simply enough with the following:
"As we careen toward the end of [this project]..."
Careening became the word of the day. Apparently I'd hit on the nerve of at least a half dozen colleagues. That one word evoked in some the realization that they weren't alone in feeling that way; it gave voice to an emotion -- a place of being -- that they hadn't quite taken in...yet. I'm sure there were others that read it and thought... wow, Susan's got a screw loose. But that's okay. People are going to misinterpret what is read. I think it is interesting that my one email started a bit of a meme in the building. I started hearing the word careen in other parts of conversation.
So, apparently I enjoy the power -- both personal and group -- that comes from the written word.
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