Why I Write

I write to express.  That's what I always have to remind myself of when the frustration kicks in. Writing in today's system is a constant process of demoralization.  You'll never get the pat on the back you want.  In fact I can't remember the last time I turned something in that was fully accepted.

Here's why.  You'd like to think that we live in an environment where people can realize that differing viewpoints may see something you never saw before.  Believe me, if you work in journalism, they do not.  I try to keep myself open to my professor's influences, but I'm finding it harder and harder.  Why should I learn from them if they never seem to learn from me?

My latest frustration has come at the hands of the Grammar Police.  These are the people that tell you it's now one space after the period instead of two.  I still use two because I grew up with it, but more importantly, who the hell cares?  But what's interesting, is that the people accusing you of having incorrect grammar fail to see the grey area in grammar.

Language is an expressive art with various structures, but sometimes we must break those rules that some so vehemently defend.  This is true in so many art-forms.  I would love someone to tell me that all 20th Century music strictly adheres to rules.  Or in art.  What if all paintings were forced to be accurate representations of life around us?

Yet we treat language like it is some sacred form of expression that cannot be expanded.  Do they fail to realize how much we have grown in our rules up to this date, or do they feel that we are now at the epitome of our language?

So again, I remind myself that I write to express myself and that there will be critics.  Have I broken classic rules above?  Of course.  In my effort to express I pick words and structures that most accurately represent my feeling, my emotions and my overall style.  I don't write to reinforce writing as a static art-form. I write to aid in its evolution.  I'm not groundbreaking.  I'm not a visionary.  I'm just me.