On Essays and . . . Stuff
Do you remember having to write essays for your high school English class? I gotta tell you, I was never partial to the essay. They made for boring reading, and I really struggled when it came to writing them. We weren't given proper lessons in writing them, we were just told we had to form an hypothesis and then either prove or disprove it. Kind of like a science experiment. That lack of instruction coloured my view of essays to this day. You can keep your Francis Bacon and Percy Bysshe Shelley, thank you very much.
The very worst part about essays, as far as I was concerned, was having to come up with a topic. "Write an essay on Great Expectations and make sure it's at least five pages long." Really? You want an essay on the whole book? Oh, just one aspect of the book. Care to give me a hint of what you're looking for? No? Then don't blame me if you get an essay on the effect of mould spores from that rotted dinner on Miss Havisham's sanity.
Although come to think of it, that might have made a pretty interesting topic. Although something like that would have never occurred to me in high school. And there was no internet back then so good luck with the research!
I don't know why I feel the need to do a non-fiction post each week . . . Sometimes it can be lots of fun, but sometimes it can become pretty be pretty tedious. But doing a series of posts on a topic - fairytale origins, fortune telling, the seven wonders of the world - is easier than coming up with a stand alone topic each week. And if my interest wanes before I'm finished with a series, it can become downright irritating. Sometimes trying to come up with an idea for Wednesday is like coming up with a topic for an essay - I don't know what to write about.
When I first started this blog I posted whenever the spirit moved me and whatever I felt like talking about. Mostly I talked about writing, which I'm supposed to be doing over on the Current Projects page now. Sometimes I was funny - downright witty even. But then I started to get all organized and decided to post specific things on certain days, and quite frankly it can feel like a bit of a chore some times.
But the thing is, I'm not the same person I was back then. Back then I was someone who wanted to be a writer so she started a blog to help motivate her. And I guess it worked, because now I am a writer. I have four books out there to prove it, and another on the way. So I guess that's progress, isn't it?
Hmm. Progress. That could be a topic for another day, couldn't it? ;-)
2 comments:
LOL - You realize the irony, of course, in writing what is essentially an essay on blog posts...which are essays themselves... ;-)
I love writing essays. In college, that was my favorite type of test, because all I had to do was fill a blue notebook with a fair amount of exposition (read: BS) on whatever the test happened to be on, and I'd get a good grade. Multiple choice tests would leave me irritated and annoyed for days, but ask me to write a paper on...anything? I can do that in my sleep (and often did), and cite primary sources left & right. And back then I had to do my research at the library too. I actually really enjoyed that.
I have a proposition for you...but I'll email it. Could be a fun exercise in blog essays, methinks. ;-)
I wrote this at 3:30 a.m., so I was a wee bit tired (and a lot incoherent) LOL
That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. :-D
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