Jim and I spoke about writing last night. He put together a wonderful piece on his visit to Astros’ Spring Training with other Corpus Christi media.
Writing is a craft which requires not just skill with words, but the ability to see a story in your mind and tranfer that to text. Some can write without being able to tell a story verbally, and some can spin tall tales around the campfire yet are unable to piece together a shopping list. Someone like Sam Clemens could tie the two together. Few of us reach that level.
I used to write using a grid paper pad. The spacing was just right for my handwriting, and it was more appealing to my engineer’s eye than standard ruled paper. Once complete, I would bang out the words on a typewriter (you do remember those, don’t you?) and later a computer. As I transcribed, I edited. Transition sentences. Overview paragraphs. Summary paragraphs. All that important stuff. I even used a thesaurus on occasion!
Now, I simply sit at the keyboard and pound out text. My writing has suffered. I wonder, is the blogosphere to be the undoing of great writing? I certainly don’t spend the time I should making sure my thoughts are coherent and the grammar is correct. I think I should probably begin doing so. Francis does, and his prose shows it. Jim did in his latest post.
Patience. Not one of my stronger virtues.