I like writing with a pen and paper. I do it so infrequently now that I have almost forgotten what it's like.
Sometimes people think that they have to think of what they're going to write before they write it down, but they don't have to do that. Writing is an active verb; "to write" means to write, not to think of things and then only write them down once you know what you're going to say.
Writing for formal settings, other than for the drafting stages of a writing class, should be something that you have rewritten and edited. I don't always do that online, because my blogs range from formal to informal and are sometimes almost conversational. However, for the most serious pages that I write, I tend to do a lot of rewriting, even if I have to edit them after I have first published them.
Writing that's done to impress other people is not good writing. Writing that's done to convey something meaningful, even if it's to make someone laugh, has the right intention even if all of the words aren't perfect.
Having spent almost 40 years writing, I don't often struggle for words; sometimes it would even be to my advantage if I weren't as adept as I am at telling people what I think. It's too late, though; if someone ever told me that I had to stop writing or he would leave, I wouldn't hear the door slam.
Copyright L. Kochman, November 16, 2016 @ 1:47 p.m.
