The Eloquence of the Written Word

I love to write. I love to read. For me, the written language has always been an escape from reality into the world of my imagination. A book is not like a movie. The characters are explained and detailed, but how these details come together to form a character, that is left up to me. Movies leave no space for imagination. They use cheap tricks and mind games to make you think, but they never let you create. At least not to the degree that a book will. Books are a magic that is dying out. Nobody reads books anymore. I don't. I simply don't have time. And yet, I wish I did.

My imagination is one of my best kept secrets. I haven't even divulged the extent of it to those closest to me. It is the inner me that holds the rest of me together. The only place you will see that imagination, the only time I let it loose upon the world, is in my creative writing. I love writing stories, making my worlds, my heroes, my secret life a reality. And once again, it does not happen as much as I wish it did.

I've always been told by my teachers that I have a fantastic writing style. An English teacher whom I respect once told me of an essay I produced that it was written fantastically, But it made no sense. That was 4 years ago, and ever since the same comment has slipped into almost all of my work: "well written, but key points missing", "Beautifully written but contains fundamental errors", "a pleasure to read, but some points were not clear". My marks have always been good anyway.

But I'm losing it! My marks are slipping and more and more the comments hint at a lazy writing style. And I can see clearly why too. I'm out of practice. My imagination has been neglected, my bookshelf is gathering dust, and my writing is declining steadily. Look at this, for example, this is no pleasure to read. I wish it was. But not for you, for me. This is for me. And this is me telling me to stop not being me and just be myself.

Perhaps they were right. perhaps the video games have deadened my creativity and adventure. It's time to make a change, and even as I write it, I'm not sure what that change is...