May 9th, 2017.

Writing.

“An afterthought that cannot be ignored”

Writing is not my thing. For me it’s more like the fortune cookie at the end of meal at a Chinese restaurant, an afterthought that cannot be ignored. Whether it’s a song, a photo or a video, every medium is almost always accompanied with text. It furthers the narrative giving the audience more information on the piece. You can’t just ignore it.

I mean you could, but then your piece would have about as much depth as a girl posting a selfie with her ass out and a drink in her hand, followed by an emoji as the caption. Sure it’ll get some love and no doubt be revisited in the future, but it won’t have a story.

These last couple of months I’ve probably written more content than I would’ve liked to and probably more than I would have if I was in school. It’s not like the curriculum wouldn’t call for it, I just wouldn’t have been motivated to give the dull assignment any attention and half assed a paper with no content, hopefully pulling off a decent grade.

Recently writing has been different. No one is expecting it, there is no assignment and I am allotted as much freedom or constraint as I care to give. I started viewing it as a separate outlet to create and like everything else I create I tend to be a little too meticulous with it. I stress over the little things. The things that most people don’t notice. I’ve been developing my own style. Telling my own story, but it’s happening at a crawling pace.

I want to force myself to become better. That’s what this is. Me forcing myself to write everyday, in hopes of becoming a better writer. In hopes that my sentences become more concise, my vocabulary expands, my style develops and I increase my use of literary devices, those things you learned in language arts class in fifth grade only to be forgotten after the quiz on Friday.

However, being forced to create instills about as much motivation as tempting a dog with a dog biscuit while he’s devouring a steak. In the past, the driving force behind my creation has been the realization of unused potential coupled with a number of other luxuries I no longer allow myself. Along those same lines I am attempting to diminish my unused potential by forming a routine. A lesson I learned during my time playing adult.

-Ethan