These days my life revolves around filling my head with knowledge at school. It’s quite challenging and takes up a lot of my time. I’m very dedicated and have always loved a good challenge. I knew that this program would be intense, but I really had no idea it would be quite as consuming as it is. I find myself wishing I had time to express myself more creatively.
With school being so time consuming, the majority of the writing I’m doing is very technical. Quizzes, tests, exams, proposals, and essays abound. Essays revolve around being clear, concise and direct; getting to the point without a lot of extraneous matter. The only descriptive passages I seem to write these days consist of describing techniques used in healing and the functions and impairments of the human body. A great importance is put on writing in proper college formatting, citing sources, proper sentence structure, and staying within a suggested word count. To be brief, I find it technical and often flat, leaving little room to add character, depth or personal flair.
Imposing structure is good for any creative writer. The act of writing can take us on a journey with many twists and turns along the way, and it’s easy to get lost, straying from the main story. At least it can for me. I love to get lost and dabble in the details. When I write, or retell stories, I want my audience to fully experience the moment as it happened. The sights, smells and sounds, the quality of the light, and the thoughts and emotions evoked all seem vitally important to me in capturing the essence of the moment. I want to clearly paint a picture with words. There’s often a lead up to the story I’m telling with a history of how we got to ‘the now’. For me, the magic is truly in the details.
As we delve into the details, it’s easy to be swept off on a side journey, straying from what is most important to our story. While creating characters, I see them so clearly, their thoughts and emotions, their lives and histories, their beliefs and their cores. I could probably write entire tales based on the side stories of secondary characters, as they are rich with detail, but don’t do much to further the plot of the main story I’m trying to tell. We don’t want to lose our audience along the way, and it’s important to keep that in mind, despite how fascinating these side stories can be.
I suppose this experience of writing strictly for clarity is a good repetitive exercise for any writer like me who can get lost in the woods of writing, straying from the main path and wandering to sights and sounds that take us far from our intended journey, however, I find I long to write beautifully descriptive passages, similes and metaphors. Oh, to compose sentences that roll around in the mouth, smooth and rich with flavour. I miss the journey of the adventure, instead, I just stick to the highlights. I long to delve into the thick of things and create worlds for others to enjoy, but for now, I suppose, here’s to the Cole’s Notes version.
