Simple as Black and White

All through my child hood I was told that I had a very creative and vivid imagination.  I have always loved creating and sharing stories with people. I could play for hours by myself making up scenarios of adventure and exploration. Later in child hood, around age 12, I discovered role playing. Dungeons and Dragons and other games allowed me to really explore the world of fantasy. I could write thirty to sixty page campaigns in a night.

My love for writing was quickly trained out of me. My handwriting has always been that of a Dr’s, virtually impossible to read. My grade school teachers used to tell my mother, “Don’t worry about his handwriting, by the time he is in high school and college everything will be typed.”  So no more focus was ever placed on my handwriting.  In middle school I had the worst English teacher ever. This woman had no place teaching children, let alone teaching them how to express themselves.  I was pretty much told by her to just float along and try to make it.  The future would hold spell check and grammar checks.

In high school, I had teachers who were just floored by the fact that I made it to high school, was unable to write freehand, and could not edit my own work. I finally grew so frustrated I just gave up and only wrote when I absolutely had to. I made sure all of my papers were edited by friends who had a much better mastery at the English language than I did. I had other teachers that were just blown away at my ability to read and comprehend. Apparently, if your not able to write, you should not be able to read.

What college classes I have taken were the same way; I always had friends edit my work before I submitted it. I also always tried to avoid the grammar snobs in written word debates when ever possible. My inability to write is now causing me problems in my business life and projects. Working in social media and web marketing requires a lot of written content to be created, and there is not always time for an editor to look things over before they go out. Tweets and Facebook updates must be able to go out with little to no error the first time; the world of dynamic content waits for no one.

So, soon, I must swallow my pride and face my fears head on. I’m going to start taking some English and writing courses this term. I’m also going to follow the advice of a close friend and just write because I want to. Let things pour from my head and go back and try to clean it up myself before handing it to my editors. Practice makes perfect after all.