Have you ever been writing, using one of those old fountain ink pens, and then by accident, you press to hard or jerk the pen too roughly, and a huge blotch of black ink distorts your beautiful writing and stains your crisp paper? If you've spilled enough, to your horror, it causes even more havoc and flows across the paper. As you, in a frustrated fit, rush to dab up the spilled ink with a paper towel, you fume to yourself and mutter the age old question...
"Why can't my words flow as quickly and smoothly as this ink!?"
Well. It's a good question, for sure. I've got a friend who asked something similar to this over an e-mail today. She was wondering why she couldn't write like I do, and my reply was something like this: for one thing, it takes practice. For another, anyone can write like that. It just takes a while to learn, like a baby learning to talk. We had to learn to talk, right? Just the same, we have to learn to write. Now we have to learn to add our thoughts to our writings, and make it flow. For a very long time, I had a problem with this, and even to this day, my Best Friend can write FAR better than I can in giving descriptions, and making you absolutely see the scene, almost like you're watching a movie! (She's totally amazing when it comes to that! I'll sit down and read one of her stories and be squirming with excitement or about to sob, or on the verge of screaming with laughter and delight at just how well she described that character and put him or her in a situation that'll make you faint!) It was reading some of her writings, along with Brian Jacques' "Redwall" series, that helped me to work on my writing skill. The Redwall series is totally amazing. Jacques paints a picture with words, and that was a huge thing that inspired me. (I'd highly recommend Redwall. Don't let the fact that it's about a bunch of mice and rats with a huge sandstone abbey send you in the other direction...it's a VERY good series and will have you writing much better!) Another good reading source is the Bible. Take Job 39:19-25:
"Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrible. He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons. He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; and he does not turn back from the sword. The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and javelin. With shaking and rage he races over the ground, and he does not stand still at the voice of the trumpet. As often as the trumpet sounds he says, 'Aha!' and he scents the battle from afar, and the thunder of the captains and the war cry."
God gives us the most beautiful, fearful description of a horse; He just painted a picture in words.
It takes time and effort to begin to write this way. Think of a picture, and then try your absolute best in every detail to describe it. Once you get the hang of it, it'll just pour from your pen (or keyboard!) onto your paper (or computer screen!), and you'll be wondering how you could have ever written like THAT when you look back. =) Practice makes perfect, and before you know it, you'll be making your words flow like ink.....
Goodbye, GOODNIIIIIGHT!!!
-Han
the above picture does not belong to me. It came from the endless photo library of Google-space, and belongs to the rightful owner.....trust me. I wouldn't have been crazy enough to spill my ink for the sake of a photo! 0.0
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