Those Elusive Mouth Words
- Jun 28, 2016
- 3 min read
Whats up literary friends? Anastasia here to fill you in on some shiz, and to hopefully engage you on a thoughtful topic. (Like we do, yo!) ;) It's been a couple weeks since Kai and I checked in, so here's whats going on, and what you could take away from it. (If you so choose!)
Living the Weekend Warrior Life
The project that I was working on at my job ended, and I've had some time to myself since then. If you didn't know, I score state standardized tests. It's a pretty good job in that I get to work with writing, and it's the most money I've ever made! Gotta build that resume and save up for the next adventure!
However there are some downfalls to reading student writing all day. It's tedious. It's also tedious. And after a while it can get tedious. Message received? Lets face it, not everyone likes to write. Some kids actually hate it, and furthermore, are truly terrible at it. It's a sad notion, but a lot of children don't even posses the basic grammar and language skills to communicate at a level suitable to their age. After several weeks of reading thousands of papers, something strange and vaguely disturbing began to happen to me.
No, it wasn't that I lost faith in the education system. That's a topic for a whole other post.
I saw the same punctuation errors over and over. I saw the same misspelling, the made up words, the subject verb disagreement. The terrible butchering of the different tenses and the blatant disregard for the different uses of there, their, and they're.
Soon, after work, my speech began to falter. My brain took longer to search for words. I couldn't think exactly how I wanted to phrase things, and I used simpler words than the ones I had used in the past. I even once found myself wondering things like: 'wait...is analyzation a word?' My personal projects became neglected. While grading I would second guess myself on spellings. I had seen the incorrect version so many times, I began to wonder if I had been getting it wrong the whole time.
I had been experiencing the same limited vocabulary so long, I couldn't seem to call on my reserve knowledge of college level diction. I lost confidence in my literary prowess.
All of a sudden, The hole talking mouth words correct was more worse then before then. What did happening, to do this at me? What are you're opinion about it?
Oh Dear Lord, Somebody Help Me Please
Honestly though, I'm not sure if it was something real, or in my head. Can reading terrible writing drag you down to its level? Can you you simply loose your originality if you spend too much of your time reading someone elses' words? I suppose this begs the question of how unique our writing can be in the first place, and how much has been accumulated by whats influences you. We are getting into deep water here. Personally, I'd like to think that I retain some of my own voice, and that while words sometimes escape me, they are there waiting for me to use them.
Thankfully, a short break and a well crafted book were the only remedies I needed. This weekend I went on a camping adventure and found that nature is a great way to clear your head, and help you reorganize your priorities. If you are struggeling to find your writers voice again, I encourage you to step back and take a break. Then, revisit your favorite books. Go back to what inspired you to write in the first place!
Take a Nature Break to Clear Your Head
Thanks for reading! Have you questioned your own writing abilities, and what did you do to remedy the situation? Please let us know what you think in the comments below!
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P.S. Submit to The Midsummer Note! (Obviously) :)
For a more full account of what went down this past weekend, and what I think we can learn from it, check out my personal blog here. ;) www.vegetarianandmore.blogspot.pe
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