Disregarding literary etiquette made me an accomplished writer
With much confidence, I can say I’ve become a better writer after freeing myself from literary conventions. This may give the impression I care very little about writing as an art form, when in reality it’s the opposite. For as long as I’ve been able to grasp a pen, I’ve always enjoyed being able to communicate my thoughts as I want to. For years, it’s been my catharsis.
Outside of poetry, I have no desire to incorporate pretty language in my pieces. For me, there’s no need to use words economically and also avoid flowing through stories based on excerpts I’ve read or authors’ whose work I admire. Ultimately, it’s always been about getting the information across, the best way I know how.
By no means am I discrediting the knowledge I acquired from formal education. I’ll always be grateful to what helped sharpen my craft over the years. Though, I only felt a shift in my proses’ quality once I put the rubric in the back burner, keeping in mind assets like effective grammar, punctuation, formatting, appropriate tenses, etc. Throughout university, there were far too many instances where I was stressed merely trying to satisfy the criteria of the work. To me, those practices gradually stripped my drive to continue writing.
I believe the whole point of creative writing is to have that flexibility to be creative. Certainly that can be done with methods excluded from my style, but setting forth guidelines feels like a complete contradiction. Isn’t this stuff subjective anyways? Aren’t I supposed to enjoy it?
Can’t truly exercise creativity if there’s laws that pose some degree of restriction.
For instance, some of my favorite works of poetry do not rhyme, lacks conscious use of iambic pentameters, and are simplistic in tone. That’s just personal preference.
To Each Their Own
And perhaps my writing isn’t the best, especially in the eyes of some other accomplished writers. I’m certainly no David Sedaris or Franz Kafka, but I like all of what I’ve made and that’s the most important thing. It should be. Any time I hit the page and spill my heart out, idiosyncrasies included, I feel accomplished by my final keystroke.
There may be a handful of errors this piece, but I’m happy either way.
