I just breezed past a website that offered tips to improve my writing. I didn’t read the tips. Not because my writing can’t be improved, but because I have no interest in improving it.
Words and all the structures we employ in our use of them are just tools, nothing more. They are to be used to share the contents of a heart and a soul with those who read them. I play guitar by ear and am no virtuoso. I don’t care to be. I also don’t want to look at a list of 10 writing tips when I sit down at the computer. My guitar expresses me and so does my keyboard.
My approach is simple. First, I observe. Then I think about what I have observed. Finally, I translate those thoughts into words.
I had a great English teacher when I was a kid. She laid the best writing tools at my feet and I picked them up. I am forever grateful to her. And to my father who showed me the beauty of argument and logic as well as irony. Also to my mother, my favourite storyteller.
Just as a woodworker revels in his latest, well-crafted table, I am thrilled when I know that something I have written is good. How readers react to it doesn’t matter much. Applause and acclaim is never the goal. The purpose is communication.
I spent my life searching for my passion, not realizing it was in my possession almost from the time I could walk. I love words. Written, spoken, sung. And when a talented writer moves me, I am knocking on Heaven’s door. When a few golden words are those I myself have written, I hold in my hand the key to that door.
©2015 Jim Hagarty
