Practice practice....makes perfect. Almost

A friend of  mine saw me typing away on my phone this evening, and she shook her head as she said to me, "It's no wonder you love to write. Look at the way you're going at that poor BlackBerry." Let me side track for a moment and say that she got that right about my very 'poor' blackberry. My poor BB has suffered much in the hands of its owner, the way it looks right now...it really is an apology, and if the poor phone could speak..!

So, my friend said this to me, and what she said really got me thinking about my writing. Hmm. I wouldn't call what i was typing up on my phone 'writing'...heck i hadn't written anything tangible in years! I'm not sure if one's brain gets duller with age or not (it does?), I always thought we got smarter as we got older. So it really dawned on me that i seriously hadn't done any real writing in a while. I couldn't figure out why, and worse, i couldn't figure out how to get started on that part again. I've always prided myself with the fact that i studied literature in school, i could smash an essay, write up any and all kinds of article, blah blah. I had forgotten that practice does make perfect, and if one stops writing, it's almost always hard to get back to that habit, and you find yourself short of words to say (or type, in this case), and lacking inspiration as well  as motivation.

I remember this random article i wrote a few years back about a book i had read. It was more like a personal book review, and i was so enamored and in awe of the book that i couldn't help but discuss in lengths why i loved the book so much. So today i decided to look through that particular article (mind you, i hadn't read it since the last time i wrote it). So i did, and i was left speechless. Who wrote this? Not me, surely? Not to brag, but i was sincerely blown away by my writing technique, the words and grammatical structures that were implemented...I sounded so smart and intelligent. What happened? Why am i no longer smart and  intelligent, at least enough to stop scribbling on this blog and go write and publish an ACTUAL book? I tell you, getting old makes you duller, not smarter. If this is happening to me now, what's gonna happen when I'm like 25??

Haha. Kidding. Unfortunately that very ripe age has been way behind me for a little while now. But hey, 26 is the new 25 now isn't it....kidding, again. Sigh, to be that young again...

Let me post an excerpt from that article, so you can see for yourself how much smarter the younger me was. And i quote:  

"...There's this excitement of being lost in the world of fiction where anything goes, where anything can be said and done; the thrill of experiencing the juxtaposition of words, of realizing the author's intent, of putting self in character's place...."

And another:

"...It's not just the plot that got me hooked, but also the way the author wove the storyline, the soft power that her words held, creating an intensity in one's imagination as a reader, imploring you to keep reading, and reading, and reading...."

I wrote that?? Whatever it is i was on at that time, i need to get back on that stuff asap, because i seriously need to start making some money writing articles that sound like that.

So what i got from my day of thinking is that practice makes perfect. When you stop doing something you used to do on a regular, in time you kinda lose touch with the way it's done, and eventually you lose it altogether. So, practice makes perfect.

Yeh, this was what got me thinking today.

So 'til next time....