I'm not sure when exactly it was that writing stopped being writing and turned into typing. I can count on one hand the number of times I write something by hand, or receive something handwritten, over the course of a year. Even my mum who could have been Emily Post herself, has defaulted to clickity clacking her way through her annual Christmas letter. It's not that writing (the act of penmanship I mean), ceases to exist, but it is definitely a dying breed.
The handwritten aspect isn't really what I find the world is lacking however, it is the flow of creativity that is somewhat stifled when you're typing your words onto a glowing white screen. This is not to say that you can't write eloquently on a keyboard, but more a comment on how the words are delivered and interpreted.
Your musings no longer flow from your pen, instead they are essentially mashed into fruition by thrusting your fingers onto little noisy keys. The romanticism of poetry, the reminiscent words of long lost friends, the exceptional knowledge in the thesis you spent 100 hours writing, it all falls a little short. Perhaps it's due to the fact that you can type and delete and type and delete to your heart's content. Think about how much more truth flows from a pen on the first and only draft of a letter to your ex. Can you recall the ridiculous things that were written long ago on notes passed through classrooms? They weren't ridiculous then, they were honest.
I'm ranting. Funny how that still happens even when I can go back and edit. Writing just isn't what it used to be, and the hard part is that it is my choice to make. I don't have to send emails, and write online blogs, and carry on friendships over Facebook, but I do, and you do too. To make it as a writer these days you have to embrace all things digital. Two of the three publications I contribute to are e-magazines, for which you could buy a print copy if you wish to fork out $50 to have one custom made for you. Of course this is not the magazine's fault, it's just the nature of the industry in 2013. The third publication is in an online journalistic format, and there's nothing more digital than that!
Would you like to know where else I find writing work? A website called
Elance, where people post freelance jobs for hire. This job posting I found in my search today sums up my point: "Cheap but skilled writer needed". This is where writers go to die, I'm sure of it. When did writing become so
blasé that everyone and their mother has a blog, and that someone who simply knows how to use the spelling and grammar check features on their computer is qualified to call themselves a writer, and that people want to hire cheap
and skilled writers. This is not a world I want to live in.
But how do we take back this fleeting skill? How do we differentiate between "writers" and
writers? Maybe you're thinking that I'm a "writer" and that I should get down off my high horse... maybe you're right. Or maybe you think I'm the next
Stephenie Meyer and that I just haven't caught my break. Either way, if you made it this far I must have done something right. I'd love to hear your supporting (or opposing) comments for my dark and dreary opinion on the dwindling art that is writing.
Labels: art, Elance, Emily Post, handwriting, penmanship, Stephenie Meyer, typing, writer, writing
