Tell Me Something I Don't Know

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Recommended: My writing process experience

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

I have been a writer ever since I could read. From day one of learning to write in school, teachers have shown me how to put words together, how to add proper punctuation, and how to intelligently compose what it is that I am trying to say. I know the writing process backwards and forwards (brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, and producing a final draft,) and I know the structure that a paper should follow (introduction, body, and conclusion.) Writing is just another formula that I have been taught to use, and until now, this formula has gotten me an A on every writing assignment that I have done.

However, the formula that has been engraved into my mind is no longer acceptable to pass me on as a good writer. The skills that I have acquired from my educators have only been a building block to good writing. Now I must take my writing to the next level by discovering what truly makes writing wonderful. To answer this question, I have searched deep down inside myself, sorting through the last eleven years, to find the missing piece of the formula. My discovery was surprising, yet simple. Good writing is something that I could never learn from an instructor: it is something that everyday experiences have taught me all along.

Since I began writing while first learning to read, the words that other authors had written become my foundation for good writing. I have experienced both good writing and bad writing enough to know that good writing is more enjoyable for the reader. When I read literature that is similar to something that I have read before, what the author is saying is no longer of interest to me; however, when I read literature that speaks in a unique way about a topic or speaks...

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...ing into something brilliant that others will appreciate. Everything that I have to say, regardless of whether I am writing an assignment in school or writing for fun, should come from the heart. If I write from the heart then what I have to say will be genuine and sincere. Writing takes time; it should not be wasted on something that others and I will not be proud of. Creating something of value should always be my goal when putting thoughts down on paper.

Writing is so much more than words on a paper with correct punctuation, nice vocabulary, and the textbook answer to a prompt. Writing is a person’s thoughts and ideas that have come to life. For this reason, good writing can only happen when a person draws from their personal experiences and then genuinely displays them for an audience; therefore, life has to teach a person the recipe to extraordinary writing.

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