Writing Has Become Too Defined

by Kasia

The question of how to write lingers over each writer's head, but it's just a figment of our imaginations. There is no correct way to write. There is no clear line between “trashy” and “intelligent,” or the “creative” and the “mundane.” There is no clear definition of what writing is or how to go about it. I stifle a laugh when fellow writing majors ask for advice. What advice is there to give?

As a writing student, I suppose it seems like I'm wasting my money. I consider it more as a payment to converse with writers, seek their opinions, and watch their lives unfold. I consider myself paying to have someone help discover my writing, not teach it to me.

Writing is as unique as the writer. There is no way to tell a person how to be him or herself. There is no class on how to discover who you are. There's no strong definition of how to be good at being yourself. If there was, I'm sure life would be a little less complicated.

Instead, we just have to be. Instead, we just have to write. What do I consider good writing? I consider it good if it's creative- if while reading it, I have unlocked a tiny piece of who the writer is. That is good writing, and that is all the definition it needs.

I don't think the language needs to be placed right, that it needs to be put on paper, or that it needs to be published. Once, writers were just story-tellers. They weren't taught to be story-tellers, they just were. They began speaking. They began finding some passion within themselves, and they shared it. That's what writing is.

How can a writer write well? It's a difficult question. We all have preferences, we all think we understand what writing is bad and what is good. If we could forget that- if we could completely forget all definitions of writing we once had- I think a perfect piece would form. Because writing is, essentially, just a documented piece of humanity.

And humanity can never be defined.