Brothers in writing

All through elementary school, all my writing tasks where about either school breaks (summer and Easter), what I got from Christmas and what I wanted to be when I grew old. As my holidays were usually very dull, my favorite task was describing how I wanted to be an archeologist, just like Indiana Jones – my all time hero -, but I really didn’t want to find and dig cemeteries.
It was only in my 5^th grade that I found real pleasure in writing. For the first time, my new portuguese teacher defied us: write about a journey you would like to endure. O my journey involved telepathic communication with aliens and a rocket departure from cape Canaveral. It was the first time I was urged to use my imagination and at the end I received a compliment for it.
Unfortunately, school didn’t always inspired me to write, but – as most girls do – I kept some diaries in simple black cover notebooks. Besides thoughts and feelings those diaries kept a record of the movies and books that I read and small notes on how I had perceived them and how they had changed my perspectives on the world and other human beings. By then, archeology was no longer a dream, just Indiana jones. By then, I wanted to be a cultural journalist. I was even a trainee journalist for a couple of year, but things didn’t work out. Then I got a job as a public servant and my writing changed is purpose and its framework.
I didn’t stop writing a diary, but I changed the media: I found blogosphere. And with it new challenges: audience, privacy, feedback, self assessment and many other issues. I’ve been blogging for almost 10 years and my writing, like myself, has evolved. and my desire to evolve even more has brought me to writing II: Rhetorical composing. And although we are only in our second week assignment it already paid off to accept this challenge.
This week I was defied to read some texts written by other fellow participants. But how could I choose from so many – I believe – interesting pieces of writing? some titles caught my attention, because they seemed to convey some of my personal writing experience. So, the choices were: My journey as a writer, by Kiruthika Ramanatham; Why are you writing, Man?, by Avelino nuñez-Delgado; and Communicating through writing.
Kiruthika Ramanatham describes her experience has a writer since she was 10 years old and wrote her first story. Later on, as she became a mother, she reported her motherhood experience in a blog that has evolved through the years. Now, she is dedicated to a novel, which she intends to complete by the end of the year. Reading this piece, I recalled my first writing experiences in school and how my 5^th grade teacher awakened in me the pleasure of writing, by stirring my imagination. I also related to this piece due to my blogging experience and how it has changed has I have matured as person and how it reflects my changing interests and learnings.
I also relate to Avelino’s piece because English is not my mother language. Portuguesese is. I learnt English in school and my college degree is both Portuguese and English Modern Language and Literature. Although I don’t write much in English, I read a lot and the assignments are also an English challenge. but I understand how he sees writing as a job tool. Anyone who doesn’t see it also, it’s probably not a good enough professional. Avelino also presents an interesting point: as a teenager. He used Spanish to write about his thoughts and feelings. Nowadays, most of his writings are professional, mainly in English, but not only.
Jo ryker’s Communicating through writing is also related to Avelino’s experience. She also describes how writing is an important tool to her job and how she has improved her writing skills with a former colleague, who reviewed her texts. In my work place, I am the unofficial reviewer. I like doing it, but, unfortunately, no one really reviews my work, they just assume it’s ok. Jo also points that a teenager she used to write poetry and short stories as a way express her thoughts and feelings, without necessarily being known by others.
So, what have I realize from these three pieces as well as from my own experience?
Childhood and teen years are relevant periods in our writing development. Writing Experiences take place, mainly in form of poetry. But writing how we develop ourselves as individuals because it allows us the necessary time to dwell on subject and to structure our thoughts. The way we perceive writing as only a creative way to express ourselves changes as we reach adulthood. We realize that what we write in the context of our jobs is also important and it can change our and other lives. So whether we call it professional, academic, technical writing or something else, it is still writing and we are also writers.