The Writer In Me

“The key to good writing is to write. Just write. Punch the keys on your keyboard and don't think. You write your first draft with your heart, u do the second draft with your head….” so says William Forrester….

Well I can see the logic in what he said. The problem is I’m nowhere near as talented as he was so it’s not as easy as it sounds. Regardless, this is what I'm doing now, punching the keys on my keyboard. Care free…

I fancy myself to be a writer. What type of writer, I have no idea! ‘Blog-ish’ kind maybe, if it existed. I will just write whatever I have in mind; the grass that I stepped on, the girl that I saw, football, things that I experienced or wish I didn't... whatever. The funny thing is though, my Malay is way better than my English, way better, but I prefer to write in English. Strange that I know, but maybe I will explain it on my next masterpiece, but for now all I can say is it was Salina's fault (that I prefer to write in English).

So here I am, writing in English with all my awkwardness, my bad grammar, my limited vocab, and again strangely, I don't see those as problems at all. You see, I am a firm believer that the purpose of language is to get the message across. Solely, that is the point of thousands (millions?) years of effort to develop a language. To tell your girl she's the most beautiful thing to you, to tell annoying people to shut up, to say sorry when u messed up.

I have a friend who insists on using the perfect English, “because that’s the rule!” she said. She rarely uses jargon or ebonic. However, she wont complained as long as she can understand what people are saying. The problem she has with my English is that being the special person that I am (hah!), I’ve created my own brand of English, my own set of rules and my own unique pronunciations (hehe) and I insist that there is nothing wrong with it! So whenever she misunderstood or simply doesn’t understand, she will say, “this is why you have to stick to the rules so people can understand you!” while making her ‘oh I’m so annoyed’ gesture. Well what do you expect, she’s an English literature grad afterall!
(*Note- by perfect English I mean perfect grammar. When it comes to chatting or sms, she is more dyslexic than I am. She is not a freak!)

Don’t get me wrong, I respect the rules and I admit that rules are there for a reason. BUT, following the rules 100% will only make your writing stiff. Rules limit creativity. It’s a fact! Don’t argue with me. If you want to be creative, you have to bend the rules (not break) a little bit. How can u put across exactly what you have in mind when you keep worrying about the correct tense and grammar? Let the rules guide you, don't let the rules rule you!

Everyone is raving about Shakespeare, but when he wrote his stuff, not only he broke every rule, he even used ‘make-believe’ words! Of course now, because he is Shakespeare, his ‘make-believe’ words and rules are accepted and known as ‘English’, but the point I’m making here is; HE DID NOT FOLLOW THE RULES WHEN HE WROTE HIS BRILLIANT PLAYS/BOOKS/STORIES OR WHATEVER ELSE THAT HE DID! And because of that he can put to paper his ideas and thoughts more freely and effectively.

Disagree with me? Too bad I couldn’t care less. It is my blog and I can do whatever I want. Sure you will find mistakes in my writing and sure some of my sentences will sound awkward but I’m also positively sure I have managed to put my message across. And I’m sure you will agree with that!

I RULE!