Random Musings on Writing

Navel Gazing

Is it less worthy to write simple stories, essays and anecdotes, where your goal is the reader’s smile or laugh?

Is this niche (my niche, as it were) less legit than the niche of the soul bearing “real writer”?

Every evening, since joining this community, I read a few blogs in various categories before I go to bed. I must say, boy are there alot of talented writers out there! Every subject matter and category imaginable. Short stories, long stories, fiction & non. And the poetry… simply so good. I’m often blown away by the sheer talent I stumble across on my evening travels. I’m awed, but mostly I’m humbled.

Then I think about my writing and I find myself doing something I shouldn’t… I compare. In these comparisons, I find myself lacking. I have no mastery of the language…unless you count my special gift of contorting the word fuck into the 8 parts of speech. I use grammar and punctuation “creatively” in that if I can’t make the language rule fit, I skew it to my liking. I’m a storyteller trying to be a “real writer”. I know this is possible because Jean Shepherd did it brilliantly in one of my favorite books, “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash”. Not even almost comparing my writing “style” to his brilliance, but if everyone’s got one book in them, I’d attempt to make mine along the lines of that one.

The bottomline is, I think and hope there’s a place for every style at the writers’ table, I’m ok sitting nearby at the kids’ table. I hope to learn alot over here listening, watching and reading.