Writing is Self-Expression

By: Julia Walters

I write because, somehow, the world and my brain can be extremely chaotic and confusing. There are so many things about myself that I don’t fully understand. Writing, for me, is how I check in with myself and how I can better understand what is going on inside my head with my thoughts and feelings. It’s my outlet for self-reflection. I truly use writing to discover new things about myself that I never knew. Without my outlet of writing, I wouldn’t know nearly as much about myself as I do. While there is always more to learn, I know that I can come to terms with that through my writing and that, no matter what happens in my life, I can always count on disappearing in my words for a short while.

Writing makes me feel better about myself. When I write, even if it’s a simple journal entry, I like to always make sure I’m writing well and using eloquent prose, making myself at least sound more intelligent or creative than I really am. When I read over what I’ve written, I know that it is decent work and that my mind is capable of shaping language into something somewhat beautiful.

I find writing somewhat challenging though. It is a difficult process to find the right words to describe a feeling or a wisp of a thought that passes through my brain in a quick instant. Even with informative or more technical writing, it is imperative that concepts and ideas are explained clearly and concisely. This is not always easy for anyone; it takes time and much editing to create a good piece of writing that reads well and is relatively simple to follow. When I am simply writing for myself, I don’t have to think about my audience and if someone else would be able to follow what I write because I know that I am only writing for myself. However, with formal papers and articles for a newspaper, this is obviously not the case and the audience needs to be considered heavily. Sometimes finding that target audience and catering to them is a hefty task.

As for what type of writer I am, I would say that I definitely am extremely wordy. I like to think of writers as being in two categories: either similar to F. Scott Fitzgerald or similar to Ernest Hemingway. Of course, not everything is so black and white, but this is how I categorize it in my head to make sense. Between those two writers, Fitzgerald is very flowery, wordy, and eloquent in his words. He can go on for paragraphs describing a simple sensation with bold adjectives and electrifying verbs. To contrast, Hemingway is straight and to the point. He wastes no time in explaining himself and brevity is at the heart of his narratives. While he is more short in his words, his stories are no less impeccable than Fitzgerald’s; his style is just extremely different. Between these two writers, I have always thought that I am more similar to Fitzgerald just in how wordy I can be and how I enjoy describing things rather than being brief. While I am not nearly as eloquent, I would say that he is the type of writer I definitely strive to be.

To conclude, while writing can be a challenging process, it is something I have always enjoyed. I knew from a very young age that I loved to read and write; I want to incorporate it in my career in some way. I love being able to paint a picture in someone’s mind and to create something out of nothing. As well as this, writing is personal to me in that I know that it is my emotional, mental, and creative outlet. Without writing, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.