I Take Writing Too Seriously-Here’s Why
There are quite a few topics that I could give a twenty minute TED talk on without any prep work. All of those things can be encompassed by two themes: faith and writing.
Today, I’m going to focus on the writing theme. Will this be a twenty minute TED talk? I suppose that depends on how long it takes you to read this. However, I want to talk about why I care so much about writing.
Publishing has changed so much over the past few decades but I think the biggest change has come within the past ten years. I should point out that all my publishing experience comes from self-publishing or indie publishing. I have researched traditional publishing. I read a lot of books that are traditionally published and I’m just talking about trends I have noticed.
What I have noticed is that, writing as a craft is in trouble. Writing as a skill, a very basic one that at, is in trouble. In fact, I would argue that writing as a basic skill has ceased to exist. Nobody knows how to write these days. How do I know? Look at what AI is being used to write: social media captions, emails, papers, mission statements, purpose statements, training manuals.
AI is being used to write most forms (if not all) of communcations except for text messages and snapchat DMs. Now, when asked why are people using AI for these things: it’s easier, I don’t know how to word things, I don’t have time, it’s simple, it’s such an easy extention to use, I write better with it, I was going to say what the predication was anyway.
I’m not blaming AI for the downwoard spiral that has become writing but it definitely isn’t helping. Tools like grammarly, which started as a way to get help with spelling and grammar (which I recongize as a good thing and something even I got behind) online to now, grammarly now has AI built in to help you construct and craft your entire message. I can’t even use gmail without having to turn off three settings to make sure I don’t get predictions, AI suggestions, or other robot influence on my emails. On emails. It takes more work to turn off AI than it is to just have it be there. No wonder why everybody is adapting and using it so freely. It’s being forced on us.
I’m not trying to write a part two to my previous post where I talk about the issues with AI. But AI is definitely having an affect on writing and writing skills today and it is not for the betterment of writing.
In America, the basics skills of reading and writing have been taken for granted. Skills that used to be denied to other human beings because it kept them controllable, skills that were considered the path to freedom, the path to understanding, have gone to the birds. Reading and writing used to be a sign of status, wealth, and intelligence. Now that everybody can learn to read and write freely, we rather play video games.
By the way, gone to the birds, or better known as for the birds is an idiom to mean worthless, not considered important or worthwhile. Reading and writing in today’s world and soceity are not considered worthwhile.
Now, I know there has been an uptick in reading and readers and there are popular hashtags like #booktok and #bookstagram. I’ll applaud the movement to get people to read more books and still say (and believe) that reading and writing have gone downhill. Just ask the groan of my old students when I said we were about to read Shakespeare. Just ask any student in middle school or high school student what their least favorite class is. I would wager a bet that English is their least favorite subject and most of them would say it is because they don’t like reading.
For me, I didn’t like doing algebra problems but I still had to do them but I was told to them because I would need the skills. I wouldn’t be able to have a calculator with me all the time and I would need math skills. Yet, as a writer, I use very little algebra. I don’t come across fractions nearly as often as I thought I would. I also have never seen quicksand despite all the emergency prep classes I had in elementary school that made me afraid that I would randomly walk into some quicksand when I would walk over to my friend’s house. Oh, and we do have calculators that can go with us wherever we go.
Those very same students who would be told to learn algebra and understand the skills because they are important and necessary are not being told the same thing when it comes to reading and writing. English is a subject that is to be toughed out or endured. Students who hate English will find (and sometimes be encouraged to) outside help like cliff notes or summaries instead of just reading the book.
I think the most troubling part of what I have seen over the past decade, including my two years as an English teacher, is that people don’t care. Even with spell check and grammarly, I would still get papers littered with misspellings, lack of periods (I once got an entire paper without a single punctuation mark), and incomplete sentences.
In fact, books today have become formulaic. I cannot tell you how many books I have read where I have been able to call the entire climax, turning point, and resolution. I cannot tell you how many time I have read a book and felt like I just read a book exactly like it from a different author. Creativity has been replaced with the idea of what will sell. Marketing and the ability to market has a bigger part to play than if the book has decent writing and a good story.
As I write this, it is currently Independence Day in America. It’s July 4th, the day we celebrate our freedom as a country. The irony isn’t lost on me that I am writing about writing, a skill that is taken for granted today but one that changed a nation two-hundred and forty-eight years ago. It was the writing of Thomas Jefferson that gave us the Declaration of Independence. It was the Fedralists Papers, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay that shaped our country. The writings of men have continued to shape worlds, bring about change, and encouraged us to press on, to keep going.
Oh, and let’s not forget the writers of the books in the Bible that create the beautiful narrative of God, His people, and salvation through Jesus. That’s how God chose to speak to us, through the God-inspired writings of the Bible.
This is why writing matters. Writing allows us to think deeper, see complexity, and tell stories. Writing has brought about new ideas, complex discussion, and critical thinking.
Why do I care? The most popular books today are filled with things that are not allowed on TV and fantasy worlds that are used as an escape from the world, and questionable characters that would be walking red flags in real life. I am not saying that fantasy worlds and reading books to escape is bad—don’t get me started on the explicit scenes in books these days. I have read these popular books and have endorsed them and then encouraged friends to skip over the explicit parts. I’ve since changed my mind about that last part. However, there are some good stories within books like that. I would say they are few within the majority. That’s a post for another day. Great books with good stories and amazing writing are hard to come by.
Why do I care? As I used to tell my students, they would be the ones who would create the content, the books, movies and tv shows, that my sons would consume one day. Over my dead body was I not going to do my part to make sure they understood the value of a good story and how to tell one.
The truth is, I love words. I love stories. I care because in today’s world words get redefined based on feelings and not facts. Words are overused and manipulated and it is all taken for granted as if the ability to communicate isn’t a basic skill we should all have. The truth is, writing is important and we all need to start writing like we mean it instead of letting AI do it for us.
*Note: I am speaking as a fiction reader. I haven’t read much non-fiction lately. I would love any recommendations you want to send my way. (fiction or non-fiction) Prove to me that I’m wrong and there is good writing hidden out there.
Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash