The Po Show

I am Strong, I am Invincible, I am WRITER

For some unknown reason, TC has tagged me for a meme. Maybe this is her way of torturing, err, encouraging me. I say it's a cruel thing to do to a friend with barely enough brain cells firing to brew a cup of coffee.

So I'm supposed to talk about my strengths as a writer. I'm not supposed to point out the glaring complication inherent to this task: I'm not "really" a writer. I like to write, but I ain't never been paid cash money for it. I write here, in this blog, for my 5 friends who read it, but that's all. I've never finished a novel, screenplay, or article of any real length. I finished one short story back in 1991 (that was summarily rejected by every periodical I submitted it to). I would never DARE answer "a writer" in response to someone asking me what I do. But again, I'm not supposed to talk about that, so I won't.

My strengths as a writer are:

1. I think in words. As opposed to visual people, who often think in pictures, I think almost exclusively in words. More precisely, I think in narrative. Everyday occurrences filter through my consciousness in full sentences, like I was telling someone about what happened, as it's happening. I think back on things that occurred, and it's all like I'm relaying it to someone else, complete with auto-editing to improve the flow of the language. I think this constant attention to life-as-words is essential to my writing, because I'm really just committing to the keyboard what was already rambling about in my head, often word for word. I'm a story-teller, and I'm telling you my story.

2. I love language. I absolutely adore the English language, in all its incarnations and variety. I love colloquialisms, I love dialects, I love idiomatic phrasing. I've always had an ear for accents (if I had been born a white girl of unidentifiable European origin, I would certainly have become an actress, because I could do a million accents dead-on), and in writing I slip easily into using phrasing that really isn't a part of "my" language. I think it does make for better writing overall. I also have tremendous respect for correct language usage, and while I've never been paid as a writer, I *have* been paid many times as an editor. My internal editor is always in the "on" mode.

3. I have a kick-ass vocabulary. While it's certainly true that a lot of truly beautiful writing is deceptively simple in its use of language, I think that using a broader vocabulary opens up my writing. Of course not every sentence needs to contain a fifty-cent word, but there is something absolutely intoxicating about finding *just* the right word to convey what I want to say.

4. I'm a voracious reader, and I know good writing when I see it. I really believe that all writers live to read. I think we all grew up reading, everything we could get our hands on, every chance we could find. It's all a part of that love of language, that search for voices, that journey through other windows. I know that almost everything I read imbues what I write and how I write. And I appreciate good writing, more than almost anything in the world. I read something truly brilliant and elegant and *true* (in the sense that it touches something inside of me that recognizes its truth), and I sit back and smile and feel an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. It's as good as good sex for me (well, maybe not, but it's probably as good as what *most* people experience as good sex :)).

5. I'm funny. Okay, I'm not stand-up comedian funny, but I think that everything I write is lit and enhanced by my (wack) sense of humor. Even though much that I write emanates from a broken heart, most of it comes out with at least some wit, some wry twist. Whether this is over-compensation for the material or just me trying to cheer myself up, I think it improves everything I write.

And though I'm not supposed to say it, here's the one most prominent WEAKNESS in my writing: I cannot freaking FINISH anything!! So many great ideas, so little actual execution. Argh.