There are times when my dog is my teacher

Looking at my dog, I can tell I am alive – I smile. He’s an awesome dog, sweet, loving, carefree, and dumb as a box of rocks. Yesterday my wife swears he looked at a wall from about 2 feet away, then head-butted it. Two seconds later he was chasing his tail, which invariably led to him cockroaching with all fours pointing to the ceiling. He then came to check up on me, licked my face, and then ran back to terrorize the cat and/or the Chihuahua. His movement, so fluid and yet carefree, is absent of any predetermined agenda or goals – he just is… maybe that’s how my writing should be?

Ok, so my writing may be lacking (or is it me being over critical?); it’s not carefree, points are slow to develop, and the pieces tend to be long and labored.

I think any writing should be considered – maybe not the first draft, but certainly the last. If one is lost while revising their own piece, how can be a reader truly develop an opinion? Even though I admit a lot of writing is lost of valid points, and some can even be considered a “guilty pleasure,” but eventually a reader either buys into or sells on the story, plot points, facts or agenda that a writer is attempting to develop.

From a technical report-writing standpoint, agendas are hidden in the thesis, “our client wants X, and this is how X meets all necessary rules and regulations, and therefore should be allowed.” A rule is made – you just claim to meet it and reinforce your claim with facts – but more often than not, the reinforcement facts are lost in bad fonts, poor headings, footers, bullets, and graphics.

In my editorials, I attempt to make a statement that is found interesting, attempt to make my case, occasionally with logic, and then use real-life examples to reinforce my position. This should not be a labored read.

At times, my wife thinks I cant read because of my aversion to books. It’s not that I don’t read, its just that most of my reading is of non-fiction, articles, journalism, and news pieces. I find a lot of prose to be labored, like “War and Peace,” beautiful, but a little drawn out, with a little too much detail.

I think in today’s culture, especially most of the youth culture, a lot of detail isn’t really necessary: a little dusting on top of character with a lot of the meat in the plot. The first 100 pages of W&P, at least to me, is like clubbing a baby seal with all the detail – not needed. Thankfully, I intersperse sports journalism, biased persuasive pieces passed off as non-biased political pieces, and other news stories. I find inspiration on how to weave information without treading on the story. This reading is hardly labored.

I apparently cant say this enough: at the end of the day, I want my pieces to be accessible, topical, informative, and have quality content. If all that flows as smooth as my dog goes from play to tail to friendship to play, well that’s gravy.