un.love

An exercise in emotionality...

After 4+ years of writing academic essays, academic research papers, and academic opinion papers, I have become adept at writing the equivalent of an academic SlimQuick shake. Full of all the nutrition that the subject might need, but with an artificial aftertaste and an undeniable feeling of not having had a real meal. You might not care, but for me this is a really sad fact since I consider myself a good writer, and it's never pretty when one's idealized notion of self smashes tragically on the sharp cliffs of reality. Fine, so I'm not good (enough), but I am experienced. I can pick out the nuances in writing that I believe make it good or bad. I understand strategies to lead readers in the direction one might conceive, and to send them on a journey that will leave them reeling. I can critique other people's writing, and make it better. I am the literary equivalent of a 300 pound man in the stands at a hockey game, his gestures spilling beer on unfortunate fellow fans as he yells out instructions at the players. Unfortunately, my opinions whether written or spoken, always seem to mirror this unfortunate scene. Now that I'm taking an advanced writing course in my last few months at university, it is obvious how gaping the discrepancy between my knowledge and my execution is.

Story. Of. My. Life. I am brimming with knowledge, ideas, and idealism, but anemic in real world experience. My writing professor, bless his kind heart, sidestepped this developmental minefield and simply said that I need some more emotion behind my ideas. The purpose of my writing should not just be about bringing my readers to an end destination through facts and arguments, but coaxing them into a world where my ideas are viable by pulling back the curtain and revealing the other side. That's tough to do, because in academic writing you are obliged to deliver an argument without any emotional appeals or artsy sentiments. That's why my last academic paper was entitled: "The Problem with Animal Models of Behaviour in Studying Monogamy in Humans" and not entitled "Why You Want to Stick Your Dick in Everything, and Why I'd Prefer You Don't".  But I digress...