Confessions Of A Writer (Part 2)

Confessing time!

• I wish I was more active. It’s hard to write and read when running or swimming.
• I think the writers of Criminal minds are geniuses. Do you know what I’d do to write like that? No, you don’t.
• In my free time, I watch a bit of everything. It satisfies my thirst for knowledge. And helps expand my imagination.
• My right hand looks nothing like my left. Scars, blisters, pen marks, you name it, my right hand has it.
• One summer I read all four Twilight books in 22 days. I can’t read nearly that quickly now.

Want to read part one? Of course you do!

How Being A Writer Will Change Your Life

1. You learn how to survive rejection sooner or later. At the very least, you know how to cope with it.
2. You are insanely observant. You likely know too much about someone even before you meet them. It comes in handy many times. Let me tell you.
3. You can communicate well, write impeccably, and speak effectively. People love that. You’ll get much further in life with these skills you have developed as a writer that other non-writers don’t have.
4. You correct people confidently. Or quietly. Do as you please.
5. You read. Enough said.

Why I Started Blogging

Coincidentally in this order. It changes from time to time depending on the circumstance. For the most part, these are the main reasons I started this blog. I’m sure I touched on some of them before in other posts. But it never hurts to remind myself of why I started. And why I will continue to be a blogger.

• To share my knowledge and what I’ve learned with others. What could possibly be better than that?
• To connect and interact with people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. Recently, this has been more and more important to me.
• To improve my writing. By making me use my brain even when I don’t want to.
• To have a good time and enjoy myself. I have thanks to all of you.
• To provide a much needed break from school, work, etc. Emphasis on much needed.
• To brag/boast/gloat about it. Possibly the best reason of all. Too bad I don’t tell anyone about my blog.

How To Make Me Like You A Little Less

I’m not even kidding. If you do all five of the below, I will like you a little less. And depending on who you are, I may like you a whole lot less.

1. Find out where I live. Unlikely.
2. Enter my house without my knowledge. Even more unlikely.
3. Search for a book in perfect condition. Easy if you manage to execute step 1 and 2.
4. Wreck it. Crease a corner. Rip a page. Bend the spine. Even easier.
5. Celebrate as I cry. Only if you are sadistic.

More About Me As A Writer And Blogger

I warn you in advance that this post is more personal and less general. It may not be applicable to you, so don’t get all angry on me. Promise? I’ll assume you nodded or are nodding your head right about now.

• I am a serial-comma abuser. In the worst sense, especially when I am a blogger, I don’t always have commas in the right places either, don’t give me that look, I’m not a saint, I’m not perfect either. OK, see what I did there? I did that on purpose. I know when to use commas, for the most part.
• I still use my grammar guide. What? I double check and sometimes triple check just to make sure I don’t make a amateur mistake. An amateur mistake. I knew that. After I checked to make sure, of course.
• I Google the wackiest concepts and people. Don’t all writers do this? If law enforcement ever checked my Internet history, let it be known that I’ll be doomed. But I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

Oh ho, if you expected more points about me, I’m sorry to disappoint. I don’t have the motivation to write a never-ending list nor do I have the time to do so. Absorb the three above for now. Until I come up with more. When I do, I’ll be the first to blog about it. Which, makes no sense, I know. Oh, here goes my abuse with commas. I better log off now before the grammar police get on me about not properly educating myself on using commas. I’ll brush up on my knowledge today or tonight, well…maybe, sometime soon. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I don’t know everything, even if that everything is, indeed, common knowledge. At least, I didn’t have to Google anything for the creation of this post. Actually, I did. Oops, I lied. What did I Google, you might ask? That’s a secret. One, I will take with me to the grave. Ah, unless the police bust down my door and accuse me of um, murder? Then, maybe the secret will be out. Until then, adios.

15 Things I Learned From Writing My Law Exam

Let me tell you, I learned more writing that one exam in two hours than I did in one five-month semester. But for the sake of this post, I’ll write in second person point of view.

1. Whatever you do, don’t panic.
2. Between writing neatly and finishing on time, the latter is more important.
3. Under a time limit, you cannot beat around the bush.
4. Pardon the redundancy, but getting to the point might be the difference between passing and failing.
5. Repeating yourself (i.e. saying the same things over and over again) does not make you seem smarter than you really are.
6. Over-studying is much better than under-studying.
7. Feeling prepared makes you feel more relaxed.
8. Do your best to focus on your own paper during the exam.
9. Watching others either creates a sense of ease or a sense of unease; a risk you most likely don’t want to take.
10. Having a heap of knowledge is useless if you cannot apply your wisdom accordingly.
11. Trying to be fancy won’t win you any extra points.
12. You’d be surprised at how much you know (or don’t know).
13. Failing an exam will not result in the sky falling or the world ending.
14. Despite your best intentions to do well, sometimes teachers will throw you a curve-ball from left field.
15. Cramming forces you to memorize but in most subjects, a deep understanding of the material is more important.

Can I just say I’m guilty (see I’m applying my law vocabulary seamlessly here) of 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15?  Yep that’s right: I panicked, beat around the bush, repeated myself, under-studied, focused on things aside from my exam, watched others like a fool, tried to be fancy, and crammed as much of the course as I possibly could into my tiny head. Oh yeah, I’m probably guilty of number 13 too.