Writing on Writing

As I sit here, I wait for the words to automatically jump onto my computer screen. I have at least 500 words that need to be written, but the word count on my screen shows only 46. I'm experiencing writer's block.

I have about a million things in my head that I want to say about writing.  Mainly to the effect of how important it is, and how writers always get a bad reputation.  About how writing is what drives people to become better; how writing has shaped the generations of those before us now. Yet the general public won't listen.

Everyone knows Albert Einstein.  No one has forgotten the name of this country's first president. Yet, can anyone remember who invented the printing press? Johannes Gutenberg, so you don't have to look it up. In 1690, Benjamin Harris published what is considered to be the first newspaper in the American colonies. Not even we Communications majors with a specialty in Journalism know that.

So why does everyone know the Myspace founders or Facebook creators instead of the names that built the backbone of our reading world? Modernization is a big part of this, but it also comes back to the fact that people feel writing is just a leisurely activity, and not one to be taken seriously. 227 words now, I'm making headway.

For as long as I can remember, I grew up wanting to be involved in sports in some manner or fashion. It was not until the end of high school that I realized, thanks to my passion and a little bit of "Everybody Loves Raymond," that I wanted to be a sports writer full-time.
While it does not take quite the time some professions need to learn the lingo and art form, don't be fooled. Journalism is not only one of the more meticulous jobs to have, but it also is one of the most demanding.

It was Oscar Wilde who said, "In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever."  G.K. Chesterton said, "Journalism largely consists in saying, ‘Lord Jones is dead' to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive." Both men, very knowledgeable, but both very correct. This leads to my point that journalism, while underappreciated, is still the large plain in which society bases its life upon, even though it doesn't realize it.

Perhaps the best book about pure writing I've ever read is Stephen King's On Writing.  The way King writes, love him or hate him, is like reading while floating on a cloud. King's style, if one can call it that, is formless. He doesn't ever bog down the reader with unnecessary material. He doesn't waste the reader's time building up this massive plot, then letting reader's figure it out on their own. King does not leave everything up to the reader's imagination. He finds the right balance, and many readers adore him for this work.
500 words on the dot.

Yet, one thing that separates the best writers from the not-so-best writers is their ability to know when to not count words, and to surpass the minimum amount of work. You think Henry David Thoreau would've stopped writing Walden because he set out for a certain amount of words?  I don't.