When I was a kid, I didn’t understand that writers were everywhere. How exactly those Spongebob Squarepants episodes that gave joy to my childhood came into being, I wasn’t quite sure. But the idea that writers had anything to do with it was a thought I never once considered.
What could those studious people at desks with glasses and pencils provide to the world of cartoons? To explore the world of writing myself now, though, is to have my fullest understanding yet of what a wonderfully universal talent it is. There are very few professions to which the skill can’t be applied.
Even well into my adulthood, I didn’t have a very clear sense of the linguistic prowess that went into the world outside of books. Pamphlets need to be written. Legal language does, too. YouTube videos typically require a script. The songs that brighten our lives are each written by poets. The most senselessly violent of video games require writers. Even the dialogues to the most craven and graphic of adult films don’t just conjure themselves.
Perhaps it goes without saying that writers are everywhere and I’m just late to the realization. But lately, each passing month has come with an expanded appreciation of the sheer variety of ways in which the skill set can be applied.
One of the greatest benefits of writing is one I don’t often hear mentioned. We spend our entire lives conversing. Unless we partied a little too hard the night before, are staying silent for moral reasons, or we’re simply struggling with laryngitis, it’s likely that most of us will speak an average of over 10,000 words each day here on earth. The pursuit to make those words clearer doesn’t always seem to occur to people as a possibility. To commit to writing, though, is to actively hone our ability to express all of our ideas.
Practicing writing improves the ability to pull the words which best suit our conversations. It can grant us an ability to delicately communicate concepts that might otherwise be offensive, or to untangle ideas that might remain unspoken jumbles of thoughts. It can be a powerful tool to navigate almost any interaction.
At times, to be adept with language is to unintentionally fool people into thinking you understand subjects that you don’t. A clearly spoken sentence about a loosely understood concept can be enough to trick many. In that way, writing can grant us an opportunity to wade into conversations in which we might otherwise remain sidelined. It can grant people floors they might otherwise not appear to have a right to stand on — for better and for worse.
Persuasive orators can be great leaders and they can be murderous tyrants.
As I’ve continued to write, I’ve begun to feel more and more avenues opening to me. Where the world of YouTube and podcasting only seemed like loose visions in the past, the prospect has only grown more realistic. While I never considered writing lyrics a year ago, I’m excitedly realizing that all songs need to be written.
I’m still no social butterfly, but I’m getting better at navigating conversations and communicating my ideas. The thought that continuing to write each day will just further improve my ability to traverse each and every linguistic situation I encounter is one that excites me a lot.
For a while, a dream of mine has been to express the inexpressible — or eff the ineffable. It might be a lofty vision, but if it’s an attainable goal for me then writing feels like the way that I have of reaching it.