The first time i've written for a long time | Teen Ink

The first time i've written for a long time

November 1, 2008
By Rachell Li SILVER, Sydney, Other
Rachell Li SILVER, Sydney, Other
5 articles 0 photos 0 comments

As soon as you write something down, it is yours forever. And, if you wanted to, you could show someone else, so they could keep it too. But really, it is yours forever. If anyone ever wants to take it away from you, all you need to do is remember and to remind them that, it is yours forever.

When I was younger, around ten, when I still believed that there was a chance of doing what I wanted whenever I wanted for an entire lifetime, I wanted to be an author. It seemed liberating in a strange way, like somehow one person could tell another a wonderful story that was inspiring, humorous and sorrow stricken but not know. How could you affect someone that much and not know?

So, I wrote my own stories. They were short and they were terrible. I never showed them to anyone because I was not proud of them. I thought they were terrible. But, I loved writing them all the same. I didn’t know too many words and the ones that I did know were spelt incorrectly. I was and will always be a terrible speller. So I wrote my short fault ridden books and told no one. All I told them was that I wanted to be an author. The only story I ever wrote and shared was about a dog I did not know, did not care about and did not invent. His name was Fly and I thought he was good enough because I had seen him on TV. I didn’t even change his name.

Six years later and I share my stories. They are ones about boys with eating disorders, girls who follow strangers and kids that know more than their parents. Excuse me, but I have a mould to break. Sometimes my teacher says, ‘Rachell, this is really not what we are looking for, are you sure you understood the question?’ I shake my head but I actually did. So she smiles and is willing give me another chance. I take that chance but I hand in a piece of paper next time. There is nothing of me on it.

Oscar Wilde is my favourite writer and I have all his books, all his poems and all his plays. I haven’t read all of them and I think I really need to. But I still don’t, because I am scared I will not like him as much after. I have read ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ though. I made it out to be better than it actually was because I saw a review in the paper and it got four stars. However, there is one thing I remember about that story, and it is when the painter, Basil felt that he could not sell his painting, nor could he let it hang in a gallery, because he felt that he had simply put too much of himself in it.

It wasn’t self-consciousness. If that were the problem, he would not paint as well as he does. Painters are brave because they know that anyone can paint and yet they do it. This is how I see writers. Anyone can write. They impress no one, maybe except themselves. Yet they do it. As a ten year old, I did not feel the need to impress anyone, so I wrote for myself. I could not show anyone my stories because I knew that they were small pieces of me. The stories were about boys named Jack who played football and sheep who lost their mothers. My name is not Jack, I have never enjoyed playing or watching football and I am certainly not a sheep. Yet, they were me.

Rejection wasn’t an issue. I was too young to know that people are always polite and too old to think that I was always right. I was reluctant to share because I only had so much in me, I couldn’t afford to lose it to anyone, not even my mother or father, or anyone who would not understand.

Now I write for numbers. Hopefully numbers that will ensure an A. If the numbers are not as high as I would like them to be, which they often are, my spirit does not suffer, I am just disappointed. I do not feel sick because of the pointlessness of the exercise. I am sick because I am failing English.

Of course I do not want to fail so I write as many words as they ask me and I hand them in with no problems. In the very beginning I had some reservations, but now it comes easily, naturally, on a weekly basis. On the piece of paper is not something I wrote with my hands, it is constructed with a ticking machine, by a machine.

For school I wrote a story about how I felt and my teacher gave a worksheet on structure. She said that structure was important and that there needs to be certain sequences, descriptions and lots of showing-not-telling. I knew all of this because I listen in class so I will not fail English. But I was weary. I never thought life had anything to do with a set sequence, I never felt the need to tell someone about the sunsets and the dirt roads because I thought that surely they knew. Had they not opened their eyes on a new morning and had they never walked a trodden path? I had no intention of showing them anything because they would never understand, understand that I have something to say and they are going to ignore it. I had no faith in anyone else and I am tired and selfish.

In short, I was a terrible writer. But, I wrote for myself. The stories were real and the words were me. It amazed me whenever I looked down the page and I understood what they meant and I hoped so dearly that others would too. But, I learnt that they did not want to understand, they wanted requirements met and a showcase of several different sentence structures. They wanted flair and sophistication. I just wanted people to understand that I am tired, but I am true.

Someone I admire went through art school and said that he had lost all desire to create any art. When I write a story, I do it because I am instructed and because I am not all that bad after all if I just follow orders. This year, I wrote a story about a ‘making choices’ and I was sure to include a character description, vivid imagery and to use words that not even I understood. I got an A and the teacher was glad I was making an effort.

I write because I have to and no more. This scares me. My own words are no longer part of me. We do not talk. We never fight. And I feel we understand each other less and less. They are not mine; they are my English teacher’s.

But I am old enough to know that I do not want to abandon this because it would mean abandoning not just a little sliver, but a whole slice of myself. I cannot afford to lose so much after everything else because there will be nothing left and one day I will wake up and feel as if I am only doing things because I have to. I will never be uncomfortable, because no one will ever see me and I am just another girl who succeeds but without a mind and without any intention otherwise. I never wanted that.

Oh. By the way, today it rained and the soft, soothing drops of sky are once again beginning to fall. I know this because though my heavy velvet curtains are drawn, I can hear the familiar echoes of water sliding down the foggy windowpane in no particular hurry. I cannot see them, but I can imagine the trails that the leave, like the trails of the buzzing insects in the trees. If I stop long enough and breathe in slowly, I can sense the rich aroma of the worms doing their job and turning earth. I have always had a keen sense of hearing and smell. My hair is an unforgiving melancholy brown.

The author's comments:
I really do love my English teachers, i do. I just wish i understood that school and life are different. But don't worry, she has told me that now. She told everyone.

Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 360 comments.


on Sep. 6 2010 at 6:48 am
Chitra.I PLATINUM, Dubai, Other
44 articles 2 photos 131 comments

Favorite Quote:
Everything makes sense if you think too much about it.

I've been there, and know how you feel. But please, please never give up writing from your heart. The world would be a cold, barren place if this kind of beauty, like the on in your heart, wasn't brought out.

GaelicC said...
on Aug. 30 2010 at 11:11 am
GaelicC, Longford, Other
0 articles 0 photos 91 comments

Favorite Quote:
No -Rosa Parks

Love it! I love how your spreaded your emotions onto the page!

BookFan BRONZE said...
on Aug. 30 2010 at 3:44 am
BookFan BRONZE, New York, New York
3 articles 0 photos 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty" .
"We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely".
"Conscience and cowardice are really the same things. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all."
Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray

I think, that the main thing is to find this "Golden Middle" in your writing. And when you'll find it , you'll be a great writer !!!                                                  I'm sure you will find.

on Aug. 28 2010 at 9:40 am
Crystal_Colossae PLATINUM, Madison, Wisconsin
34 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Wow, excellent!  I know it's been mentioned, but writing from your heart is really the most important thing about writing.  It's been said that the true artist need only please himself (or herself :) ), and writing is certainly an art.  Keep it up!  Being able to express yourself in a unique way that is relatable is what a great writer does, no matter what method.

~Crystal ;)


on Aug. 26 2010 at 7:14 pm
this is amazing how similarly i feel! after only 2 years of real english classes (i'm in 7th grade) i feel how conformed my writing has become. happens to me all the time. BRAVO!! i hope you get into the college you were writing for, you deserve it!!! (that was a college essay, right??)

on Aug. 26 2010 at 8:53 am
rainonroses GOLD, Dayton, Ohio
19 articles 0 photos 13 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else."-Judy Garland

I loved this! Great writing, and I can relate. I went through an extensive writing program one year in school, came away from it, and didn't write harldy at all for two whole years! I felt too much like I had to fit my writing into a mold to write for pleasure. All the pleasure in writing had been taken away. I have been feeling the pressure lately to write according to form in order to be accepted. This almost perfectly describes how I feel

on Aug. 25 2010 at 9:32 am
Wonderful .............the importance of this article can be concluded from the comments of others.............I think the same way...thumbs up...

Sar_liz GOLD said...
on Aug. 25 2010 at 12:12 am
Sar_liz GOLD, Warren, Michigan
18 articles 3 photos 2 comments

I really liked this.  I think it really makes a point and I could feel that the writer is heartfelt.

Way to go! :)


Ramzan SILVER said...
on Aug. 24 2010 at 7:31 pm
Ramzan SILVER, Loveland, Ohio
8 articles 0 photos 29 comments
I loved the bits about not wanting to share something one's created because it just has too much of yourself inside it. Thank you so much!

on Aug. 15 2010 at 6:21 pm
Simply_Me BRONZE, Nunda, New York
1 article 0 photos 9 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I didn't lose my brain...I just sold it on E-bay."

this is so true and very well-written!!! good job!!

on Aug. 15 2010 at 12:07 pm
HannahS. SILVER, Fort Collins, Colorado
9 articles 0 photos 13 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Poetry is meant to be read aloud"
I can't remember where I read this but it is the truth of the matter.

This is beautiful!

on Jul. 24 2010 at 3:23 pm
TheHandThatWieldsThePen SILVER, Shapleigh, Maine
5 articles 0 photos 74 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Let's waste time
chasing cars
around our heads."
--Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol

"I do believe it's true
there are roads left in both of our shoes
if the silence take you then I hope it takes me too."
--Soul Meets Body by Death Cab For Cutie

I feel - exactly - the - same way!!

AHHHH curse structure and conformity!

Why does nobody truly understand what I write?


on Jul. 22 2010 at 11:27 pm
lizzymwrites GOLD, Miami, Florida
13 articles 0 photos 56 comments

Favorite Quote:
The only people for me are the mad ones... the ones who never yawn and say a commonplace thing but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders against the stars." - Jack Kerouac

WONDERFUL.

on Jul. 22 2010 at 12:17 pm
lily_says_rawr GOLD, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
13 articles 0 photos 11 comments
That's really good. So true too.

dany said...
on Jul. 21 2010 at 6:35 am
thumbs up girl! :D

on Jul. 17 2010 at 2:27 pm
iluvnacho PLATINUM, Somewhere, Colorado
28 articles 1 photo 67 comments

Favorite Quote:
\"Find the beauty in the ugly\"-Jason Mraz 5-19-10
\"Be kinder than nessicary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.\" Unknown 11-29-10

I think you are a wonderful writer, even without 'structure'. Writing has no limits, and I'm glad you know that. Wonderful written piece of art.

kaykear BRONZE said...
on Jul. 5 2010 at 7:10 pm
kaykear BRONZE, Greenbrae, California
2 articles 1 photo 5 comments
I really don't think you should limit your writing to only be read by yourself. You don't truly know how talented you are as a writer until you put your work out there and then someone unknown comments on it. If it's a friend or a parent, they could be saying it just because they love you and only someone who you really don't know will tell you the truth. Personally I like this piece that you wrote and you seem very honest and open about your own writing which is great (:

on Jul. 4 2010 at 4:50 pm
purplebliss BRONZE, Idaho Falls, Idaho
2 articles 3 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." -Eleanor Roosevelt-
"Stop existing and start living" -Michael Jackson, in his song 'Heal the World'-

I can really tell that you write from the heart. But that's the best tpe of writing. The words don't have to be long and elaborate, the descriptions don't have to be beautifully written to perfection. As long as what you write comes from your heart and soul, and it's means something to you, then it deserves an A+.

Don't you ever stop writing, especially from the heart. You have a rare talent to be able to capture your feelings in writing. Not many people can do that, but you do it to perfection.

 


on Jul. 4 2010 at 10:45 am
Dani_Girl BRONZE, LaSalle, Other
3 articles 0 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
Stand up for what you believe in, even if it means standing alone.

This story truly does capture the essence of a writers realtionship with the words he or she writes. I have always hated it when teachers tell me that what I write isn't good enough because of structure or spelling, it hurts because when I write, it is from the heart. I have a similar problem as yours exept in my french class. i go to an all french language school and my writing teacher is very much like the english teacher you described. A wonderful piece. If I where you, I would give it to my english teacher. (LOL) I especially loved the last paragraph.

Marj said...
on Jul. 3 2010 at 2:55 pm

Hey Rachell,

Wonderful article. This really captures the sweet pleasure of writing from one's heart and soul, and I completely agree with everything you wrote here. I only wish more people could realize just how special this type of writing is, and you are helping make that happen. Thanks, Marj :]]