Death of Style

Yesterday I was at a conference for IHSPA. One of the speaker's was Casey Lynch, Editor in Chief at IGN. He talked about how to make it as a writer. He had six main points, but I can only remember three, but that's probably because they were the most important.

• Go to college---but don't become them.
• Read.
• Make yourself memorable.

He stressed the importance of individuality and impact. Make youself memorable, he'd said, do something that makes people react to you, grabs them through the wall of apathy and gets them to feel. Go to college, learn, but don't become just another formal drone-- keep what is inherit to you still you. And of course, read, because a writer who doesn't read is the same as the athlete who doesn't exercise.

I've been thinking about this a lot.

In journalism, there is a set style that all writer's must learn and be apt pupils of. There are different ways to write on-the-spot, investigative, and features in the most objective and interesting way possible. There are rules for how quotes are attributed and how transitions must work. God, don't even get me started on the lead. The lead is the live-or-die of any good story, but there is only so much flexibility between the rigid columns of the rulebook.

I've been thinking about this a lot.

Go to college. Read. Make yourself memorable.

I'm at the point in my life where I finally have everything I want: I'm making my own decisions, for myself. And that's scary as hell. Do people know me? I should never be placed in the power to make these decisions. Saturday is PSAT, which is the entryway to National Merit Scholar---scholarships. Moneymoneymoney. It's all coming down to college, and I don't even have half idea of where I'm going (I delete all the emails that come in my inbox, I burn all the letters in my mailbox at home).

We're not adults, we're not children. We're on the precipice of both, in between.

I've been thinking about this a lot.

So I want to be a writer, but I'm at the crossroads of what kind. I am---secure when I am reading, breathing when I am writing. It's a shame to feel so good and natural about something that has no place for you in it's world. I am not a good writer and a poor critique. What I can hope for is to stick to the journalistic style, and go to college and learn their way of writing.

Make yourself memorable. And that's where I'm at a fault. I find myself censoring my original writing a lot because I don't know what it's going to do. Like anyone else whose ever struggled as a writer, I do not know my voice yet. Like anyone else whose ever struggled as a writer, I am not encouraged to do so---how can anyone say there is when we are so pressed to write in one style over another?

I've been thinkin about this a lot.

I feel like it's pretty hard to develop your own style, and I guess that comes with the business. But I want to start actually putting my stuff out there. Not just some paper that I think will get me easy points. I'm done with people telling me, 'no, you did this wrong', because they don't get my style. I'm tired of being scared to write in my own voice.

It's time for a revival.