The Art of Functional Writing

    My teacher assigned us a heavy question to write about. The question was, "What does it mean to be a writer in 2014?" The only parameter that he gave the class was that it had to be one page. He did not tell us the repercussions of what would happen if we wrote more than one page of work, but I did not really want to find out what would happen for myself. The last thing I would want to do is make a teacher bore himself to sleep over reading a paper I tried to make into art.
     I shared the paper I wrote with a few people, one of them happening to be my mother. She told me that it was "Ok" and then I went on to edit it. I then shared it with my friend Tristan, who has a job editing papers, and he told me that my paper was wonderful. Afterwards, I shared my writing with my good friend Micah, whose opinion I value more than anything (not that Tristan's opinion was not valid, I just have not known him as long). Micah began questioning me on what the paper was supposed to be. He told me that the paper was "handcuffing me" because it gave me limited room to get my ideas out. He told me that it was an opportunity to learn a new form of art. It is the art of functional writing.
    Writing functionally is something that many people cannot do, while a good amount of others are able to. It is my goal this semester to learn the art of functional writing. I will teach myself to write a clear and concise essay, even if it is only allowed to be a page long in length. So, with that being said, here is the journal entry that I wrote for my English 111 class.

"What Does It Mean To Be a Writer In 2014?"

           What does it mean to be a writer in 2014? There are many possible answers to the question stated, seeing as there are many different writing styles and a plethora of modern authors and writers to choose from. People who invest time in their writing have the ability to capture the attention of their readers. Everyone is looking for something different today. To be a writer in 2014 means being able to articulate well and put one’s own thoughts into words on a page in a way that make sense and captures the reader’s thought.

            Being a writer means having a love of all things text. People who write generally like to write and they make a habit to do so, even if time does not allow them to every day. To be a writer means to make someone think about something more than only him or her. If a writer does not make someone think then they have to work to make another person do so. 

            T.S. Eliot said, “The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.” The quote could be taken in many different ways, but I think that what it means is that the text has to become the person who is writing it. It must become a part of them completely and they must become a part of it. Perhaps the quote should be reworded, someday, to say, “The purpose of literature is to turn ink into blood,” meaning that the work of the writer should come alive. The writer of the work should be as much of a part of the text as the text is a part of them. Writing takes time and it also takes talent. To me, that is what it means to be a writer; having talent, having the ability to construct ideas and record them, and to be able to keep the attention of the intended audience.

     I may not have received the best mark in regards to a run-on sentence here or there, but my professor  did not hate the piece.
     One must be able to write functionally and if a writer has not developed that skill then it is something they must work on; which is what I have been working on: to make my writing short and to the point when it needs to be. 

            

Tolkien's "The Silmarillion"

       There is a central topic of my blog it seems; writing about Tolkien, because I read an awful lot of Tolkien's works. For those who do not know, please allow me to fill you in on what I have been doing as of late. I recently finished reading The Silmarillion; The Silmarillion being the prequel to the trilogy The Lord of the Rings and coming before The Hobbit as well. It is a literary masterpiece of J.R.R. Tolkien's and a prime example of his creative nature. He is known for creating Middle Earth and The Silmarillion is a good reference to his creation. The book fleshes out the world of Middle Earth even more so than the trilogy and its singular predecessor did.
         I began reading the book with two different points of view. The first, knowing that the book should be read like a history book, and not all at once (Johanna, I am incredibly sorry for not heeding your advice). The second point of view is that it would be similar to all of Tolkien's other works that I have read; full of allegory, even though Tolkien himself said that there was none. I realized, after a time, that I could not read The Silmarillion like a history textbook and I could certainly not read it like The Bible. The book is a series of stories, telling one whole story. It is most certainly like a history book, but different in the way that it reads. I could not read the book as if it were The Bible either, because there was a great deal of differences between the two, that I will note later on in this post.
         To be painfully honest, I was rather nervous before beginning this post. "Why?" you may ask. It is because The Silmarillion is such a masterpiece that I cannot let it down with a simple misuse of a word. Everything I write about it has to be perfect and that is what I am setting out to do. That is the prime objective of the post and I will commence to tell you about The Silmarillion.
         The book revolves around the Valar and Ilùvatar. The Valar are the beings that come to Arda, later on known as Middle Earth, and take part in a song that Ilùvatar creates and they bring order to Arda. Belonging to the Valar are the Queens of the Valar and the Lords of the Valar. The Lords of the Valar include Manwë Sùlimo (King of the Valar), Ulmo (King of the Sea), Aulë (the Smith), Oromë Aldaron (the Great Rider), Mandos (Judge of the Dead), Irmo (also known as Lorien and who is Master of Dreams and Desires), and Tulkas Astaldo (Champion of Valinor). The Queens of the Valar include Varda Elentári (Queen of the Stars, wife of Manwë), Yavanna Kementári (also known as Palùrien, Giver of Fruits, wife of Aulë), Nienna (Lady of Mercy), Estë (the Gentle), Vairë (the Weaver), Vána (the Ever-young), and Nessa (the Dancer). There are many names that one cannot keep track of on their own and I am ever thankful to the Tolkien Gateway, which I will cite at the end of this post.
        The greatest threat to the Valar is Melkor. He is the mightiest of the Valar but is not included among the Lords of the Valar, for he was evil and brought destruction instead of life wherever he went. He made it his personal job to destroy whatever the Valar created in the stories that Tolkien told. Melkor is the original enemy, and after him comes Sauron.
        Ilùvatar is the god figure of the entire story. He creates the Valar, they are created out of his thoughts. They are known as the thoughts of Ilùvatar. Ilùvatar also creates the races of Elves and Men out of his thoughts and they are the most important races in all of Arda. The dwarves are created later on, but they are a thought of the Aulë and were not immediately accepted by Ilùvatar. The Ents were created by Yavanna. The Elven race were the first to live in Arda. The race of Men was put into a deep sleep, to bloom at a later time in the world. Because of this, I realized that I could not read The Silmarillion as if it were The Bible because of a tremendous difference.
        The difference between The Silmarillion and The Bible are that man was created at the beginning in the latter book where in the former, they were created early on but were not allowed to exist in the world until a later time. The men of The Bible came into a land that was perfect and were sent out from it after a time due to their sinfulness where in The Silmarillion, men were born into a land of ruin but not due to their sinfulness. It also does not help them that Ilùvatar becomes a distant deity, unlike the god of The Bible.
        Besides the fact, there are many enjoyable stories in The Silmarillion, my favorite being "Of Beren and Luthien", the tale of an Elven girl named Luthien and a man by the name of Beren. Beren falls in love with Luthien, and Luthien likewise Beren; but her father does not approve and he is disgusted. He sends Beren to retrieve a silmaril.
        The moral of the whole history of Middle Earth, is to not get too worked up about gems because they will ruin your life and the lives of others.


http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Valar