The art of writing

John Keats once said in a 19th century letter to a colleague that, “I’m convinced more and more each day that fine writing, next to fine doing is the top thing in the world.”

Of course, Keats was an iconic poet of his time, a master of words, and a biased voice when it comes to the topic of the importance of writing. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that for centuries, writing has allowed people to communicate, learn, and share stories. The art of writing is unlike anything else in the world in the way that it connects us to each other and to the vast world around us. Why is it then that the value of and appreciation for writing has so drastically declined with the bringing in of the modern era?

  When I was five years old, I decided that I wanted to be a writer. I thought that I was going to write award-winning novels and that everyone would read my stories. Years and experience opened my horizons to informative writing, editorial writing, and poetry. My ideas for what I want to write and how I want to write it have changed, as has the reception of my ambitions for the future.

When I was five, my family, friends, and teachers thought it was endearing that I wanted to become a writer. My parents encouraged me with the purchasing of stacks and stacks of novels to read and journals to write in. My teachers pushed me, giving me extra writing assignments and supplying tips and suggestions for how to improve my writing.

As I grew up, my writing grew up with me, expanding across several genres and maturing in diction and in purpose. And as I began to have to consider what I wanted to study in college and what I would do after college, my biggest supporters still supported me, but offered cautionary advice about pursuing writing. “Don’t go to journalism school. It’s simply too narrowing,” some would say. Or, “What are you going to do with a degree in creative writing?”

Their advice was valid; journalism is debatably a very narrowing major and my ideas about what I could do with a creative writing degree are either implausible or nonexistent. But I feel as though there was once a time when a journalism degree was prestigious and offered ample opportunities for post-education success. Or when someone with a strong creative writing background could make a real difference in the world.

What happened to the world that John Keats lived in, where writing was “the top thing in the world”? Yes, above tweeting and watching television and going to the movies. I am appreciative for the progress that the world has seen through modern technology like the Internet and kindles and Ipads. But I am also just a tiny bit resentful for the way that these advances have taken the beauty and the wonderment out of writing.

It seems as though people simply have less and less time to read these days, which significantly depletes the need for writing and writers. The general public seldom has time to read literature or poetry for pleasure. They often don’t even have the time or the patience to finger through a newspaper, opting instead to get their news via the internet, radio, or television.

I think that we all need to take a step back from the rapidly moving world around us and acknowledge that writing used to be something that could change the world. Robert Frost and Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson used to sit under trees and form words into phrases and phrases into stanzas and stanzas into poems that would open people’s eyes. Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell and Jane Austen used to lie out somewhere and imagine up worlds that people would later become a part of. And Meyer Berger and James Baldwin and Ben Bradlee sat at desks and wrote the news in ways that made people truly think.

Writing still has the power it had in 1819 when John Keats declared it to be, next to fine doing the top thing in the world. Good writing not only shares stories, it unlocks secrets and explores new territories. It teaches us, connects us, and sparks a curiosity in each of us about the world we live in. Things like this are what will unite us all and propel us into the future. Why, then is the art of writing so widely considered to be a thing of the past? We all need to realize that writing still has the capacity to change the world, but only if we give it a chance to.