Pen Pals (7/90)

I'm in a good mood this morning.

For starters, I think my headache is starting to go away. Why? Because I'm drinking coffee which is full of caffeine and I am really beginning to believe that my now frequent occurring headaches are caused by something other than the weather. Considering the last migraine I had was the day after I had a lot of caffeinated beverages, and it did not go away until half an hour after drinking coffee the next day, I think it's safe to say I might have a caffeine addiction. I would try to break it right now but the headaches hurt and I need my caffeine to keep me going throughout the day. The semester will be over in three weeks and then I'll have three weeks to get a start on weening myself off of this drug. But for now, I need my coffee.

Second of all, I finally read my friend Rachel's memoir. She sent it to me the other day and forgetful me didn't realize until last night that I hadn't read it yet. I was able to read it this morning.

My friend is a very talented writer. I've always known this, but with us attending different schools and now only seeing each other a couple times a year, writing is usually only brought up when we're venting about school and how we can't wait for it to be over. Fortunately last week when we met up with another friend at Starbucks she told us about the memoir she was writing and asked if I could look it over for her before she turned it in. Although I dread editing others work (mostly because I don't think I'm very good at it) I wanted to read her writing and I was flattered that she wanted my feedback.

So I read it. And I loved it. Rachel has a way with words I've tried to mimic but have always failed in doing so. She's poetic and has a great way of describing events, people, places, etc. I on the other hand, well, I don't know how someone would describe my writing. But unlike poetic, I feel like I'm very blunt. I think it's fair to say I do my fair share of butchering the English language. Just because you want to be a writer doesn't mean your grammar doesn't suck. Trust me, after seeing plenty of read on my papers from my magazine class, I became very well-aware of the improvements I need to make with my writing.

What's ironic though is she and I are both facing similar problems with telling our stories. With her draft she said she feels she doesn't have a good ending for it. It needs a sense of completion. But how can she complete the story while the problem still exists? She's still in the middle of the story. It hasn't ended yet.

I can relate. As I'm trying to write about my story from high school, I too feel as if I'm still in the middle of the story. But the story is over. What's done is done. But it's missing a sense of completion. My big struggle isn't how it ends though; that's already been taken care of. My problem is, what did I take from it? It's the reason I've been hesitating on writing about it. In the back of my mind I keep thinking, "Is this really that important? So some drama happened a few years ago and your coach got in trouble. Big deal. What's the point in telling this story?"

I still don't have a definite answer for that. All I can say is that if you feel compelled to write about something, then it's worth writing for a reason.

So what am I going to tell her? I'm not sure either. Storytelling is still a craft that is going to take a long time to master. I have no expert advice to offer. I'll give her the best feedback I can and what I think might work for the story. Let's just hope I help her story instead of hurting it.

In the meantime I have to her thank for this blog. After reading her work I felt inspired to get another blog out of the way (since I'm still behind...fail). So what have I learned this morning? When facing writer's block, read your friends' work. Seeing how great of a writer she is encourages me to continue trying to be one as well. I guess if you believe in what someone else is doing, it may give you the confidence to keep trying yourself.