NOT My Speech

Turns out I will do ANYTHING to avoid writing my speech for class that I have to give on Thursday. Even buckle down and try to write. Most of my posts for the time being are going to be little snippets from my writing class, mostly because I don't have the time to sit down and write out anything post-worthy, but also because I still haven't quite figured out exactly what direction I want this to take. I have a lot on my mind these days (classes, work, GREs, grad school...you know. My future in general).

Prompt: What is my "hidden nerve"?

I'm not even sure what that means...is it something about style? Inspiration? The well that you draw from or dig into to uncover your writing? I can think of many things irrevocably mine:

-- My unorthodox sense of humor, dry wit, and sarcasm

-- My intense dislike of straws, pants, socks, ignorance, closed-mindedness, and current trends (think "leggins")

-- My love for all things foreign, colorful, humorous, descriptive, nerdy, and recycled

-- My stumbling self-consciousness and under-confidence masked by a facade of cavalier and self-confident extroversion

-- My newly (very newly) discovered artistic creativity

All of these things, I think, have to do with writing and inspiration; they all, I believe, feed into who you are, and therefore who you are as a writer, in a way that isn't necessarily obvious or really even noticed. In that way I guess one or some or all of them could be considered my hidden nerve, because they contribute to my character and personality (and voice?), as well as making me, in many cases, want to write: about my ideas, things I notice, things I'm feeling, or things I have to say about the world around me, and ways I want to change that world.

Prompt: If you could write an author who is alive, who would you write to?

The first person who pops into my mind is of course Stephen King. Of course I would write to Stephen King. What would I say?

Dear Stephen King,

I love your books.

Dear Mr. King,

I have read 12 of your books (12 here is an arbitrary number; it could be any number of his books that I've read), and I loved all of them except "Carrie."

Dear Stephen King,

Where do you get your ideas? Where do you get your voice? How do you write so well?

I couldn't write to Stephen King. Anything I would say to him would be juvenile, immature, trite, flat...pick a word; a negative one.

So that leaves me with the question: Who would I write to? To whom would I write? Who else do I even read? CS Lewis -- everything I need to know about him has already been written down. Stephanie Meyer -- everything bad about her has already been said. JK Rowling...been there, done that (in the seventh grade).

I'm drawing a blank.

I think the real question is, to whom would we be worthy of writing? Who has anything creative to say to a great writer? Would they even take the time to read it? On the other hand, what makes them so great, that we should be intimidated to contact them? I really find myself having a block here, thinking about what I would say. Maybe it's all the fan mail (and hate mail) they already get. I'm always worried about being "just another fan" in the pile of letters that they never read anyway, but that gets intercepted by...someone to make sure no one has sent them anthrax or anything.

Not that anyone would do that to Stephen King.