Wanna Hear a Joke?

Okay, so here's the background of my writing experience. As an undergraduate, I took exactly one writing class. Technical writing, to be exact. Now, I know that might sound scary and difficult, but the funny thing is, the key to being a good technical writer has very little to do with actually having writing talent. It's all about being able to organize. Now, you're talking to the girl who, when she organizes the pantry, sorts the beans and the soups and lines everything up according to how frequently they are used. Organization has never been much of a problem for me. So, I wrote these technical papers, all in a very organized fashion, and was then praised and lauded for my efforts. Pretty soon I began to think that I actually had talent as a writer.

Then I decided to write a story.

Hmmm... I put all of the information in the right order. It was very well organized. Yet somehow, it just didn't sound good. I was a little bit embarrassed to admit that I had written it. What could have possibly gone wrong? That's when I realized that this kind of writing actually requires talent. Which, apparently, I am seriously lacking.

While I may not have much of a knack for creative writing, I do have one redeeming characteristic. I am able to make fun of myself. I don't mind looking like a fool and flaunting my foolishness for the world to see. I just throw in some good jokes and people tend to forget all about the poor writing skills. I've fooled many people this way. Just don't ever ask me to write something serious. I mean, something that actually requires expressing real emotion, or serious ideas and thoughts. The truth is, I have a hard enough time figuring out how I feel most of the time, so I certainly can't put those feelings down in a coherent form. If something bad happens, I can tell you I'm sad. And if I pull out my thesaurus, I may also throw in some synonyms for the word "sad." But that's about as far as I get. Seriously, why do you think I listen to Country music so much? Those guys are so much better at putting my emotions into words. As is Charlotte Bronte, and the list goes on. But if I tried using their words to express my emotions, I'd be accused of plaigarism. Not only accused, but guilty of it. So I stick to making jokes.