Journaling

"This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important." - Gary Provost

I like the idea of making music from writing a story, but is it that simple? Can I tell an amazing story that makes people want to shout "Hurray! This is music to my eyeballs!", by varying the length of my sentences a little? It seems to me that Gary Provost is a bit of a professional who has taken it upon himself to dumb down the art of writing, so any slacker (such as myself) can feel destined to success? It's like a professional hockey player telling a 30 year old man that he too can go pro by practicing every night. I'm not saying it's impossible, just a little improbable, and maybe a heap of impractical.

Am I a cynic? Maybe.

The truth is I've forgotten so many grammatical rules in my 30 odd years on this earth. I won't even go into the sloppy mess that has become my writing, since I stopped flexing those muscles long ago. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. I shoulda practiced writing more when I was younger. But I didn't. I was a bit of an idiot, and while I regret being a bit of an idiot, at least I had some fun times!

So, I've decided to start a journal. I'm not going to waste your time detailing what I did at the grocery store today, or how often I had to clean up little accidents. I'm going to try chronicling my life in a way that is fun and relatable to my friends and family.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Oh, and maybe a writing class, huh?!