A PSA from someone who paid too much to learn this.

Upon first receiving knowledge about MT I nearly jumped right out of my seat and into my phone to get access. Of course, such things rarely work this way and I had to be patient. In the meantime, I tried thinking about what my debut post should look like. Would it be: discuss deep philosophical meanings of life, one of my short stories, or simply how to fry an egg? The conclusion I came to after I slept on the idea was to instead to give the gift of knowledge to anyone who might stumble across the fated first post.

Some context, I am attending my local college for my BA in English. I expect to graduate in the fall of 2023. I have learned a lot about how to write and do so effectively. The context I am providing here is not meant to be seen as a "flex" but instead to give way to the information that I spent money on something I am going to give any reader free of charge.

Writing. When it comes down to it, any artist can simply be just an artist. Many of the great writers never studied English at all in their background. The science fiction genre is filled with engineers and computer science majors. The key to success therefore, is the activity of producing art. Sit down and write. It takes time but no book was ever created in a day.

A sort of irony is how many people are worried their works won't be good enough. Some people even struggle with the, what if I don't sound smart enough and use big words? Valid concerns. Let me pose an interesting scenario. Often English majors are seen as elitist for language. They use big words and can even find a purpose for that pesky semicolon; This is the higher echelon of speech that we associate with the field of English. I call those people fake English majors.

This high level of knowledge for the art has created true grammar dictators. Yet, they swoon over an author who uses a comma incorrectly to produce a certain flow of a sentence. In this case a fake English major is this elitist grammar dictator. A true English major would never genuinely do this. The artist wanted to produce a certain tone within their work. If their message is conveyed effectively we should not fret over the minor details. In many cases the greatest authors in the world, who are not even English majors, often make these mistakes. Therefore, you should too! Sit down and write. Create your message and convey it to the world.

Language is truly a testament to the world we live in. Never devalue when it is used or how it is used. What do I mean by this? I am of course talking about lowbrow language. Many older folk become annoyed with the permeation of text speech. I am talking about the "lol, idk, fr, emoji" speak. This lowbrow speak holds value and weight just as much as any other language we use. Never discredit those who use it to you. Try to keep an open mind and think about, what is the message that is attempted to be conveyed to me? After all, even a simple "idk" means someone put some kind of effort into responding to you when they didn't have to reply at all.

I encourage everyone to sit down and write. I've said it a few times haven't I? Sure did. In case you missed it.

SIT DOWN AND WRITE.

There was that good enough? Good. Writing is a daunting task filled with many hoops to jump through. If you skipped straight to the bottom I'll just give a generalized version of what I said here. Ignore many concerns you have about your writing and just get to it. The only way you're ever going to get there is by practicing. Enjoy the company of inner thoughts that others have allowed you to see a fraction of. As for me I'm going to go work on some midterms. Don't worry, I'll be back.