The art of writing.

What killed Writing?

I have been struggling to write something that has been on my mind for a few weeks now and the reason to this has just occurred to me. It’s not a writer’s block. It’s the realisation of something worse than that.
Modern life has killed the art of writing. I won’t sound like a 22 year old saying this but you might see where I am coming from after reading this .
I have often heard that technologies and Internet where killing the art forms. When sound or special effects appeared on film, audiences felt it was the end of the 7th art. It’s imminent death is still a big debate now with the downloading of films and music. When printing appeared and copies of paintings could first be made, some predicted the end of the golden era for painting. Wither this was true or not, I am starting to realize that the art of writing has also been threatened and damaged by the arrival of the Internet and computers. Today, anyone can write. Blogers are everywhere, some even make a living out of it. It has turned into one big mechanical process with hardly any beauty to it. Just buttons on a machine that we press, to prove ourselves as part of the machine we live in, talking about the uninteresting and boring happenings of our mechanical lives.
I am not disassociating myself from the stream of perhaps undesirable wannabe writers invading the web our world now revolves around. I have a lot to learn and I think this might be my first lesson.
The art of writing isn’t only in the words but in the depths of the letters used, in their sounds and their shapes, their soft curves or harsh bends. Feeling a fountain pen or a paintbrush caress the paper we are using brings up emotions and feelings much stronger than when pressing our fingers at an incredible speed on a key board. Its almost like the length it takes to write those words stirring the true meaning of what we are writing and slowly rising it up to our hearts. It brings butterflies to your stomach and you might make you feel a little drunk, not unlike the actor before he enters the stage.
It makes me wonder what happened to what used to be unique and a skill acquired throughout the years.
I understand it has done great things to the world, has given us access to information and knowledge that we would not have had otherwise. I am not going to ignore that. But it does make me sad to see what we have also lost.
I personally find it easier to organise my own ideas if I write them on paper. I have a concrete trace of them. I almost always write my first drafts on paper before typing them onto my computer. So, the first thing I will do after writing this will be to take up a pen and paper and write this play.
They are still some amazing authors out there, ready to shake us with their words. But it has become so easy for anyone to write, that we also find some utter SHIT on the shelves of our bookstores
Poets and other artists of tomorrow, persevere. We strive to make a difference to people lives with the gift we have, lets not give place to those who just want to make themselves known.