The Pleasure Of Writing

Some people dislike writing, whether it be compiling a shopping list, a note for a family member or a report for work. They would never choose to do some form of writing as a hobby or for pleasure. I am not one of those people. I derive a great deal of pleasure from writing.

As a child I enjoyed making up short stories and writing letters. At school I enjoyed composition lessons where we had to make up stories. During my teenage years I discovered the satisfaction of writing poetry and found it a good way to express some of my deep feelings of frustration, anger and ah, young love.

My early writings were done by hand. In my later teenage years I had access to a manual typewriter and as an adult I became the proud owner of an electric typewriter. In the nineties I graduated to a computer which made the process of writing and saving copies so much easier.

Although I do much of my writing on a computer, at times I still like to write by hand. I prefer to use a pencil, my favourite type being a 2B. I find a 2B is soft enough to flow across the page easily but it isn't so soft and dark that it smudges.

I am going to digress here. Have you ever wondered why we talk of lead pencils when the core is actually graphite? During the 1500s a large deposit of high quality graphite was discovered in England. People found it was useful to write with but didn't know what the substance was. It was thought to be some type of lead and the name stuck.

Near the end of the eighteenth century Nicholas Jacques Conte mixed graphite powder with clay, shaped it into thin sticks and fired it to make pencil 'lead'. He also devised a system to show the 'grade' of the pencil, with 'B' standing for black and 'H' for hard. The higher the number before a B the softer and darker the lead, with 6B being the darkest and softest. The higher the number before an H, the harder and lighter in colour the lead will be.

One of the interesting aspects of writing is the way it leads one to ask questions and research things. Sometimes I need information or facts for an article I am writing. This can be frustrating as much information is contradictory. Statistics can be misleading or only tell part of the story. New research can suggest older information is inaccurate.

As well as enjoying writing for sites such as Hub Garden, I like exchanging good old fashioned letters with family members and friends. I also write emails to keep in touch but there is something special about snail mail.

Writing can be therapeutic and can be used for dealing with negative thoughts that are bothering you. It can also be a great way to express joy.

Although writing is often a solitary activity it can be a social pursuit. I belong to a group which meets in a local cafe on Sunday mornings to write poetry. I look forward to these sessions for the chance to learn new ways of expressing my thoughts, the opportunity to exchange ideas and the pleasure of spending time with others who enjoy playing with words. (An added attraction is the great coffee and food and friendly owner of the cafe.)

I derive pleasure from writing, whether I am penning a poem, short story (haven't done that in ages) or writing a letter or article. There are many ways to express oneself in writing and an endless supply of things to write about. Writing is one of the greatest pleasures of my life.

#_Hobby
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