Language Timothy!

[binidj]

I have just read a recent entry by smokingboot regarding language and I find myself left with a single, rather unsettling, thought.

Why is it that I understand this language far better than I can articulate it? Don't get me wrong, I'm not exhibiting false modesty here, I can craft a verse reasonably well when I put my mind to it. But when I look at posts like smokingboot's I cannot help but marvel at the apparently effortless ability to craft this beautiful language into something rather wonderful. If I want to make something beatiful I need to work at it which, I think, sometimes gets in the way of what I'm trying to convey. I experience feelings like this with so many of the people whose LJs I read, not quite envy but a wish that I was as able to write English as well as I can read it ... to convey the feelings of wonder I feel as every day unfolds before me without it appearing to be from the BBC. Ah well, at the end of he day I suppose we must play the hand that fate has dealt us (shamelessly nicked from Kipling that) and be content.

More often than not, I am.

Comments

[binidj.livejournal.com]

Actually I was referring more to general posts than to deliberately creative writing.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Then I can be a little more confident in my assertions.

If you are making actual effort to express yourself as you find appropriate, I find that effort undetectable. Your posts come across as swift and erudite.

I think everybody labours at their writing. I have now spent 10 minutes trying to say what I mean in this comment!