Many friends ask me to write something for them and preface the request with “You like to write.” My Lions Club will assign writing duties to me even when I am reluctant to do them. These requests have given me the idea that I may be a writer. When I analyzed my life and my interests, I learned this about myself: even in high school, I liked to write stories. In college, I hated classes about English authors (Shakespeare, Keats, Yeats), but I loved classes that required writing essays.
When I transferred from Saint Joseph’s College in Indiana to the University of Illinois, I had to prove English grammar and punctuation proficiency by writing a qualifying essay. The subject matter was to be chosen by me. In my classes at St. Joe, the Prof suggested we list things that interested us and then pick a topic to write about. He also indicated that you can shift to something else once you begin writing about the topic. I use this technique often. The same professor encouraged me to continue writing by selecting my essays to read before the class. Talk about an ego boost; he knew how to supercharge mine.
I got into the University of Illinois without having to take remedial English. Because I transferred to advance my career in engineering, I had few opportunities to write creative pieces, but I worked overtime writing lab reports. After a successful career in Engineering, I chose to start this blog. Writing became creative again, but my writing sounded like lab reports.
After retiring from the engineering world, one of my goals was to write my biography. I began by making a list of memories. SIngular recollections of things that happened to me, people I met, or projects I worked on. The next step was to write about one of the topics from my list by hand in a composition notebook. I filled three notebooks with stuff and realized what a tremendous job it was to transcribe all those cursive words into a word processor. I hired my former secretary, who could read my handwriting, to do the job. She was a very dynamic and talented lady. I had to warn her not to change what I wrote. I suspected she would rewrite everything to make it readable and sensible. She did exactly as asked. Later, when I began to edit the document, I realized what a mistake I made by not allowing her to correct my shitty writing. That is when I researched AI programs and bought one to help me become a better writer.
Using the AI editing program, I could write a readable biography. After completion, I stopped using the tool because I thought my writing had improved. When I began writing my book recently, I realized I needed help again, and now I know for sure that I am not a natural-born writer like I thought I was. I don’t have enough years left on this earth to learn to write as well as I do in my mind, but I will die trying.
Filed under: Biography, Memories | Tagged: Artificial Intelligence, Grammarly, writing | 1 Comment »
