Writing and I have a love/hate relationship. I love having an avenue to record my thoughts. I hate that I can be so unfocused and wordy in my delivery. Wordy Wardy. Hmm, rolls off the tongue.
The beginning of this journey was the most fun. I enjoyed my time experimenting with my interactive voice significantly more than attempting to develop it once a direction was settled on. I wanted Wardy to be clever, to be knowledgeable, and to provide a fun atmosphere. In the back of my mind, I never wanted Wardy to be restricted to a specific topic. Once the persona became shackled, I started to lose interest, not in the topic, but in writing about it week after week. “How the hell am I going to write about THIS again?” Perhaps my focus after the “rebrand” was too narrow.
The narrow topic is no one’s fault but my own. I found it interesting and I enjoyed making many of the arguments I wrote about. It was a down turn in my enthusiasm for the assignments that was responsible for the bittersweet taste in my mouth. I enjoyed this class, but it has been a truly busy summer. I enjoyed being creative and writing about video games, but I am just tired of writing right now. I even enjoyed the rebrand as Wardy’s Gaming Lab, but by the time we reached the social media campaign assignment, my tanks were empty.
Moving beyond the course, I will not be taking Wardy with me. He served his purpose and gave me a channel to become comfortable with publishing my thoughts. Maybe a new persona is in the future? If so, I would like to bring the fun and cleverness Wardy showed during the first few weeks. No new persona may be in my future, leaving me to publish under my own name. Yet, I doubt writing/blogging will be the medium I dedicated myself too. Video is 100% percent the focus moving forward, and any writing will be applied there.
My perspective on writing definitely changed. Word choice, voice, tone, sentence length. All of them hold more weight now. I can feel myself actively running my words through my head. My paragraphs feel more crafted and just thrown together. Transitions are smoother and less forced. Growing as a writer is a process, and believe me, that will not stop.
My favorite pieces of writing from this class almost exclusively are the product of the task, “write an additional post to further develop your voice”. There was freedom to pick the topics and I believe that is where I took more risks. My voice lived outside the confines of an assignment, occasionally bleeding through if the situation allowed it.
I liked Wardy. For the time being, it was a good disguise to use to dip my feet in the water. I will take the lessons that come from the process and do my best to apply them elsewhere. Understanding that all writing can be a working draft is super important to me. Focusing on the argument as opposed to the fluff will be crucial to my future successes. Now, this chapter is done. Wardy’s chapter is done. It’s game over for his voice as I work to develop my own.
Thanks, It’s been fun!
Wardy