The World of Creativity is like a Beach

Picture a beach with an aqua blanket of ocean rising and falling against the grainy sand stretching to the horizon as far as you can see.  This is your playground.  Where do you start?  Do you jump and dive in the cool waves first or do you build a giant sand castle on the sand?  There is so much to do and it might be a bit overwhelming.  This can be the same dilemma that we face when we enter junior high and high school then continue on to college with our writing.

The five paragraph structure has been bashed to death by college kids and professors because there is no room to branch out and develop your ideas.  It is nearly impossible to place our abstract ideas into nice, neat, and simple boxes.  Five to be exact. 

But, there has to be some kind of foundation when we enter into the world of expressing yourself with a pen and paper or a computer for that matter.  The five paragraphs teach us that there is a beginning middle and end to every paper.  It also helps us recognize a way to organize our thoughts so that we sound coherent.  For example, if you decide to build the giant sand castle at the beach, you start with a solid base of tightly packed sand and water to support the rest of the fancy towers.  Same with writing, you have to start at the bottom with learning how to tether the English language into an organized, compound idea. 

Next comes the time for the door ways, turrets, and jewels, seashells and as many towers as you see fit.  The bedazzled paper can come from a strong foundation of writing in junior high and high school.  Once we step foot in the collegiate world we add as much decoration and depth because we are in control of our thoughts.  The Professors trust us to communicate our breadth of ideas without much pushing and shoving in regards of paragraphs.  Instead we can call them “chunks” as Thomas Allbaugh explains in Pretexts for Writing. Now we can organize the “chunks” in any way that makes sense.  We have had enough experience to understand how to persuade or argue our point.

 Since the five paragraph form is the base of our writing where do I go from here?   Well, it isn’t so much the structure as the how, what, and who.  The topic should be unique and interesting.  Make sure that you have the audience in mind when writing so that in the end, the final product will do its job.  Also, the detail, description and visualization are key because when you engage the reader, they are more likely to actually read it. Lastly, your thoughts should be well developed and concise.  Like the over used quote says,” Keep it sweet and simple.”  When encountering a beach of creativity we should embrace the opportunity with open arms and show the world that our best sand castle can change the way we view the beach.