Me and my writing

It has taken me a long time to decide how I can start this piece of writing. I have though very hard about it and many ideas passed through my mind. Finally I decided to put all those ideas as an introduction to the topic, since it is very related with it. This is how I usually write. I always spend a lot of time trying to take a decision about how I can start my writing. That’s why I decided to start my first paragraph with those words. This whole entry will be about my way of writing, my reasons and everything related with it.

Writing for me is a very important part of my life. I write at least five times a week. That’s too much for some people, since they don’t really like use their skills in the daily life. The most of the people always use writing for academic and labour purposes. They do not appreciate the importance of writing in every single minute. We were all tough to write when we were five or six years all. Now my question is: why don’t we use this ability every day? If you remember those first years in the kindergarten, you will remember that it was so hard to learn how to write. If it was so hard and you succeeded, why isn’t writing an important part of your life to? Writing is more that take notes or write three words to indicate you something you have to do. Writing is to put your feelings, your emotions, your thoughts, your life in a piece of paper. It is something deep and personal that should be shared, at least with you.

Nowadays there’s a tension between two types of writing: handwriting and typing. It is usually said that both are almost the same. Furthermore, it is said that typing is easier and more comfortable than handwriting, due to the fact that typing in a computer is very simple. You just need a basic knowledge of grammar and syntax, the text processor helps you to check and correct you orthography and the most necessary knowledge you need is to know where each keyboard key is placed. Sometimes technology is a helpful tool that allows us to make our activities quicker, but it also brake us in our, learning. When we prefer typing to handwriting we are fomenting the lack of necessary knowledge to write. We are allowing machines to do our work and we are not trying our mental abilities. There is also a physical problem at typing. We use and exert our eyes that we can cause a loss of vision is any of our eyes. On the other hand, handwriting makes you feel in control of your writing. I have always thought that when you are writing something, the movement of your hand is also expressing something. If you are tired, your handwriting will be very untidy, if you are anxious to do something your handwriting will show your eagerness and if you are relaxed, your handwriting will be very tidy and understandable. I really love seeing those sheets of papers in which many corrections are made. They are original and male you feel that a real human made that job instead of a machine. What is more, I usually make my assignments by pen and then I type them.

When I was eleven years old, I started writing. By those years I had read the four first books of Harry Potter’s saga and that story really inspired me to write the fifth part of the story. I managed to get a notebook and to keep it in secret. Everybody wanted to know what my secret was, but I didn’t want them to know. Maybe I was so shy during those days or I wasn’t interested in make my stories famous. Then I began writing poems and short “fan-music” which are stories inspirited in songs. When I got older I changed my interests and I decided t write my thoughts about the life its advantages and disadvantages. That was very exciting because I knew things about me that I didn’t know.

Nowadays, my writing is more elaborated that before. I continue creating characters of different worlds; each one of them has its own personality and story that is linked with the different parts of my life. In addition I love writing my opinion about every single event that calls my attention during the day. Sometimes I just get a piece of paper and a pen, and, by the time that I finish I destroy the paper. As I work in church as a “companion” of a group of teenagers, I have to write a lot. Every weekend I sum up ever what was said during the meetings and I upload a document to our blog. There’s another way of writing in my daily life is when I have to transcribe the notes I took during the day at the university.

As writing is so important for me, I can’t just use any kind of instrument. I may seem vain, but that is not my intention. Actually, I just use one brand of pen to write. I really love the fine point pen bic. The point is so soft that you can feel the real shape of the paper when you write. The pen slides on the paper what allows you to write quicker. Nevertheless that is not the reason why I like to use those pens. The real reason is that I use those pens because the blue pen is blue. It is to say, there are many blue pens, but the colour of those pens is not blue; for me it is like a violet instead of blue.

I like writing because I can feel that I have the control of the world for some minutes. It may seem strange but I feel like a God. I create my own world, my own people and I decide if they are happy or not. Many people use writing to escape from their lives and their problems. I dare to say that sometimes I use the same method to avoid some problems, or, what’s better, I use this method to solve the problems. Writing makes you think a lot, due to the fact that your brain is working so hard trying to find ideas, events and thoughts from your past. If you are lucky, you will come across with a solution or a piece of advice that will be very helpful.

I actually expect nothing from my writing. I don’t want to make money with it, but if there’s one opportunity I will take it. The only thing I currently expect from my writing is to find some calmness. I have always said that I have a lot of problems expressing my feelings by speaking, but when I write, I am the boss.

To summarize, writing is one of the most important thing we have. The real problem is that the most of the people do not take advantage of the opportunities that writing gives to their lives. I do love writing, thus it is an important part of my life. Sometimes technology helps us to create lovely and good pieces of writing. Nevertheless, we abuse of them and machines are in charge of our lives. I use writing for many reasons, but the most important for me is to create new stories and to express my feelings. I just need a piece of paper and a fine point pen for this. As writing has been almost in my whole life, I don’t think that I will give up writing. I started writing when I was a child and I expect stop writing when I lack movement in my hands.

An interesting story

Agatha Christie is one of the best examples when we talk about mystery and suspense. Her stories have the ability of catching the readers and make them part of the scene which is been. She wrote many books along her life and all of them have been well know in almost every country. Her stories are so famous that a TV series, called Agatha Christie’s Poirot, was made some years ago. The main character of the series was the detective Hercules Poirot, who also is the main character in many of her book. The Million Dollar Bond Robbery is a short story in which Poirot is the main character and it is also a chapter in Agatha Christie’s Poirot.

Our story starts when Captain Hastings and Poirot comment the news of the recent bond robberies in their office. A young lady named Esmée Farquhar is ushered by the landlady. She asks them to investigate the bond robbery that his fiancé, Phillip Ridgeway, suffered. He works in the London and Scottish bank and was in charge to carry the bonds from the United Kingdom to New York aboard the Olympia. During the travel, the bonds were stolen. Later, the men and the lady meet Ridgeway in a restaurant where he tells them how all happened. He says that the lock was forced, but according what Poirot knew, it was opened with the key. After this conversation, Poirot and Hastings go to the London and Scottish bank to talk with the two joint managers: Mr. Vavasour, the uncle of Ridgeway, and Mr. Shaw, who tell them that they already had an inspector, McNeil, working in the case. They told Poirot there are just three keys, one for Ridgeway, other for Vavasour and the last for Shaw. The uncle of Ridgeway also adds that Vavasour was ill at home the day that the bonds were sent to New York. By the time they leave the bank, Poirot says that he had solved the matter. Poirot waits for the return of the Olympia for questioning a steward about a man who slept in the room next to Ridgeway’s. He finally concludes that Shaw was the thief. The bonds were sent in other ship which arrives before so that they were sold in New York. Shaw lied about his illness and planned everything to steal the bonds.

The chapter of the series Agatha Christie’s Poirot is very similar to the story of the written version, but if we compare both of them we will appreciate many differences. Let us start from the beginning. In the series the story starts in the London Underground where Mr. Shaw and Mr. Vavasour meet each other. As you can notice, this is one first difference, but here we have another difference: Mr. Vavasour’s appearance. If we quote from the book it reads: “Mr. Vavasour had a short white beard, Mr. Shaw was cleaned-shaven”. In the series, both men were cleaned-shaven. Then Mr Shaw is knocked down by a car. As you read before, this situation was never mentioned in the book. Other difference is that the London and Scottish Bank contacts Poirot instead on Ms. Farquhar, who is the secretary of Mr. Vavasour. She also has another interesting difference: her last name in the series is not Farquhar, it is Dalgleish. Mr. McNeil is not an inspector of Scotland Yard, he is the head of security. This character may be the one who has one of the biggest differences when we compare the series and the book. In the book, McNeil is just mentioned, but he never appears “corporeally” in the book. On the other hand, in the series, McNeil may be tread as a main character, since he has a very important participation in the argument of television adaptation of the book. Getting back to the argument of the chapter of the series, we will realize that it is almost completely different from the story of the book. In the written version, the bond robbery had already happened. In the series we can watch to Poirot travelling on the ship, which also had a different name, and looking after the bonds. This part of the story was completely changed and sometimes makes some people confused. We can also watch a beauty and young lady on the ship who never appears or is mentioned in the book. The last difference which deserves being mentioned is about Mr. Shaw. As the summary above indicates, Mr. Shaw was the thief of the bonds and he pretended being ill to reach his purpose. In the series he was also the thief, but his nurse, who disguised as the beauty lady on the ship, help him. In the series he did not pretend being ill, he pretend being poisoned. There are many other differences between the series and the book, but here were mentioned the most important details of both versions.

I have always considered that the written version of movies or chapters of series are better than the recorded versions. The same happened with many other famous books like Harry Potter, The Lord of the Ring and The Chronicles of Narnia. Reading a short tale or a novel is like swimming in a dream. You are part of the story. You stop being a real human being and you start being a character that participate and witness how everything happens and then can tell other what he or she experienced. Nevertheless we also must understand that a book is not a movie. A film or a series needs to captivate people. It cannot be monotone and slow like a piece of reading might be. It needs movement and action to attract people and keep them in the front of a screen.

Agatha Christie is one of the best writers and it is demonstrated by reading the Million Dollar Bond Robbery. She had the ability of keeping you swimming in a sea of letters which catch you and do not let you go. If you have read this author’s job you must tell other to do the same, because her work is so interesting that everybody should know her name. Poirot may be considered a real person, his talent as an inspector is wonderful and you might think that the author should have seen everything before. The Million Dollar Bond Robbery is a very good option to start reading detective stories, but be careful if you want to compare these stories with a television series, because you will find many differences or a complete change of argument.

I shouldn't be here

The waiting room was crowded by many children and pre-adolescents. Some of them were crying, it seemed that they were trying to be the loudest people in the world. A weird girl was shaking her fingers strongly. Her pro-homosexuality t-shirt caught my attention. She also wore many rings on her ears and a dark blue lip-stick. The other people looked very normal for being waiting for a psychologist assistantship.

I didn’t even know why I was there. My mother said that I was behaving in a hyperactive way. That wasn’t strange, at least for me. She also said that “my problems” started when I met again my ex-girlfriend, who was atheist. In a very catholic family, having a relationship with a non-believer was unacceptable. But my mother wasn´t the only one who wanted me to go to treatment, my teacher also agreed with her.

I stared at the doctor’s office door waiting for my turn. I was so eager. This situation made me feel hopeless and hopeful at once. It made me feel hopeless since I didn’t wanted to be here, but it made me feel hopeful because I was sure that I wasn’t insane. The handle of the door started moving and a woman in white appeared under the threshold. She called my name and I went in the room automatically. When I was inside I examine its perimeter. It was almost completely white except for a big pink stain, next to the window, that needed to be repainted. I sat on a large blue sofa and she started talking and asking me questions. She wanted to know why I was sad and upset.

-That’s a disadvantage. -She told me.
-What? - I asked. - What do you mean?
-You’re in a deep sadness.
-That’s impossible. - I replied. - I’ve never been in depression.
-Actually you are. - She told me.

I felt the blood going up to my head. I took my things slowly and left the room. This had been a very bad idea and I was pretty sure that I didn’t need to be there.

New in my job