Imagery, Feedback, and Literary Excess

"A cosmic wind blew at my face, roaring with its unrequited metaphysical fury. For a moment I stood in awe as transcendent storm clouds drifted overhead, dropping raindrops of meaning upon my soul. Then I realized that through my random metaphors, I was being a conspiring non-metaphorical jackass. Weird."

I be a jerk, and a jerk be I (I'm the asshole who wrote that quote and posted it in his profile). When a writer uses extreme and excessive metaphors and imagery for no reason other than that they just feel like using them, it's usually indicative of a crappy piece of literature. Literary devices such as those can enhance a writing, but when used in the excess with no clear objective or purpose, they become a hindrance that can ruin an otherwise perfectly good writing. I mention this because I read a newspaper article in my college's paper last week, and the writer used some metaphor about Alice in Wonderland so much and so poorly that it made her article even crappier than it already was.

I know that I am sometimes guilty of this in my writings. My use of random metaphor and imagery is not lost on me, and though I think I use it fairly, well, there is no real way for me to discern with any accuracy whether it's good or bad (mostly because I never get any feedback). I wish that I knew if I was a good writer, because it is integral to my plans for the future that I have some amount of talent with writing. The brand of teaching and work I will do requires a heavy use of skilled and incisive writings with the specific purpose of targeting certain ideological problems in society and provoking thought about that problem. Writing will be pivotal, and if I'm a terrible writer, then I better start looking for new alternatives.

It's painful sometimes because I get no feedback about anything I write. My Kylis Fers ideas used to get a fair amount of feedback, though that was because when I was in Virginia Beach and Michigan, I had people who were actually interested in what I had to say. Since getting to college, I am unsurprisedly lacking that crucial conversation dynamic with regards to my ideas, so I lack both criticism and feedback. It's hard to be in the dark about one of your most important skills.

I've never had teachers give me real feedback about my writings. Most of my writing teachers were more or less indifferent to me, or never gave real commentary on students' writings in general. At least in high school though I had a constant source of feedback and criticism, though now I'm fumbling around in the dark with regards to where I am with my ideas. I hate it, because I'm in desperate need of sharing my ideas with people, but deep down I know that nobody I know now gives a damn, and I can't really expect them to either.

It's an unfortunate circumstance that I am unable to get any feedback from people, but I guess if I were a talented enough writer, I'd be getting more real feedback. With that logic, it seems like I might have my answer. Some works are so bad that they merit no feedback whatsoever, be it good or bad. Unfortunately, that could be the case for me at this point in time. Then again, maybe I'm just in a temporary darkness, one that could last for a few months or a few more years. Either way, since you're not reading this, it doesn't really matter. I'll write to you all later, and I hope that you all have a great day/night.