I spent high school and college learning how to hate writing.  I worked hard to write as little as possible, though I never replaced all the periods in any of my Times New Roman, 12 pt., double-spaced oeuvres with 14 pt. periods.  I have, I'll admit, browsed the thesaurus looking for longer synonyms to get a paragraph onto the next page.  It was easier than forming another sentence at one o'clock in the morning.

And now?  I just feel like writing something every once in a while.  On Sarah's blog (which is a good read, by the way), she added this quotation under her profile picture:

I am desperate to write. I am crazy to write. I want to write. (A.P.)

I don't know who A.P. is and I don't share this level of passion.  But I do want to be a very good communicator, and that's more than listening well and speaking clearly.  Outside of direct interaction, writing still holds the gold standard for communication.  Unlike video, its only real competitor (as per Neil Postman), the written word doesn't disappear after you read it.  And though a well-executed graphic design achieves its effect through the visceral, text is still its backbone.

As a designer, I must not only know how to make words look good, but how to make good words.  I want to write.