How do I Do This Really and Not Sound Like a Complete Poser

I write well. Or at least I like to think so.

My writing has saved me money, as when I wrote a heartfelt letter to my daughter's private school administration and guilted them into not charging me the "New Family Fee" of a thousand dollars when she started first grade there. Then there was the time I wrote the bathroom notice about septic tanks and the disposal of feminine hygiene products for our barn. So maybe it wasn't "Moby Dick" but it did, along with other things, help to make horse-keeping more affordable.

I love words, and all the things you can do with them, and have had a facility for languages ever since I can remember. I am a "Picture Thinker", (that always sounds so Psychology 101 to me, but it's true nonetheless), so it always feels like I have a million different tools and colors available to paint the story I want to get across. I like to talk (just ask anyone within a ten-mile radius), and can really tell a joke well, but I often review conversations and think, "Oh man, I wish I would have said thus-and-such instead!" Writing affords you the ability to actually have a do-over. Write what you think and then go back and edit, sometimes ad nauseum. That's my favorite part: appearing organized and polished, even when I'm not always that way in person.

I don't read as much as I used to. Out of the habit, not a lot of time, and frankly, as I get older, my attention span is getting closer and closer to that of a gnat. I'm lucky to watch a whole episode of Throwdown without changing the channel during a commercial and getting caught up in another show. Since I really do want to keep my wordpower up, I do a lot of crossword puzzles (the difficult ones, and in ink)--they're the perfect diversion: you can do as much or as little as you want, and when you fall asleep with the pen in your hand, you don't have to worry what page you were on when you wake up.

So an optimistic question, since I don't have any readers yet (I think): how do you keep your wordpower up?