Here goes:
"Writer's Blog
Greetings world!
Word thing- peripheral
OK, my lecturers and the books they publish and try to make us buy (The Writer's Workbook- an excellent helpful read available at all good bookshops ('cause the bad ones don't sell it!)) advise their students to make a writer's journal. Apparently it's something really helpful to do, so while i'm still studying Imaginative Writing and can still, to a degree, call myself a writer I'll have a bash at it.
I recently went through the ordeal of having a writer's workshop- that is to sit in a room with your fellow students and listen to them rip your precious beloved story to shreds for an hour!! What pleased me was firstly that everyone in the room thought it was a good story (this doesn't happen to everyone!) despite it having some mistakes and places that could be improved upon. Secondly the fact that it was wacky mind-bending Science Fiction didn't stop people understanding or enjoying it, which has happened in the past (they just don't share my vision man!!) But this time everyone got on fine with it, though as always there were areas that could be improved upon- I'm not perfect yet! And as Ernest Hemingway excellently put it- "first drafts are S**t!"
Having a workshop is a good process to go through, especially if it's done by other writers who know what they're talking about, and aren't afraid to tell you what needs working on- constructive criticism and all that! But despite it being a bit boring/ unpleasant sometimes it has been one of the things I've found most helpful, because you have to realise that you're not gonna get it perfect first time and that if you want to take writing seriously you well.. have to take it seriously!! It turns writing from a hobby to a passion and a possible career as you learn to accept criticism and to learn how to be absolutely brutal to a piece of writing to make sure it's the best it can be.
This does have a negative side (though it is ultimately a positive one)- it makes it very difficult to write just for fun because you find it harder and harder to just write without correcting or destroying what you've just written. Ultimately this is what makes you a good writer I suppose, but in the mean time it's hard to write something wihtout it turning into a project of some kind. For example I started writing a comic strip (script only, no pictures) to see what it was like and I'v ended up editing it and spending ages trying to figure out how best to convey emotion etc.
Right, my time is up- I hope you enjoyed this insight into the world of a writer to be, untill next time..
Goodbye"
Enjoy- comment I dares ya!!
Enjoy- comment I dares ya!!
6 comments:
Helo Aled it is good to have you back and I like the way you write your blog it is like funny and like serious and it is dry but there are not really any jokes and I like to read about people being writers because although I can read a book I cannot imagine writing one so thank you for bloging.
ps did hemingway get hay fever too and is that why he said first drafts are snot? and why he did not use superfluous words like adjectives or write fulsomely with adverbs? because he was too busy angling his head up so his nose wouldn't drip on the typewriter keys so he had to keep it brief?
Cheers for posting- I don't think there's anything I can show you about writing Dragon Master!! I think I've got one or two more entries on writing I can copy up sometime- plus a few more things that annoy me!!
Hemingway may well have had hayfever (though it wasn't SNOT he referred to!!) and that might be an explanation for his writing style, but he was a true master of words and of writing succinctly- we must have read "Hills like White elephants" six times on our course- it's brilliant, it's just a conversation between a man and a woman waiting for the train in plain English, but every word is dripping with significance.
He helped pave the way for modern writing where we don't have to follow Dickensian style and spend six pages describing a brick wall!! Though (according to John Locke of Lost) Hemingway was jealous of Dostoyevsky who did use elaborate language, including adverbs- which we are pretty much banned from using at Uni, since they are superfluous and a waste of words when you have a specific word count to look at.
Catrin wants to be a writer. She has three books lined up at present. But she does not want to go to writer's school. I suggested that she ask you for advice, but I think she thinks it's early days for that yet. She actually said, "I don't want advice".
The blogger read the short story. He found it on the web. "This is brilliant", he said. "It's sad and sultry and I love it."
http://www.jmarkbertrand.com/default.asp
Post a Comment