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Vompatti View Drop Down
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Joined: October 22 2005
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Points: 67407 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 03 2015 at 12:21
For me a good piece of writing is a series of images and ideas unfolding at their natural pace like wild flowers.
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Points: 10261 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 03 2015 at 11:56
When I write fiction it is very important for me to make my characters real people, not just vehicles for transporting the story.


BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 03 2015 at 11:26
I write for pretty much the same reasons as I read - I enjoy it and I love a good story. I also love playing with words.

I have no idea what makes good writing and I'm not sure I would recognise it if I saw it. If I can read a passage of text without metaphorically tripping over the language used then I couldn't say how good the writing was, just that it wasn't noticeably bad. This is especially true if the story grips me and the lyrical flow of words keeps apace with the action as it unfolds. What I will notice is clumsy, forced dialog... (I read some of that today, so it sticks in my mind)... so much so that I sometimes take perverse pleasure in using it myself (all other times are not so deliberate). I don't read high-brow literature, I read comedic novels and fantasy / science fiction, so what I tend to write is for pleasure is in a similar vein. 

I care not whether I write well or just produce incomprehensible drivel, all that matters to me is I gain pleasure from the act of placing one word after another. To be analytical about it, I write how I speak and I speak how I think (with lots of parenthesis to boot - those little stage-whispers to the audience that break-through the fourth wall or sidetrack the writer's mind)... and ellipses for no apparent reason when a semi-colon would serve me better perhaps. My words are like my music, only written to please me and to paraphrase the great Eric Morecambe - all the right words but not necessarily in the right order.







...oh, yeah, and like a few other's around here, I contribute to Vomp's Nervous Horse magazine.
What?
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Points: 8856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 03 2015 at 11:06
Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:


Why do we write and what makes good writing?
We write because we want to make something good. Lots of things can make writing good. Language, interesting concepts, imagery, some kind of originality, etc. Consistent writing, however, generally comes from an awareness of how the piece interacts with and affects your audience.

Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

Must we be only inspired and passionate about a topic, or is informed experience and savvy language just as important?
Some kind of knowledge about the topic is oh so important. It's like telling a lie. If you load your piece with enough realistic details, people might think you were actually there. Savvy language can be less important

Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

What truly draws you into another author's work; What is it about that person's perspective or inside knowledge or blasphemous truth-telling that makes you keep scrolling the screen or turning the page?   
Lots of things as stated above. 

Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

And what of the process itself-- how does that mysterious cerebral alchemy occur to cause a flow of words that allows one to express ideas, feelings, images and observations?
Half skill and half probability. The more you write the better you will be at writing, but also the bigger chance that something you write will be good. Generally a good piece is made of the better parts of what the author wrote in their initial draft. Another thing is that one's own experience is always something that can be used, whether you know every verse to "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," or you know about an avant-garde magazine called Nervous Horse. People tend to forget that and limit themselves when writing.
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BaldFriede View Drop Down
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Joined: June 02 2005
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Points: 10261 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 03 2015 at 10:10
As to my writings. see here for an example:

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=104657


BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.
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Epignosis View Drop Down
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Points: 32524 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 03 2015 at 09:47
For me, an idea falls into my lap and it won't go away until I put it onto paper, sculpting the language until it says exactly what I want.

For one project, that sculpting has been going on for 20+ years and I'm still not finished.

I also recommend the following:
https://epignosis.bandcamp.com/album/a-month-of-sundays
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Atavachron View Drop Down
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Points: 65248 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 28 2015 at 15:33
As there are so many here who write ~ reviews, articles, interviews, blogs, even their own books ~ I thought we could discuss writing itself.  

Why do we write and what makes good writing?   Must we be only inspired and passionate about a topic, or is informed experience and savvy language just as important?   What truly draws you into another author's work; What is it about that person's perspective or inside knowledge or blasphemous truth-telling that makes you keep scrolling the screen or turning the page?   And what of the process itself-- how does that mysterious cerebral alchemy occur to cause a flow of words that allows one to express ideas, feelings, images and observations?   As the Beatles said, 'Indicate precisely what you mean to say', but that is an eloquent way of describing the often oh-so-difficult.   It is indeed, as Norman Mailer points out, a very spooky art.

Member's work may be posted in small portions though mainly this is a discussion on writing for writers and non-writers alike.  

For some good books, Norman Mailer's The Spooky Art is a must (and a lovely read as well) - - 



96117



and I've also heard good things about Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird

Edited by Atavachron - October 28 2015 at 16:04
"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."   -- John F. Kennedy
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