Writers' Bloc
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Topics not related to music
Forum Name: General discussions
Forum Description: Discuss any topic at all that is not music-related
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=104566
Printed Date: November 24 2024 at 07:39
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Writers' Bloc
Posted By: Atavachron
Subject: Writers' Bloc
Date 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) - -  and I've also heard good things about Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird
------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Replies:
Posted By: Epignosis
Date 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" rel="nofollow - https://epignosis.bandcamp.com/album/a-month-of-sundays |
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date 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" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=104657 -------------  BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue. |
Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: November 03 2015 at 11:06
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.
------------- https://dreamwindow.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My Music 
|
Atavachron wrote:Posted By: Dean
Date 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 http://nervoushorse.com/" rel="nofollow - Nervous Horse magazine. ------------- What? |
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date 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. |
Posted By: Vompatti
Date 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. |
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: November 03 2015 at 12:30
Allow me to make a haiku of that: Good piece of writing: Images and ideas Slowly unfolding. ------------- BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue. |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: November 04 2015 at 04:56
|
On the subject of clumsily forced dialog. Once, while writing a script for a comic strip that a friend wanted to co-produce with me, I spent ages trying to force the name Persephone to pun with purse phone... The premise was that the protagonist in the comic had only ever seen the name written down and didn't know it should have been pronounced per-seph-o-nee, (and the other complication was the character she was talking to was a pretentious snob who only spoke in iambic pentameter). A comic strip makes dialog relatively easy because speech-bubbles tell you who is talking and the drawn facial expressions negate the need for using adjectives to describe how each line was spoken, the tough part is that there is a necessity for brevity in speech (and narrative) in each panel (brevity is never an epithet that can apply to me). Sadly on that occasion whatever I wrote seemed forced and unnatural when attempting to squeeze it into two panels of a comic. So... my question is: How do you all go about writing dialog? As we can see from Friede's example she has successfully managed to write a long passage of dialog between two people that manages to be easy to follow without excessive use of she said/she replied etc.,... that's the part I struggle with when writing - the spoken parts are easy enough (forced puns aside), it's the descriptive narrative between each line of dialog that gets in the way. In the following extract, I've dispensed with that completely and just changed the font to denote one of the speakers, the rest the reader has to deduce from what they are saying... which probably won't make much sense out of context here. Taken from a novel about travelling between alternative realities or times or worlds (we're never sure which), the scene takes place in a darkened room between the five main characters in the story: the unnamed hero, a tele-sales operative called Lacy, Lorina Liddell (Alice's elder sister as featured in Lewis Carol's books), Leif Ericsson (the first European to reach the American continent) and Lacy's doppleganger from an alternative reality... [warning: it contains course language]
This goes on for several more pages, but you get the idea. ------------- What? |
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: November 04 2015 at 05:50
|
I am not certain I can explain how I do it, Dean. I try to put myself into the situation of the speakers and then come up with actions they might be doing in that situation and intersperse the dialogues with them. This does however not work on a conscious level; the images just come up in my mind. Thinking aurally also helps a lot. I imagine the dialogue spoken in my head. This helps coming up with the right verb (in essence not always "say" or "reply"). ------------- BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue. |
Posted By: Matti
Date Posted: November 04 2015 at 07:12
Amidst my now active writing tasks -- I just finished another re-issue album article  -- I share my own writer's background. I bold-up the things that I think are more or less crucial for writers.I've been an avid reader (of fiction mainly) all my life. In my youth I wrote few short stories, but I don't think I have the needed inner urge/ambition/patience to try a career of a writer. In university I studied literature, without any clear vision what I'd do for living, simply because I liked it. Before I finally got myself a profession (as a librarian) I wrote newspaper criticism for books and theatre. That was more like a hobby. My good friend is a music critic and I truly don't envy him, as he struggles on the edge of making a living out of it. I'm in the happy position of being a semi-professional writer without the financial pressures. My first tiny published participations dealed with literature ('05-'07). Naturally I had some aspirations/ambitions to make a book of some kind (the smallest effort would have been as an editor of a short story anthology, an idea I once tried to push forward). I remember well the moment in the summer of 2010 when I realized that there is a certain subject that hadn't seen a publication in Finnish and on which I had a long-time passion (and which had already become a subject of a hobby-like writing due to ProgArchives!): progressive rock. A couple of years passed by (increasing my knowledge on the subject) until one evening I was filled with inspiration and started to work on my prog book that was released 15 months later. Encouraged by the warm reception I'm continuing in this area, and luckily the right time to concentrate on writing came along this year. The basic fact is simply that I like writing on things that I enjoy. Right now I sit here writing this useless, self-reflective message instead of finally having a lunch after finishing my article. I really better stay inactive when it comes to time-consuming forum writing!  |
Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: November 04 2015 at 10:53
Well, I just wrote dialogue how I felt, until I noticed that the dialogue felt thin. Not so much forced as insubstantial. The pacing would speed up on dialogue sections and slow down on others. Not being one to push the pace, I decided to beef up my dialogue. The first thing I did was practicing adding body language to the mix. That helped a bit. The second thing I did was practicing adding plot-unrelated dialogue that was merely meant to say something about the characters. It's usually hard to communicate both plot and character in one part of the dialogue. If the new character is being introduced, you have to give them dialogue that reveals the part of their character that you want to inform the first impression and then start working in the plot as the dialogue goes on. Trying to do too many things at once was one of the sources of the forced-ness of my dialogue. If you make a line of dialogue do too much work, your readers may not grasp all of what you're trying to do, whether consciously or unconsciously. Another thing is handle on the language. Malapropisms can terribly hurt your dialogue unless you are clearly using them intentionally. And, obviously, knowing how your characters would talk is important. With dialogue tags, I usually use them sparingly. Only if I need to. Previously, I have used them needlessly. Also, coming up with more creative ones than "said/replied/uttered/asked." There's also "muttered," "mumbled," "coughed," "rasped," "taunted," etc. Words that are more specific and colorful. Dialogue tags are not the only way you can attribute dialogue either. Here's an example: "The sergeant moved around in his seat. 'How can you expect me to believe you?'" With the excerpt, I noticed that my first tendency was to read it as a discussion between two characters rather than five. I noticed the lines where a third character may have chimed in, and others where a character might have disagreed with another that implied there was a fourth and fifth. ------------- https://dreamwindow.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My Music
|
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: November 04 2015 at 11:33
I occasionally even use verbs that are not used for sound utterances. Two examples: „You first“, gestured Friede. „You are the taller one“. „Old woman“, grinned Friede. That way I can communicate actions, like a gesture or a grin here, with spoken words quite elegantly. ------------- BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue. |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: November 04 2015 at 11:38
I agree dialog is tricky. One thing I've begun to notice about good film scripts is that the dialog is lean, economic and to-the-point; it tends to contain vivid, brief descriptions and clear symbology that communicates an idea quickly instead of lingering over things and words. Though books are a bit different I still notice brevity of speech moves the story along. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: November 04 2015 at 11:47
Yes and no. The problem is that with little speech you are apt to create either cardboard characters or caricatures. People are not always to the point; they are often long-winded, beat around the bush or deliberately talk about something else. If you reduce dialog too much you wind up on sit-com level. ------------- BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue. |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: November 04 2015 at 11:50
|
^ Maybe if you want to convey that kind of story, but if your characters and setting are not so literal or familiar, realistic talking can be dull and not very helpful to the readers. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: November 04 2015 at 11:50
|
Writing previews for PA certainly got my fire to write again I'd written a novel (about 2/3 finished, but I started in 09) but my laptop got stolen last November ... and I didn't have a back-up ... Actually it was a few novellas that I managed to link into a story. those who read me were enthused by my French-written style and even more by what I had to say All lost  (well the last version I had on a memory stick dating from '11) I'll be honest, I've kind of given upon it |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: November 04 2015 at 11:55
|
^ That's a tough one, Hugues, it's happened to friends of mine. You can rebuild; it won't be the same but it can, with a little luck, even be better as one improves and matures as a writer. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 01:25
|
Of course I can rebuild it - I still have it in mind... But it was really refined - and some of the expressions I used had people rolling on the floor - and I doubt I can do better than what was lost. But it's more than that really. With that theft, I lost the envy/will to write Though I had some issues prior to that (father's succession and arsehole at work), this was the first event that start a downwards spiral that ended (or culminated) in the loss of my car in a pile up early March. I kind of lost the plot and it started a period of heavy doubt. Actually while the traffic accident was handled catastrophically by the Dutch emergency services - thankfully no-oner was hurt - it also served as an electro-shock after a depression bout and can be maybe the start of a "new start". I've closed a fair amount of problematic files (including just yesterday the eviction the neighbour woman sexually pursuing me from around the time of my computer theft>> well not for that reason, she wasn't paying her rent either). Just to put it this way: I haven't written a single review for anyone since the theft: though I had a copy of my review file on a memory stick to post the reviews at coffee break at work - so I hardly lost a thing in that direction. But on top of my "novel" (to be pompous >> I generally tend to qualify it as "scribbling"), just as importantly (if not more), I lost a scientific exploratory research project (for the research institute I work) I was developping at home (too busy at work to take time at work to do so there) and I wasn't able to submit it at deadline time (in March). but I've recently found approval to develop this at work, but I'll need some engineers to help out developing the exploratory research call: hopefully, if one day, humanity will drive air-compressed cars, it will be (partly) because of the (my) project to investigate the future compressed air tanking stations. (I've been driving on non-polluting LPG/GPL for almost a quarter century, BTW) I also had started to work on two climatic projects: stop glacier melting (and avoid some typhoons from developping (solution could be just that easy >> 500 m away). Needless to say, I will have to rebuild from scratch there as well. well, I bought a hard drive back up system now  |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 01:33
|
Didn't realize. Yes of course you're right. It was largely 'Rubbish Advice' . ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 01:38
 you, sir, owe me a new kb!!  I can send the old one filled with my morning tea  |
Posted By: Kati
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 01:45
Sean, you have a blunt but also very intriguing way expressing yourself. You say things in an honest and uncanny manner. You certainly have the knack for writing, I have noticed this over and over in the things you write when you post. You interest me very much, you need to write, you need to go back to writing/finishing your novel and let us enjoy some of that too!
|
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 01:51
well it's in french... and likely to ruffle a few feathers the wrong way  (especially the straight-thinkers  )
yeah, it's raw, straight from the cask and just like uncoffered concrete the rare persons who read my scribblings said that it was totally "moi" |
Posted By: Kati
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 01:55
hahaha! the whistle smiley Uhm French, I am rusty in French  You can easily write in bi-language, thus voila problem solved!  Now I really want to read that!!!
 |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 02:29
Not sure it's up everyone's alley: it's kind of brutal and un-apologetic Though the main character (a feminine version of yours truly >> I told you i was a lesbian ) talks constantly, there are no dialogues at allanyway, it will be on the back-burner for a while, coz I will give my exploratory research project the priority |
Posted By: Kati
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 02:35
Aha! We need more Stieg Larsson kind of novels
|
Posted By: Kati
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 02:39
|
Silver Linings Playbook is a good movie, great dialogue I love interesting and tortured characters.
|
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 02:40
The next step is to use it regularly... that sounds like a redundant piece of advice but I've seen too many cases of people recovering lost data from out of date backups. Before I change something I've been working on I make a compressed archive of the original and save it to another harddrive, then after making the changes take a back-up and save that elsewhere. When I'm writing a novel I'll backup the whole folder, complete with any sundry notes I have on plot and character synopsis, and all the research material I've collected along the way. I'll also make backups of any artwork I've created for the book cover, title page and any illustrations, plus the .docx and .pdf layouts for the e-novel version. I don't have a harddrive backup system, I have several... at last count I have 7 external USB hardrives, one networked NAS drive and more memory sticks than I care to count, plus a networked PC that is fitted with four harddrives to act as a file-server. I don't use "the cloud" because I don't trust it and because I can access my home-network remotely so don't need it. ...and still I manage to lose data occasionally
------------- What? |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 03:57
yup, no kidding... Bought in March and I will use first time... this w-e  ...if I can figure out how that thing works.... (can't find a user manual in that bloody box) I guess than I could've used a memory stick as a back up, since the My Passport thing I bought will not be doing anything systematic, since it won't be connected permanently to my laptop (do I make sense??) Actually the laptop I'd bought back last December didn't do the weekly communting Belg-Neth for the first seven months (so it stayed in my Brussels pad), but since August, I've started to bring it with my once in a while and now it's almost every week, so it stays again in my car trunk too often to my liking I'm not really concerned of losing the data in my computer (I'm not gifted or computer-literate enough to scram a computer ), more than actually losing the computer itself with what's on it
one of my main influence (I guess) would be Claude Courchay's Avril Est Un Mois Cruel (April is cruel month) |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 04:38
Absolutely. I often write short character profiles for each character as an aide-mémoire so that my writing is consistent for each. It frustrates the hell out of me when I read a piece of dialogue that is "out of character"
Yup, using body-language, facial expressions and non-vocal actions to tag dialogue are useful techniques that I use frequently too. I called it 'the descriptive narrative' in my earlier post and it is fairly difficult to write convincing dialogue without it. The "struggle" I spoke of was two-fold: avoiding tedious repetition and disrupting the natural flow of the conversation. Of course true natural flow is nigh-on impossible to write in linear text because tempo and rhythm is difficult to convey and people sometimes talk over each other.
That's pretty much how it was intended, it started as a conversation between two characters then a third, fourth and fifth joined in later, pretty much as it would do in reality. In context, telling which character could have spoke each line is easier to discern because the reader will know of the events that preceded the scene. For example they would known which of the two Lacy characters was washing their hair in the shower when the portal opened. I wrote that passage as an experiment and deliberately set it in a darkened room so I could not use visual narrative, I could have left it at that but since anyone listening to the conversation would not be able to tell which of the two Lacys were speaking I challenged myself not to use any aural narrative for the entire scene. Where it doesn't work, and I admit there are several lines that are completely ambiguous, I realised that it didn't actually matter a great deal who said those lines.
Verbosity vs. Brevity is something I first noticed in comics and graphic novels. Comic strips demand brevity and you rarely see long lines of speech or long rallies of dialogue, graphic novels tend to be more 'literary' so while keeping to the brevity limitation they are not as restrictive and longer monologues and dialogues are not uncommon. Also because they are visual mediums changing fonts can be used as narrative descriptives and that is something I have sort of used in two of my text novels though only as style and not a necessary part of the narrative. The next level of brevity is of course tv, radio, film and stage scripting, and now time is the limiting factor. Scripting a story that would occupy a 400+ page novel into a 90 minute film demands that long tracts of dialogue are trimmed and redundant conversations are cut. On screen conversations are rarely as long as they are in a print book, even when they seem long to the viewer. Both of my 'published' novels were originally written as e-novels and were published episodically as a series of short chapters. Because they were written to be read on-screen and not in printed form I deliberately imposed length restrictions on each chapter. I realised early on that no one reads long passages of electronic text, that necessitated writing shorter narratives and dialogues than I would normally write. The need to write concisely is something that requires adapting ones natural style into something more disciplined, and for me that involves some small amount of planning and a lot of editing. I prefer to let the words flow onto the page naturally, and then go back and revise what I have written into something that has the pace and energy the scene requires. [Ironic then that I write long verbose posts here ]. This does not mean that my stories are short, when I converted my last e-novel to a print book it ran for 486 pages and contains over 120,000 words... ...the next challenge would be to publish an episodic novel on Twitter.  So, to summarise, I agree with everything everyone has said.
------------- What? |
Posted By: Kati
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 04:49
I was not aware that you have written novels too, Dean!  Wow. you are a dark horse, I said this before. What kind of novels do you write, your subjects? What interests you to write?
|
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 04:53
|
Dean's MO when he first arrived was DarqDean ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Kati
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 04:54
BTW to me a good book, when it's really good, when t is coming to an end and the pages are becoming less and less I start to get sad and I do not want it to end. I can read a thick book within 4 days and nooooo... not those supermarket over the counter romances, arghhh.... I hate those things, I don't even want to touch that with my hands. The Michel Bolton lookalike guy on those book covers looks so creepy ewwww  brrrrr....
|
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 05:10
|
^ I get sad too when a good'n is coming to an end ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Angelo
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 05:20
Good idea, David! I write reviews, obviously, but also poetry and song lyrics, and many moons ago I got good grades in school for my fiction assignments. Writing fiction I dropped straight out of school, something I regret now so it may change in the future. At the moment, I mostly write reviews and short blog articles, and I notice that my ever too large list of activities has a negative impact on the quality of my writing sometimes. From next year on, I'll be limiting myself to 26 reviews per year, to improve the quality and free up time for other things. You may actually have started a topic here that may get me back into posting more often op PA :) ------------- http://www.iskcrocks.com" rel="nofollow - ISKC Rock Radio I stopped blogging and reviewing - so won't be handling requests. Promo's for ariplay can be sent to [email protected] |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 05:25
|
^ I too enjoyed doing fiction when I was younger-- though I admit I took a lot from the authors I was reading (Poe, Doyle, Juster, etc). In hindsight, stealing was good exercise and a way to understand style. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 05:40
I write what is somewhere between Low Fantasy Fiction and Speculative Fiction. You can read an adequate description of Low Fantasy on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy" rel="nofollow - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy . Essentially my stories are set in the real world at some unspecified time in the near future where weird, often supernatural, events happen. I don't offer any explanation for these other than they may or may not be about dream-states, they just happen and the characters have to deal with the consequences, hopefully in witty or humorous ways. Essentially the first, 'Darqlands', was about immortality and the second, 'A Leaf In Freefall', concerned with travelling between alternate realities but the plots are somewhat secondary to the writing. The one I am currently writing, 'The Mundane Adventure' series, (which may or may not see its completion on Nervous Horse) has a sub-plot about superheroes but is probably more of a follow-up to my first as some of the characters (or their descendants) are common to both. However, mostly they are experiments in different modes of writing as that interests me more than simple story-telling. For example the first was based upon the number seven as that number appears a lot in myth and works fiction - so has seven main characters, seven "side-kicks" and the story cycles through each character sequentially over seven parts divided into seven chapters. I have refined that further in 'The Mundane Adventure' series by having each character relate a different part of the story from their perspective in a way that each part connects to another to tell the whole story. The restriction I have placed upon myself there is that this only happens once for each character, which forces me to be creative in how I continue narrative from scene to scene. 'A Leaf In Freefall' was just a means to have fun with different ways of writing without imposing rules (or following existing story-telling conventions), and I wanted to have a story that linked Alice in Wonderland with Valhalla, the Planes of Nazca, Ancient Egypt and Milton Keynes. You can download free copies of 'Darqlands' and 'A Leaf in Freefall' here: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/darqdean" rel="nofollow - www.lulu.com/spotlight/darqdean . (Please don't buy the print books, they are stupidly expensive and not worth the money). The first four instalments of 'The Mundane Adventures' can be found in Vompati's Nervous Horse ezine at http://nervoushorse.com" rel="nofollow - nervoushorse.com starting in the 1/2014 edition.
------------- What? |
Posted By: Angelo
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 05:57
|
That's a small step beyond what my favourite modern writer Neal Stephenson does, Dean. I started reading Darqlands a long time ago, I'd have to go back and read if fully now. Actually, I forgot to add to my post (in response to the books David posted) to list Stephenson's 'Cryptonomicon' and the 'Baroque Cycle trilogy' as my favourite books, together with Hugh Howey's Silo series.
------------- http://www.iskcrocks.com" rel="nofollow - ISKC Rock Radio I stopped blogging and reviewing - so won't be handling requests. Promo's for ariplay can be sent to [email protected] |
Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 06:24
I write because the act of doing so gives me pleasure. That's the main purpose. That being said, I would like to provoke thought through my writing. If somebody remembered my writing a long while after reading it, I would consider it a good job done regardless of whether they remembered it in a good way or not. The idea is to cut through the clutter and get to them (the readers). I remember showing a W-I-P manuscript to my cousin sis. As it happened, a movie came out with a plot similar in a superficial sense to my book even as I was wrapping it up. Not wanting to take a chance, I dumped the manuscript. My cousin then met me a year after our previous meeting and she said something to the effect that it was too bad that this movie came out when I told her I had ditched the book (without yet mentioning the reason). I was surprised she had remembered the plot that well and told her as much. Sorry for an anecdotal comment, but basically impact is what I look for.
IMHO both are indispensable and a good balance of both is ideal.
If it's fiction, I read purely for the style because there may be something stylistically that I could absorb and internalise too. e.g Arthur Hailey researches his novels a lot but the characterisation is not imo as good as it could be. I could imagine a Le Carre or even Forsyth taking In High Places to a different level. Hailey was too keen to show the main man as an essentially good guy and that's hard to believe since the main man is a politician.
When the inspiration is something close to your heart, the words come thick and fast. It can be difficult to control the flow. A famous actor in these parts said the really good actors look at a character and then search within themselves to see what part of themselves they can relate to the character. I.e. their inspiration comes from within. This need not apply to ALL good writing, but it's certainly one highly effective way. The writer must then use his/her imagination and creativity, though, to disguise these internal influences so that they don't rub somebody near and dear the wrong way, ha ha.
Presently have a novel in the works but now is not the appropriate time to share it. Going to share a blog post but the writing style I use for my non fiction writing is very different. Kind of dry and meticulous. http://rothrocks.wordpress.com/2015/05/28/the-need-to-differentiate-cronyism-from-libertarianism/" rel="nofollow - http://rothrocks.wordpress.com/2015/05/28/the-need-to-differentiate-cronyism-from-libertarianism/ |
Posted By: Kati
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 07:16
Thank you Dean, I have downloaded Darqlands and a_leaf_in_freefall  
|
Posted By: Angelo
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 09:12
|
Just remembered I had three articles published on a Dutch/Belgian web site two years ago. One was about how people treat those who are 'different', could be one of the best I've ever written. If you can read Dutch or want to run it through Google translate for an impression - here it is. http://www.opiniestukken.nl/opiniestukken/artikel/577/Trap-mensen-niet-in-vakjes?r=be" rel="nofollow - http://www.opiniestukken.nl/opiniestukken/artikel/577/Trap-mensen-niet-in-vakjes?r=be ------------- http://www.iskcrocks.com" rel="nofollow - ISKC Rock Radio I stopped blogging and reviewing - so won't be handling requests. Promo's for ariplay can be sent to [email protected] |
Posted By: emigre80
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 09:34
while I was working on the dissertation, I backed it up regularly on an external drive, as well as on flash drives, which I would take to work and put on my (backed-up) computer as a double back-up...When I was at university, I remember one professor talking about how an airline lost his luggage and the only working copy of his dissertation - pre-computer days - and how after it was recovered, he made three copies, one of which he kept in the freezer. Did you know that if your house burns down, the contents of your fridge will survive intact? I always remembered that story, and that's why I was so obsessive about making copies. On the original subject, I never suffer from writer's block. I can turn out the pages whenever I sit down at a computer, that's what enabled me to write the dissertation in six months while working full time. It's a useful talent.
|
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 10:05
...the original subject isn't writer's block, but through David's cunning punning, Writers' Bloc
 However, writer's block can in deed be a discussion subject within this loose association of writers: I can't say that I've ever noticed writer's block - I too can invariably draw upon some untapped vein of creativity in whatever I do. I'll never say never because I'm sure a day will arrive when those creative juices will fail to flow, but for now at least I feel confident that if I need an idea I will be able to pull one from the air and when I want to express that idea in words, images or sounds it will continue to be something that just happens without having to think about it. However, sometimes the sight of blank page or canvas can be daunting even if I have a preconception of what I want to produce. I guess it's a fear of producing rubbish and thus wasting a pristine sheet of paper. When I used to paint regularly I discovered that simply painting over the canvas surface with a base coat of flat tone would be enough to get me started. With creating music picking a sound or rhythm and just noodling around with it would break the aural silence, and in writing once a letter has been typed top-left of a page it is no longer blank so the problem goes away. ------------- What? |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 11:21
i had hesitated between that and "blog" |
Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: November 07 2015 at 11:49
------------- https://dreamwindow.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My Music
|
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: December 11 2015 at 00:51
|
Charles Bukowski said "No one who could write worth a damn could ever write in peace." I have found a good deal of truth to that, and though the act of writing in peace is nice the background and experience required for interesting writing will not likely be found in a mountain retreat or lakeside cabin. It was a difficult and ironic but important lesson for me. Thoughts? Do you believe the living of a challenging, varied and even difficult life is crucial for good writes (fiction or nonfiction), or is that romantic folly? ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: December 11 2015 at 01:03
|
I feel like writing (and art in general) is too subjective to the topic and artist to really throw out a blanket statement like. ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: December 11 2015 at 08:02
I don't know if it is crucial but it certainly helps in so far as good writing often draws on one's authentic experiences (rather than bookish knowledge).
|
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: December 11 2015 at 09:42
|
Having peace to be able to write is not the same as having a peaceful life with no challenging or difficult experiences to draw upon. Unless of course you are writing about the difficulties of writing in a crowded bar, but even there a little imagination can go a long way ------------- What? |
Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: December 11 2015 at 09:54
| It's somewhere in the middle for me. I can write just fine in a noisy, crowded environment but only as long as there isn't somebody constantly interrupting me and demanding my attention. It is easier to write in my home with somebody watching TV or some conversations going on in which I am not involved than to focus on execution at the workplace where somebody or the other turns up either with some requirements or just to chat up and thus there is a lot of distraction even though the environment overall is much more peaceful and quiet. So to me, the ability to write uninterrupted and with my undivided attention in that environment is most important. |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: December 11 2015 at 21:54
|
Dickens certainly had a fascinating and difficult life, his family's troubles clearly serving as inspiration for the Marley/Cratchit/Scrooge dynamic, among his many other stories drawn from life in a dense and septic London. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: December 11 2015 at 21:55
Interesting, I know what you mean. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: BaldJean
Date Posted: December 12 2015 at 03:39
I don't believe that. what you need is some kind of trauma, but it may very well be in the past. and everyone has had some kind of trauma, so we all are potential writers. but the trauma only gives you something to write about. you still have to learn how to write -------------  A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: December 12 2015 at 21:25
|
^ True, or maybe motivated to write it. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: December 17 2015 at 22:32
|
I have found editing to be an integral part of finished work; when writing my book, it was when I'd change or, more often, remove whole sentences or paragraphs that the manuscript would tighten-up and come together, focusing the text, staying on topic and eliminating extraneous material. On the other hand, during the initial act of writing I do enjoy letting go and seeing what happens. How much do you value editing?-- especially the serious kind where you remove or alter whole passages that simply don't work or don't relate to the thesis? ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: December 18 2015 at 02:23
Because everything I've written so far has been published on the internet in serial form pretty much as soon as I've finished writing each episode I don't have the luxury of being able to go back to older chapters to edit and revise them so all my editing is done within the confines of the current chapter. Mostly it's the normal stuff like spelling and grammar corrections, then it's fixing plot-holes, ensuring the characters have remained in character, checking continuity with previous scenes and the like. This is where I find 'story boarding' the entire story at the beginning to be of most use, so if I find that I've wandered off-script I can then decide whether the new direction is a keeper and needs to be worked into the story-line, or is extraneous to the plot and needs to be removed. Therefore culling of extraneous material is the next thing, however, if I really like the content of that and don't want to lose it I may try and work it into a later chapter or simply add it as a footnote¹ or addendum, which I guess comes under the next category of 'failure to edit'. My editing failings are (and I suspect this happens with a lot of self-editors), the reluctance to remove any material; the addition of extra material; and (more often) the complete rewrite of whole chunks of text during the editing stage. I think this is the major difference between a writer who has a publisher and editor working for them and someone who does all of that themselves. I touched on this in my 2-star rated ' http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=64725&KW=" rel="nofollow - Please Self-Release Me ' self-release blog - it's having the discipline to be honest with yourself over the quality of what you are producing. You frequently hear people say "Oh, I'm my harshest critic", but when that self-deprecation isn't false modesty it is often used as an excuse for not judiciously editing stuff they know doesn't pass muster. ¹I do like sparse use of footnotes in novels. ------------- What? |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: December 18 2015 at 14:26
|
Editing is very important for me. The main issues I have with writing are focus and the occasional inability to get what is in my brain to the paper/keyboard fast enough. Both result in botched sentences, incomplete thoughts, unintended gobblygook, and general flotsam in my work. Thus, I usually have 'holes' in my work that I need to go back and fill in with words that fit better/couldn't think of at the time and make sure the sentences work as sentences. I also tend to write best between 12AM and 3AM so sometimes things come out incoherently when read outside of that netherzone region. ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: December 18 2015 at 14:41
|
I normally do some editing while I write. Something like a rough mix. If I don't, I lose faith in what I'm doing easily. It can also lead to writer's block, but the opposite can too. I would say I am my harshest critic, but only when I submit something for critique. I realize a lot of flaws in my work then and the critiques normally confirm them.
------------- https://dreamwindow.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My Music
|
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: December 19 2015 at 21:45
I get what you mean about being married to a good bit of writing even if it's not fitting the rest of the piece, I had to become much more disciplined about removal. One does become attached; your words are like children. But the level of improvement I found through elimination of passages not directly pertinent to the thesis was a revelation. It wasn't just about being a disciplined editor, the whole piece would suddenly become much cleaner and readable. And when finished, if I couldn't find a place for the extra material I'd removed, I left it out. And am I glad I can do that now without much regret. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: JJLehto
Date Posted: December 20 2015 at 02:55
|
Writer's block is my life Reviews and blog posts are easy, but for ages I've tried to write serious fiction and damn it's hard. This has been my idea on how to get over my hurdle, anyone tell me if they think there's validity/their thoughts. I over plan, think too far ahead and try to come up with all this stuff in my head. For me, it hasn't worked. I'm thinking of just word vomiting. Spewing whatever I have out there. Do it every day. Later I can comb over it and sort things out, tidy it up, edit, repeat repeat repeat and hopefully it'll naturally pull together, instead of trying to plan every bit out in advance. Edit: Also, maybe this is total stupidity, but I had this idea of not reading any other fiction when attempting to write. I know this may be antithetical to the standard of "read read read, write, read read read" but I kind of wanted to craft something as much my own as possible, have a "sterile" process, untainted by outside influences. Within realistic limits
of course there's the years of stuff in my brain already and natural life influences. |
Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: December 20 2015 at 04:00
|
Interesting...I have wanted to write fiction and struggled when I set down to it....whenever I attempted long form that is. I could write short stories of anywhere between 2 to 6 pages easily but a novel seemed a fraught affair. There were novels I never completed and some only in a half baked way for the sake of getting rid of the book! :D There's one finally that I am giving finishing touches to and hopefully can publish, let's see. So what I have learnt from my educative misadventures is that it is better to wait until you actually have a story that feels worth writing about. Forcing it never works. Another thing is wait until you form the protagonist fully in your head. Now, the writer Amit Chaudhari has it that writing novels around characters is so 19th century and why not have a city as the protagonist as the novel. Fair enough, but imo that's too advanced and 19th century is still a good place to start as it gave us so many memorable characters that still live on through numerous TV/movie adaptations. So chart out what kind of a person the protagonist is and what kind of arc his/her life is going to follow, all the ups and downs. As for detailing, each one may have their own methods. I like to leave it a bit loose so there is room to improvise on the spot as I write instead of planning everything. For others, planning every detail may work. I cannot imagine, say, Agatha Christie would have been able to concoct so many mysteries using the same small set of poisons without having extraordinary patience with detail. But if you at least chart out the life or slice of life of the protagonist that you are going to capture in your novel, you at least have a framework to improvise around.
|
Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: December 20 2015 at 04:05
I tend to follow this too if I am working on something. Not to avoid being influenced but it can be distracting. You may see a good idea in a book you are reading and want to incorporate it. And then another, and so on, until you lose direction. It's important to stay the course. Another thing: when writing a novel or anything fictional of that length (60000 plus words), writing an hour everyday is indispensable. My previous attempts revolved around writing a lot in the weekend and almost nothing on weekdays. Didn't work. You never get the flow that you do if you write day in day out. Target at least a 1000 words everyday, 10000 a week. Bonus is you also get through the first draft of the novel quickly this way.
|
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: December 20 2015 at 04:39
It depends on what you are writing... I was reading a http://www.davidnevue.com/pianoadvice2.htm" rel="nofollow - composer's blog where the writer made this comment that caused me to raise a smile: For that blogger, the ideal song-structure would be:
Of course that advice is the antithesis of Progressive Rock and advice that I would summarily ignore when composing a piece of music, however that's not to say I wouldn't edit-out a section that I felt caused the piece to drag, or add in a second melody, chorus or bridge to add divergent interest. To me a song is finished when it is as long as it needs to be, whether that is 3 minutes, 6½ minutes or 60 minutes. When composing music I spend more time listening back to what I've composed to ensure it keeps my attention than I ever spent composing it and I apply that same approach to writing, I read and re-read each chapter before calling it "finished". In writing, my fiction errs towards "progressive rock" in structure and format, whereas if I am writing a technical paper, users manual or operating procedure I'll strive to make it concise and to the point like a 3 minute pop song. I guess this is why I don't enjoy writing reviews. ------------- What? |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: January 05 2016 at 23:58
|
What is good writing? I'm currently reading Georges Simenon's first Maigret story and in addition to Simenon's clean, direct style, his knowledge of criminology and detection is evident. But his is just one example of many approaches that can pull a reader in. So seriously, what is good writing, and how is it that simple and linear may be as compelling as layered and complex? ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Kati
Date Posted: January 06 2016 at 20:13
|
On a lighter note :) I found this quite interesting in terms of a sales perspective. Not much use here to any of you, however considering you all excel in writing this might be fun for you to watch. |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: January 07 2016 at 18:18
To define good writing I would think you would have to use the most objective method of qualifying 'good'...ie proper grammar/syntax/etc, coherence, knowledge of writing topic (esp for non fiction sources), ability to articulate, correct word choices...things along these lines. Obviously, you can enjoy the results or not. As for compelling...well...that would tap into popularity and mass appeal much more (which I don't think we've have the ability to detect), and probably has some sort of psychological element to it. ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: January 09 2016 at 15:04
Simenon actually used to come in into my great-grandfather's Comissaire office in Liège ( yes, I know, I'm ashamed >> I got cops in my ancestors ) and ask him about criminal cases that were over and dealt with and trialed, so he could find material for his police novelspersonally I prefer Simenon's non-Maigret books, because they're a lot less formulaic. |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: January 09 2016 at 18:26
|
^ Ah, that makes sense. I figured he must've either been or known detectives in his life. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: January 13 2016 at 01:53
|
With the very sad death of Mr. Bowie, I am reminded of how difficult good lyrics are to write. At least for me they are, and, as more of an instrumentalist, have always been my Achilles heel in music creation. It seems songwriting as a craft, which is to say when words are part & parcel of music composition, is a particular skill that is separate from instrumental expression. What Bob Dylan did was quite a different animal than what Leo Kottke did though they both have a Folk background. What do our musicians here think about lyric writing? ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: January 13 2016 at 03:17
|
Gah, you always prefix everything with the adjective "good" and I don't think I'm good enough a writer to recognise good or bad in my own writing . [in '21st Century Goth' Mick Mercer described my first online novel as "...and not necessarily very good, but if you fancy something to read you will find it quite involving" ... at the time I was relieved he used "very" there ] I don't write much poetry and I've only written ten lyrics in my whole life. I can't say that I found the lyrics particularly difficult to write and I think that is because I wrote them to the music so the meter and rhythm of music dictated the scan of each line and verse (from scanison : the analysis of the metrical structure of a verse). For me it was certainly easier to write a lyric than an iambic pentameter poem for example. I wrote in my online Blog at the time: "As I had never written a lyric before and have only ever written a couple of poems in my entire life, the prospect of adding words to this first song ['Staring Into The Sun'] and any subsequent songs was, needless to say, daunting. However, fired-up by my enthusiasm for the project and encouraged by the music composed thus far, the words came very easily. After a small amount of editing to remove 'night & light' clichés, I soon had enough words for the CD." As to whether http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51077&PID=5222276#5222276" rel="nofollow - the results were good or not is for others to judge, I liked the finished songs even though in the end I didn't use them on the album they were intended for. ------------- What? |
Posted By: Angelo
Date Posted: January 13 2016 at 06:09
|
I write some poetry on occasion, and tried my hands at lyrics that still have to be put to music. The hard thing is to get a message across without going into cliches (although Fish once found a nice way around that in a song called Cliche), or make it corny. Writing lyrics to existing music has the same issue from my point of view, although Dean is right in saying that it is easier technically to write lyrics to music than vice versa. ------------- http://www.iskcrocks.com" rel="nofollow - ISKC Rock Radio I stopped blogging and reviewing - so won't be handling requests. Promo's for ariplay can be sent to [email protected] |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: January 13 2016 at 18:20
Sometimes 'good' is the 'best' phase I can think of. But you raise a, you'll forgive me, "good" point. Matching words to music is hard but matching music to words is almost impossible unless one does a sort of freeform composition. But I didn't realize that until I tried putting music to lyrics or poetry that already exist. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: January 13 2016 at 18:21
Yep, a lot harder than one would think. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: January 13 2016 at 18:28
|
I guess I just view lyrics as a form of poetry...just as easy/difficult as that would be, in terms of the actual words. The meter and all that extra stuff to sync with the music is more of a musical issue in my mind. The best stuff I find comes from just stepping back and letting the muse take over (much like any art form to me). That said, I usually prefer to do instrumental music. (Or just various vocal utterances if more is required by the muse) I think I'd like it more if I could write words in other languages. ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: January 13 2016 at 18:33
|
^ Well yes, lyrics are just another wordform, but when I would actually try to match it all, it wasn't just the rhythmic metres that gave trouble, it was the melodies and, as Angie points out, the theme or imagery of the words. Not so easy unless one is a natural songsmith like McCartney or Stevie Wonder. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: January 13 2016 at 18:53
Which is sometimes why some of the best lyricists are the ones that have loose melodies/rhythms or simple chord progressions. Bob Dylan's three chord progression are like a blank canvas on which he can paint whatever he wants. He doesn't have to compromise as much. Meanwhile, some prog artists' disappointing lyrics may have to do with the limits imposed by their music. There are more compromises that have to be made. ------------- https://dreamwindow.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My Music
|
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: January 13 2016 at 21:46
Great point. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: January 14 2016 at 00:51
|
The pump don't work because the vandals took the handle. Discuss ------------- What? |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: January 14 2016 at 01:13
|
^ I had to look up those piece of tripe lyrics. Oh, Bob, c'mon now. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: January 14 2016 at 02:33
|
It definitely invites some interesting Freudian readings. ------------- https://dreamwindow.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My Music
|
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: January 14 2016 at 02:45
No it doesn't.  ------------- What? |
Posted By: Angelo
Date Posted: January 14 2016 at 13:57
Angie? Now, now, you've just entered my inner circles by using that name. I won't show you out... Lyrics are close to poetry, even if they don't always focus on rhythm and meter patterns, but tell a story instead. Bowie has some nice examples of where it comes together, like this one: Pushing thru the market square so many mothers sighing News had just come over, we had five years left to cry in News guy wept and told us earth was really dying Cried so much his face was wet then I knew he was not lying I heard telephones, opera house, favourite melodies I saw boys, toys electric irons and T.V.'s My brain hurt like a warehouse it had no room to spare I had to cram so many things to store everything in there And all the fat-skinny people, and all the tall-short people And all the nobody people, and all the somebody people I never thought I'd need so many people ------------- http://www.iskcrocks.com" rel="nofollow - ISKC Rock Radio I stopped blogging and reviewing - so won't be handling requests. Promo's for ariplay can be sent to [email protected] |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: January 15 2016 at 18:36
|
"I hate writing but love having written" -- Dorothy Parker Can't entirely agree with that wonderful quote but there's no denying the satisfaction of poring over a good bit of writ, versus the struggle of creating it. After all, writing is work and not necessarily joyful. What do you prefer; writing, or reading what you've done ? ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: January 15 2016 at 20:24
| It's the exact opposite for me. I thoroughly enjoy the process of writing. Yes, too much at a stretch can get tiresome so I maintain a discipline. When I was working on a novel last year, I would write intensely for an hour maybe two hours tops everyday, thus both staying fresh and also maintaining the momentum. But once I am done, I get very critical of my work and start to doubt its quality. Maybe it's just that I am yet to completely find myself as a writer because the problem is that everything about the story that's in my head doesn't get onto the paper (or word processor to be precise) and that's frustrating. |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: January 15 2016 at 21:00
|
Reading is definitely easier. I probably enjoy reading more, even if writing is more fulfilling. ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: January 15 2016 at 21:20
|
I use to like the pre-writing daydreaming phase the most. Now, it less of a struggle to write, but I'd say having written something feels the best. I am currently revising a 20+ page short story, and finishing the first draft of it was very liberating. I've written a good bit of poetry this year, but this was the first piece of fiction I was able to finish in a couple years. ------------- https://dreamwindow.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My Music
|
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: January 15 2016 at 21:57
I do think finding your writer's voice does create more satisfaction after you have something substantial down. Also, It took me a very long time to be able to write freely and flowingly without second-guessing myself. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |