The ESCC Graphomaniacs gather on Fridays to discuss writing. This blog provides a place for us to share thoughts about what we are reading. I look forward to reading your posts.
Yikes!!! Here I am in the blog wilderness w/o a clue of what to do next. There's a huge generation gap here! Will I ever find this site again? How do I access it? B.
Welcome, Betty! Don't think of it as a wilderness. Think of it as a cozy, small, controlled space -- like the gazebo in Onancock. Save the email with the link or if you keep a list of favorites on your computer, add this site to the favorites. Then you can come back any time you want.
I've never blogged before, but I think I like it. Another forum for a voice! This just a test. Please tell me, Kim, if I am posting in the right area. Thanks.
I seem to be in good company having no idea what I'm doing. From finding the blog, it took me a half hour to find these three contributions! I think we need some instruction here...
As I mentioned at Friday’s class, my first book on writing is “On Writing”, by George V. Higgins. I think it’s the only other book of his that I haven’t read (beside a book on baseball) so it’s like visiting with an old friend. Except that the circumstances of our meeting are completely different.
Higgins was a Boston writer, mainly of fiction, stories of corrupt local politicians and the criminal underworld, and his stories were mostly told in dialogue – probably the best writer of dialogue in the business. “On Writing”, of course, is non-fiction with no dialogue, so it’s like my old friend has changed since he’s been away. Our new relationship is not sitting comfortably.
Though neither Higgins nor Grewe has mentioned it yet, you will probably be told before too long that the opening lines of your literary work are perhaps the most important, and there are many lists of ‘all time best’ opening lines of works of fiction on the internet. The following are among popular winners of those lists (http://www.pantagraph.com/news/article_a125216a-649f-5414-88b5-76a688ea3b6a.html) :
• “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813) • “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”. - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett) • “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” - George Orwell, 1984 (1949)
To those, let me add a personal favorite:
• “Jackie Brown at twenty-six, with no expression on his face, said that he could get some guns.” – George V. Higgins, The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1972)
But what of the book I’m reading? Well, it’s blunt: “If you do not seek to publish what you have written, then you are not a writer and you never will be”.
Higgins suggests you should put aside ten minutes every day and read a passage of a respected writer out loud to yourself. And when you’ve written your own piece for the day, then you should read that out loud to yourself, also. The first piece he’s started me reading aloud is the opening pages of Bleak House by Charles Dickens. And you know what? After fifty years of telling people I can’t read Dickens, I’m actually enjoying it!
(I had to use my old email account with my funny name~!)
As I said in class I have taken up Stephen King's "on Writing". So far it's been a real eye-opener to his world. I've found out quite a lot about where his insperations have come from and found that some of them are the same as my own for writing. I love how he describes his mother's horrible actions in a way that makes her sound like a good person.
What is going on Graphomanics?? I can tell this is going to be fun, by it's new to some and old to others......I'm ready to get thing started and poppin'....LET'S GO GRAPHOMANIACS!!!!!
I thought that I had submitted this before, but I am new to the ways of blogging. Let me try again... I am reading Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. She writes about growing up with her father being a writer. He would go into his office and write and spend time with groups of writers talking (and getting drunk and stoned.) Lamott herself dropped out of college to become a writer. Is it easier to see oneself as a writer if you have a role model-especially an important one like your father? I have trouble thinking of myself as "a writer."
I couldn’t decide on one writer. My interest and likes are very eclectic. One I have chosen is Janet Evanovich. When I want to escape, I love her fictional characters that she has developed.
I have characters in mind for my fiction and her advice to make them interesting is and I quote, “ …its critical to have memorable characters. It’s not enough to describe a character’s physical attributes and to tell us what he does and where he goes. You must bring your characters to life. … Once your reader has med a compelling character, he will want to know everything about him . . .”
Her style is very compelling for whimsical but believable characters. Her methods match mine and help me to hone in on my own style.
I will let you know more about her advice as I read more.
Re CarolAnn's point: I realized many years ago that the 'novel' I wrote and submitted for publication did not deserve to be published because the characters in it were simply not real. I, too, read a lot of escapist detective fiction, such as by the late Robert B. Parker and John Lescroart, and though they might be 'light' literature, their characters are wonderful.
i am also reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. wow!! whayt an amazing writer.. even in her instructions on writing and telling about her life and class, she adds character to her words. the amazing words of advice,
some quotes from the book: "hope, the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate"
"writing and novel is like riding a car at night, you can only see as far as your head lights, but you can make the whole trip that way. u don't have to see where your going, you dont have to see your destination, or everything you will pass along the way; you just have to see 2 or 3 feet ahead of you"
I am finally on here. I have now changed the book that I will be doing. The current book is called You Can Write A Novel and its by Geofrey Bocca. This is a very easy book to read thus far. One of the first things that he says is not to tell anyone what you are writing about. He says if you tell people then you will loose interest. To me that makes sense. He said he got this advice from a great editor. He also says, "a novel must be wrapped in silence." I am not much of a writer but I can understand that thought. If you keep talking about something then it becomes boring. So don't talk about what you are writing until you have finished it. Then talk about it all you want.
He also says that the current book he is writing is always his favorite. That is too say, you never know how something will turn out until you are finished.
To Kimberly, I like your observance of the writer, Anne Lamott of Bird by Bird: "wow!! whayt an amazing writer.. even in her instructions on writing and telling about her life and class, she adds character to her words."
This is so true. You can throw a sentence on a page, but does it speak to the writer?
To Roy on Higgins comment: But what of the book I’m reading? Well, it’s blunt: “If you do not seek to publish what you have written, then you are not a writer and you never will be”.
Though I hope to be published again, to me to fix my goal exclusively on being published is prohibitive. My best work (some published) have have come from just sitting around being stunned by a thought and idea then scrawling it out on paper just to sort out the thought. One of favorite college professors said that we sometimes write to understand ourselves and help sort out the world around us.
BTW--I've changed my book to Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. First published in 1986 and used by many instructors and universities. So far, I found her zen approach to writing helpful - hopefully it will help me focus and tune out the 'noise' the interferes with my writing.
Sometimes noise can be helpful though- I find that I write best while listening to music- usually music to do with the theme of writing- maybe you can invest in an MP3 player? It's best when you can't hear anything else but the music. ^-^
Hi all, Just getting started so I am really excited and look forward to reading all your thoughts people. I also believe that music can be very centering when writing no matter what the assignment.For me , it helps block out not only the sounds around me but also a kind of mental safety zone in my head for concentration.
The selection I am reading is about Ann Dillard and I am finding that not only do I agree with everything she is saying thus far, I didn't realize how difficult the process of writing can be and how similar my obstacles are to hers as well. For instance, so far she has touched on how "difficult controlling a writer's energy can be" and "a writer while creating a first draft of anything must "reach an internal state which ordinary life does not induce", once again, me in a nutshell. I am hoping to be able to start writing from a standpoint of observing things outside of myself while at the same time , giving whomever reads my material a sense of me by the style I write. That is my hope anyway.
TO Carol ann: I so can relate to just writing down a thought that seems to demand being put on paper. It I also use it to kind of self annalyze and reflect upon. Sometimes, I find that if I record the thought and listen to it, after writing it down, it can also become a completely different thought than originally given. Senses are funny like that I guess.
On the "silence vs. music" controversy... Most of the time, silence is great, but if there is ather stuff going on in the house (like my husband watching basketball, I am delighted to have classical music. The dish provides Sirius XM...so I use it to focus.
When I listen to music, I like to really listen to it, which means that I can't be doing anything else that requires my brain being available, which means I can't possibly write and listen to music at the same time. I guess it's a good thing we're all different, isn't it?
Well, sometimes I end up using the lyrics to help me write- let's say I'm writing a sad part where my character has just taken a deadly blow to the chest- I listen to sad music, or when I'm writing about him playing his violin I listen to violin music. I like to listen to my music as well, but I guess some people minds can focus on more than two things. (Sometimes it's troublesome!) I end up thinking about five to six different things at once. *laugh*
The Book I'm reading is Stephen King's, "On Writing." This book by King is very interesting as I figured it would be. In my reading so far he talks about his growing up as a child as the many likes he had. Stephen was very creative as a child and have a growing love for science fiction movies and magazines. He also loved good horror movies that were very graphic in detail. When reading stories he would sometimes place his own words in place of the writer's because he felt his imagination of the idea was better than the original. I got plenty of laughs from him because he has a great sense of humor and is very blunt when he feels its necessary. His closeness to his brother I feel has a lot to do with his growth into this craft. He spoke of how his brother didn't like the easy, simple things but more things of sophistication. Never settling for good, it always had to be Extra Excellent. Whether he knew it or not I believe Stephen saw that characteristic and that is why he has been the great successful writer/filmmaker he is.
Aside from the laughs, there was one thing that he has said so far that I truly agree with him about. He said, "Not one writer was made; I don't believe writers can be made, either by circumstances or by self will." He also believed that there are a great number of people who possess some type of talent as writers or storytellers, and that their talent can be strengthened and sharpened. I truly believe that because I feel that many people have the talent but they doubt their talent. Writers truly are not made, because being a writer comes from putting your ideas and imagination to work along with what you have experienced in life.
@Charlie.....Truly writing is difficult because I think at first we tend to believe it is simple. There are many obstacles that form in your way as time, having a loaded mind, and low means of creativeness. I experience these when I look at my poems that I right and it seems that all my poems I've written have the same type feel to them. I want to explore more issues, feelings, but it just seems hard to channel in to myself what i'm not used too. So really you have to take something that is outside your character and put it into your character until you have a balance that you are comfortable with. ONce you do that then.....anything is possible...
@CarolAnn...Yes noise interferences can be a problem and a challenge too. When I write I tend to like absolute silence. But there are times when i'm on a creative tip and I want something extra, and I might play some r&b or rap to get me into the mood I need to create what I'm trying to write. But that's not necessarily saying that it will work like that for you lol!
George V. Higgins says: he avoids reading fiction when he is writing a novel for fear that the style of the writer he is reading will be copied by him into what he is writing. But he has to read something: so he recommends reading 'creative non-fiction' and lists a bunch of writers, including William Manchester.
@Kimberly....those quotes are powerful...especially the one about "writing a novel is like driving a car at night, you can only see as far as the headlights." That's true and I say that because you have to write what you know. I feel that if all writers were the same and wrote about the same thing, writing would be boring. So in writing you have to know how to stay in your lane just as if you were driving a car. We all have high expectations of our writing because of our fascinations of thoughts in our head and we want to include every little thought. You can't expect to be great right at the beginning, because it takes time which is where a lot of beginner writers go wrong. So that was a good quote which to me means, work on your level, and be the best that you can be!
Hey everyone, sorry to be getting on so late, I have been extremely I'll this week. But like I said in class, I'm reading "The Writing Life" by Ellen Gilchrist. I have enjoyed this book thus far. She talks about how much she loves Shakespeare plays. But she didn't develop that love until her fifties. Which goes back to what Ms. G says, "writers read." I'm not a huge fan of Shakespeare but also when I last read it it was early in high school. But Ellen talks about how as a writer it is good to read Shakespeare's works in the order that it was written because you can see the progression and the mistakes an amateur writer makes. I like that point of view because I think most of us has written something and then looked back at it and sees the mistakes we made and then write something better.Shakespeare must have experienced that many times. I think Ellen Gilchrist makes a good point,to read a writer that you like and hopefully has written more than one thing and you can see the progression of works and as she says, it is inspiring as a writer to read that.
To Mrs. Betty- Hang in there, the age gap is no big deal when you have the support from all of us :) And I think it is great that you are going out of your comfort zone because most people would have been intimidated and not tried it.
To Terron- I think it is a good point of view to kinda keep quiet about what you're writing about. If you do that you write about what YOU want without others critiquing what you are writing. And when he says you never know what you've really got until you're done writing it seems true. I like that point because you may have the worst piece of writing ever, a learning experience, or you could have a piece that really appeals to other people. Either way it is a good thing in my point of view. It sounds like you picked a good writer to learn ways from!
To Mary Kay- I agree it is difficult to think of myself as a writer to. I mean we all writer so are we writers? Or what would really classify a writer, getting published or simply writing? I think it is somewhere in between. I think it depends on how you feel towards your writing. It probably would be easier to think of yourself as a writer if your parent was one probably because you would have something in common with that parent. They would understand your need/want/desire to write. Then again they could be that miserable type of writer and totally discourage it. I guess it is all in the cards you're laid.
To Carol Ann- I think it is great to go with the zen approach. I normally try to write when it is nice and quiet. Or when the tv is turned down low enough that I can barely hear it, just a little noise but not understandable. I get distracted if it is much more noise than that. Although I do see how others may use different types of music to be inspiring, maybe if we pick the kind specific to what exactly we're writing about like Kira said that may not be as distracting. I just usually think I got enough thoughs in my head that I need quiet to organize them. Look forward to seeing what approaches Natalie Goldberg offers!
To Chelsea, So true. Disorganized, frenzied noise is very distracting. But a low TV or radio is good. I also find that a clean space is best for me, but we are building so that gets a little harder to keep up during my work week.
To MaryKay: I agree. Even after having a column for which I had been paid, I still felt like a student. I think I always will, but you never stop learning and evolving in your craft.
To Carol Ann, I agree with what you are saying, when you say characters must be memorable. If people forget who the main characters are then they will probably forget about the story itself.
Chelsea, That is an interesting fact about her not loving Shakespear until she is in her fifties. I guess in time she matured and found the love for him. When you are young you sometimes don't appreciate all the good things. I am guessing that no writer start perfectly. There are bound to be bumps that must be learned over time.
Yikes!!! Here I am in the blog wilderness w/o a clue of what to do next. There's a huge generation gap here! Will I ever find this site again? How do I access it? B.
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Betty! Don't think of it as a wilderness. Think of it as a cozy, small, controlled space -- like the gazebo in Onancock. Save the email with the link or if you keep a list of favorites on your computer, add this site to the favorites. Then you can come back any time you want.
ReplyDeleteI've never blogged before, but I think I like it. Another forum for a voice! This just a test. Please tell me, Kim, if I am posting in the right area. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI seem to be in good company having no idea what I'm doing. From finding the blog, it took me a half hour to find these three contributions! I think we need some instruction here...
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned at Friday’s class, my first book on writing is “On Writing”, by George V. Higgins. I think it’s the only other book of his that I haven’t read (beside a book on baseball) so it’s like visiting with an old friend. Except that the circumstances of our meeting are completely different.
ReplyDeleteHiggins was a Boston writer, mainly of fiction, stories of corrupt local politicians and the criminal underworld, and his stories were mostly told in dialogue – probably the best writer of dialogue in the business. “On Writing”, of course, is non-fiction with no dialogue, so it’s like my old friend has changed since he’s been away. Our new relationship is not sitting comfortably.
Though neither Higgins nor Grewe has mentioned it yet, you will probably be told before too long that the opening lines of your literary work are perhaps the most important, and there are many lists of ‘all time best’ opening lines of works of fiction on the internet. The following are among popular winners of those lists (http://www.pantagraph.com/news/article_a125216a-649f-5414-88b5-76a688ea3b6a.html) :
• “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
• “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”. - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)
• “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” - George Orwell, 1984 (1949)
To those, let me add a personal favorite:
• “Jackie Brown at twenty-six, with no expression on his face, said that he could get some guns.” – George V. Higgins, The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1972)
But what of the book I’m reading? Well, it’s blunt: “If you do not seek to publish what you have written, then you are not a writer and you never will be”.
Higgins suggests you should put aside ten minutes every day and read a passage of a respected writer out loud to yourself. And when you’ve written your own piece for the day, then you should read that out loud to yourself, also. The first piece he’s started me reading aloud is the opening pages of Bleak House by Charles Dickens. And you know what? After fifty years of telling people I can’t read Dickens, I’m actually enjoying it!
(I had to use my old email account with my funny name~!)
ReplyDeleteAs I said in class I have taken up Stephen King's "on Writing". So far it's been a real eye-opener to his world. I've found out quite a lot about where his insperations have come from and found that some of them are the same as my own for writing. I love how he describes his mother's horrible actions in a way that makes her sound like a good person.
What is going on Graphomanics?? I can tell this is going to be fun, by it's new to some and old to others......I'm ready to get thing started and poppin'....LET'S GO GRAPHOMANIACS!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI thought that I had submitted this before, but I am new to the ways of blogging. Let me try again...
ReplyDeleteI am reading Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. She writes about growing up with her father being a writer. He would go into his office and write and spend time with groups of writers talking (and getting drunk and stoned.) Lamott herself dropped out of college to become a writer. Is it easier to see oneself as a writer if you have a role model-especially an important one like your father? I have trouble thinking of myself as "a writer."
I couldn’t decide on one writer. My interest and likes are very eclectic. One I have chosen is Janet Evanovich. When I want to escape, I love her fictional characters that she has developed.
ReplyDeleteI have characters in mind for my fiction and her advice to make them interesting is and I quote, “ …its critical to have memorable characters. It’s not enough to describe a character’s physical attributes and to tell us what he does and where he goes. You must bring your characters to life. … Once your reader has med a compelling character, he will want to know everything about him . . .”
Her style is very compelling for whimsical but believable characters. Her methods match mine and help me to hone in on my own style.
I will let you know more about her advice as I read more.
Re CarolAnn's point: I realized many years ago that the 'novel' I wrote and submitted for publication did not deserve to be published because the characters in it were simply not real. I, too, read a lot of escapist detective fiction, such as by the late Robert B. Parker and John Lescroart, and though they might be 'light' literature, their characters are wonderful.
ReplyDeletei am also reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
ReplyDeletewow!! whayt an amazing writer.. even in her instructions on writing and telling about her life and class, she adds character to her words. the amazing words of advice,
some quotes from the book: "hope, the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate"
"writing and novel is like riding a car at night, you can only see as far as your head lights, but you can make the whole trip that way. u don't have to see where your going, you dont have to see your destination, or everything you will pass along the way; you just have to see 2 or 3 feet ahead of you"
I am finally on here. I have now changed the book that I will be doing. The current book is called You Can Write A Novel and its by Geofrey Bocca. This is a very easy book to read thus far. One of the first things that he says is not to tell anyone what you are writing about. He says if you tell people then you will loose interest. To me that makes sense. He said he got this advice from a great editor. He also says, "a novel must be wrapped in silence." I am not much of a writer but I can understand that thought. If you keep talking about something then it becomes boring. So don't talk about what you are writing until you have finished it. Then talk about it all you want.
ReplyDeleteHe also says that the current book he is writing is always his favorite. That is too say, you never know how something will turn out until you are finished.
To Kimberly, I like your observance of the writer, Anne Lamott of Bird by Bird: "wow!! whayt an amazing writer.. even in her instructions on writing and telling about her life and class, she adds character to her words."
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. You can throw a sentence on a page, but does it speak to the writer?
To Roy on Higgins comment: But what of the book I’m reading? Well, it’s blunt: “If you do not seek to publish what you have written, then you are not a writer and you never will be”.
ReplyDeleteThough I hope to be published again, to me to fix my goal exclusively on being published is prohibitive. My best work (some published) have have come from just sitting around being stunned by a thought and idea then scrawling it out on paper just to sort out the thought. One of favorite college professors said that we sometimes write to understand ourselves and help sort out the world around us.
BTW--I've changed my book to Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. First published in 1986 and used by many instructors and universities. So far, I found her zen approach to writing helpful - hopefully it will help me focus and tune out the 'noise' the interferes with my writing.
ReplyDelete@CarolAnn:
ReplyDeleteSometimes noise can be helpful though- I find that I write best while listening to music- usually music to do with the theme of writing- maybe you can invest in an MP3 player? It's best when you can't hear anything else but the music. ^-^
Hi all, Just getting started so I am really excited and look forward to reading all your thoughts people. I also believe that music can be very centering when writing no matter what the assignment.For me , it helps block out not only the sounds around me but also a kind of mental safety zone in my head for concentration.
ReplyDeleteThe selection I am reading is about Ann Dillard and I am finding that not only do I agree with everything she is saying thus far, I didn't realize how difficult the process of writing can be and how similar my obstacles are to hers as well. For instance, so far she has touched on how "difficult controlling a writer's energy can be" and "a writer while creating a first draft of anything must "reach an internal state which ordinary life does not induce", once again, me in a nutshell. I am hoping to be able to start writing from a standpoint of observing things outside of myself while at the same time , giving whomever reads my material a sense of me by the style I write. That is my hope anyway.
ReplyDeleteTO Carol ann: I so can relate to just writing down a thought that seems to demand being put on paper. It I also use it to kind of self annalyze and reflect upon. Sometimes, I find that if I record the thought and listen to it, after writing it down, it can also become a completely different thought than originally given. Senses are funny like that I guess.
ReplyDeleteTO Betty:" Hang in there. Something tells me you will have a way of leaping through any age barrier and I look forward to your southern flare.
ReplyDeleteOn the "silence vs. music" controversy... Most of the time, silence is great, but if there is ather stuff going on in the house (like my husband watching basketball, I am delighted to have classical music. The dish provides Sirius XM...so I use it to focus.
ReplyDeleteWhen I listen to music, I like to really listen to it, which means that I can't be doing anything else that requires my brain being available, which means I can't possibly write and listen to music at the same time. I guess it's a good thing we're all different, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteWell, sometimes I end up using the lyrics to help me write- let's say I'm writing a sad part where my character has just taken a deadly blow to the chest- I listen to sad music, or when I'm writing about him playing his violin I listen to violin music. I like to listen to my music as well, but I guess some people minds can focus on more than two things. (Sometimes it's troublesome!) I end up thinking about five to six different things at once. *laugh*
ReplyDeleteThe Book I'm reading is Stephen King's, "On Writing." This book by King is very interesting as I figured it would be. In my reading so far he talks about his growing up as a child as the many likes he had. Stephen was very creative as a child and have a growing love for science fiction movies and magazines. He also loved good horror movies that were very graphic in detail. When reading stories he would sometimes place his own words in place of the writer's because he felt his imagination of the idea was better than the original. I got plenty of laughs from him because he has a great sense of humor and is very blunt when he feels its necessary. His closeness to his brother I feel has a lot to do with his growth into this craft. He spoke of how his brother didn't like the easy, simple things but more things of sophistication. Never settling for good, it always had to be Extra Excellent. Whether he knew it or not I believe Stephen saw that characteristic and that is why he has been the great successful writer/filmmaker he is.
ReplyDeleteAside from the laughs, there was one thing that he has said so far that I truly agree with him about. He said, "Not one writer was made; I don't believe writers can be made, either by circumstances or by self will." He also believed that there are a great number of people who possess some type of talent as writers or storytellers, and that their talent can be strengthened and sharpened. I truly believe that because I feel that many people have the talent but they doubt their talent. Writers truly are not made, because being a writer comes from putting your ideas and imagination to work along with what you have experienced in life.
@Charlie.....Truly writing is difficult because I think at first we tend to believe it is simple. There are many obstacles that form in your way as time, having a loaded mind, and low means of creativeness. I experience these when I look at my poems that I right and it seems that all my poems I've written have the same type feel to them. I want to explore more issues, feelings, but it just seems hard to channel in to myself what i'm not used too. So really you have to take something that is outside your character and put it into your character until you have a balance that you are comfortable with. ONce you do that then.....anything is possible...
ReplyDelete@CarolAnn...Yes noise interferences can be a problem and a challenge too. When I write I tend to like absolute silence. But there are times when i'm on a creative tip and I want something extra, and I might play some r&b or rap to get me into the mood I need to create what I'm trying to write. But that's not necessarily saying that it will work like that for you lol!
ReplyDeleteGeorge V. Higgins says: he avoids reading fiction when he is writing a novel for fear that the style of the writer he is reading will be copied by him into what he is writing. But he has to read something: so he recommends reading 'creative non-fiction' and lists a bunch of writers, including William Manchester.
ReplyDelete@Kimberly....those quotes are powerful...especially the one about "writing a novel is like driving a car at night, you can only see as far as the headlights." That's true and I say that because you have to write what you know. I feel that if all writers were the same and wrote about the same thing, writing would be boring. So in writing you have to know how to stay in your lane just as if you were driving a car. We all have high expectations of our writing because of our fascinations of thoughts in our head and we want to include every little thought. You can't expect to be great right at the beginning, because it takes time which is where a lot of beginner writers go wrong. So that was a good quote which to me means, work on your level, and be the best that you can be!
ReplyDeleteHey everyone, sorry to be getting on so late, I have been extremely I'll this week. But like I said in class, I'm reading "The Writing Life" by Ellen Gilchrist. I have enjoyed this book thus far. She talks about how much she loves Shakespeare plays. But she didn't develop that love until her fifties. Which goes back to what Ms. G says, "writers read." I'm not a huge fan of Shakespeare but also when I last read it it was early in high school. But Ellen talks about how as a writer it is good to read Shakespeare's works in the order that it was written because you can see the progression and the mistakes an amateur writer makes. I like that point of view because I think most of us has written something and then looked back at it and sees the mistakes we made and then write something better.Shakespeare must have experienced that many times.
ReplyDeleteI think Ellen Gilchrist makes a good point,to read a writer that you like and hopefully has written more than one thing and you can see the progression of works and as she says, it is inspiring as a writer to read that.
I meant ill not I'll in my first sentence* my autocorrect fixed it when I had not typed it wrong.
ReplyDeleteTo Mrs. Betty-
ReplyDeleteHang in there, the age gap is no big deal when you have the support from all of us :)
And I think it is great that you are going out of your comfort zone because most people would have been intimidated and not tried it.
To Terron-
ReplyDeleteI think it is a good point of view to kinda keep quiet about what you're writing about. If you do that you write about what YOU want without others critiquing what you are writing. And when he says you never know what you've really got until you're done writing it seems true. I like that point because you may have the worst piece of writing ever, a learning experience, or you could have a piece that really appeals to other people. Either way it is a good thing in my point of view. It sounds like you picked a good writer to learn ways from!
To Mary Kay-
ReplyDeleteI agree it is difficult to think of myself as a writer to. I mean we all writer so are we writers? Or what would really classify a writer, getting published or simply writing? I think it is somewhere in between. I think it depends on how you feel towards your writing.
It probably would be easier to think of yourself as a writer if your parent was one probably because you would have something in common with that parent. They would understand your need/want/desire to write. Then again they could be that miserable type of writer and totally discourage it. I guess it is all in the cards you're laid.
To Carol Ann-
ReplyDeleteI think it is great to go with the zen approach. I normally try to write when it is nice and quiet. Or when the tv is turned down low enough that I can barely hear it, just a little noise but not understandable. I get distracted if it is much more noise than that.
Although I do see how others may use different types of music to be inspiring, maybe if we pick the kind specific to what exactly we're writing about like Kira said that may not be as distracting. I just usually think I got enough thoughs in my head that I need quiet to organize them.
Look forward to seeing what approaches Natalie Goldberg offers!
To Chelsea, So true. Disorganized, frenzied noise is very distracting. But a low TV or radio is good. I also find that a clean space is best for me, but we are building so that gets a little harder to keep up during my work week.
ReplyDeleteTo MaryKay: I agree. Even after having a column for which I had been paid, I still felt like a student. I think I always will, but you never stop learning and evolving in your craft.
ReplyDeleteTo Carol Ann,
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying, when you say characters must be memorable. If people forget who the main characters are then they will probably forget about the story itself.
Chelsea,
ReplyDeleteThat is an interesting fact about her not loving Shakespear until she is in her fifties. I guess in time she matured and found the love for him. When you are young you sometimes don't appreciate all the good things. I am guessing that no writer start perfectly. There are bound to be bumps that must be learned over time.