To be honest, the only reason I write various stuff is because I want share my thoughts with others and hear something in reply. Doing this, however, slowly but steadily makes me dig into writing – you know, THAT writing, with a capital W.
So, now that I have some practice, I can say something about it. Or, more precisely, about my paradoxical approach to dealing with it.
Believe it or not, I think that there isn’t anything less related to writing than a pen and a notebook. OK, a typewriter (okay, okay – a computer).
When I write, I need to think about what I write about – not about writing, and immerse myself in those thoughts like they are what is actually happening to me. I imagine that and the picture must be so bright in my imagination that it would make me forget that I’m actually just sitting there banging on my laptop’s keyboard, and only if I manage to keep it going like this until the whole piece is finished, I can say that it’s worth being published.
Must be bloody exhausting
I think most writers acknowledge that the ‘fire of inspiration’ is rare, and much of Writing is learning techniques so you can write in between these moments!
Techniques? To tell the truth, I never make any conscious efforts when it comes to improving my writing skills – I just read or write as much as I can, and the rest depends on how my brain cells are genetically programmed to rub together. So, something sinks in quickly, and something else just doesn’t – no matter how hard I try, and I neither know nor decide what the logic behind this is.
Of course, there are some conventions, but, as I see it, they are mostly about packaging texts for delivery to certain types of reading minds. Some like it when you show and don’t tell, others may like it when you tell and don’t show. The question is, who are you going to write for and what do they want? That’s the formal part of literary education.
Writing in between moments of inspiration?
To me, it sounds like having sex without being aroused – I mean, one can make himself do that, but what’s the point? And, don’t get me wrong, but I think that expecting readers to enjoy reading what you didn’t enjoy writing seems like looking down on them (well, just a bit, at least.)
I find your argument very odd.
Writing is like anything else – it benefits from learning.
If I were to pick up a guitar and just bash at it, I’m sure I could make interesting noises. But to play in a way which others might wish to hear, or at least could understand, I should learn some chords.
Granted there’s no need to learn scales and theory if you just want to busk some pop hits – but some structure is required.
The difference with writing is that language is our primary expression of self, and it’s reflexive. The more ways to use language you learn, the more you can express. Learning more about language literally makes you more of a person, enables you to have deeper and more complex experiences.
Just imagine having no words at all for anger, or love, or happy. How could you express on your blog ‘happy’, without the word ‘happy’, or ‘delighted’, or ‘pleased’ etc? So you could not share ‘happy’ as an experience.
Since sharing is a necessary element of experience (we are social selves – our lives only have meaning in our sharing of selves) – an inability to share is a restriction of our ability to experience.
Equally, if you didn’t know grammar, you couldn’t make sense to others so couldn’t express yourself at all.
I respect not wanting to Write (capital W), but the uniqueness of language is it’s capacity to simultaneously express, shape, change and ‘enlarge’ the language user – who wouldn’t want that?
The last point about ‘enjoying’ is that actually it’s not like sex without arousal, it’s like love. Loving another means enjoying the times things are all effortlessly aflame, and working hard for each other when times are difficult. The idea that love simply makes it all burning passion all the time is a nonsense – love requires work. Likewise, I hope the reader respects that the author cares enough about them that they have worked even when it’s hard in order to get the story to them. Far from looking down on the reader, it’s a dedication to them.
Personally I find the idea that one might expect to be read even though one couldn’t be bothered to learn how to write very well far more dismissive of the reader.
>I find your argument very odd.
I’m not surprised, given that we see the whole thing on different levels, from different angles and in different light.
>Writing is like anything else – it benefits from learning.
Who told you that I was against learning? What I’m trying to say is that past a certain point, there is so much to learn that the conventional approach no longer works. Ask any psychologist – and he’ll tell you that simply committing grammar rules and words to memory is the least effective way to learn a language.
>language is our primary expression of self
That’s extremely arguable, unless you say that you’re talking about body language, tone of voice, etc., too. Nearly everything that happens conveys a message, and different ways of interpretation.
>The idea that love simply makes it all burning passion all the time is a nonsense – love requires work.
Love means there’s still some positive energy – the kind of energy that makes it in some way pleasant to work and suffer for someone or something you love.
>I hope the reader respects
To be honest, I only care about whether a piece of work impresses me or not. Though I think it’s better if the writer has fun writing – and reading what he writes, too.
>Personally I find the idea that one might expect to be read even though one couldn’t be bothered to learn how to write very well far more dismissive of the reader.
By the way, I think that it’s impossible to enjoy doing what you can’t do well.
I only write when I have something to say and requires very little thinking other than making sure the words/grammar are constructed in a way that will make sense to the reader. If I have to “think” about what to write, I will get distracted and lose sight of what is within me that needs to be written, thus I don’t write for the sake of writing. Also, I don’t write to gain acceptance or admiration because that has an expectation attached to it. Writing to me is an expression of my inner-self and therapy for my mind. So, we all have something that motivates us to write…no reason being right or wrong. All that matters is that we Write. Right?
>All that matters is that we Write. Right?
Exactly. Though the rest of the comment demonstrates how differently people can deal with the same thing. To me, thinking -is- writing, and writing isn’t much about words at all.