Writing Process

[Dhara]

I've decided to channel most of my interest in writing to journaling instead of posting on forums.

I thought I'd start a thread for writers and we could encourage each other.

 

[IsaacNewton]

Read. All writers should read everything in sight. You assimilate the way various people construct something. You also see what doesn't work, very important.

 

[MisterBeale]

Read. All writers should read everything in sight. You assimilate the way various people construct something. You also see what doesn't work, very important.

Believe it or not, one of America's greatest author's disagrees with you. He felt that the more you read, the more you cloud your own voice and muddled your own thoughts. IOW, it messed with your originality.

Other than history and biography, he rarely read. Interesting but true.

Mark Twain quotations - Reading

 

[koshergrl]

I've decided to channel most of my interest in writing to journaling instead of posting on forums.

I thought I'd start a thread for writers and we could encourage each other.

Oh lord, not this again.

There's already an entire forum set aside for bad writers to write badly in, where they are forced to treat each other as if their writing is coherent and worthwhile.

 

[Dhara]

Read. All writers should read everything in sight. You assimilate the way various people construct something. You also see what doesn't work, very important.

I'm a voracious reader.

 

[koshergrl]

Read. All writers should read everything in sight. You assimilate the way various people construct something. You also see what doesn't work, very important.

Believe it or not, one of America's greatest author's disagrees with you. He felt that the more you read, the more you cloud your own voice and muddled your own thoughts. IOW, it messed with your originality.

Other than history and biography, he rarely read. Interesting but true.

Mark Twain quotations - Reading

Maybe he was being funny!

Mark Twain was wicked that way lolol.

 

[Dhara]

I've decided to channel most of my interest in writing to journaling instead of posting on forums.

I thought I'd start a thread for writers and we could encourage each other.

Oh lord, not this again.

There's already an entire forum set aside for bad writers to write badly in, where they are forced to treat each other as if their writing is coherent and worthwhile.

Hey, you don't like the topic, post elsewhere.

 

[koshergrl]

Read. All writers should read everything in sight. You assimilate the way various people construct something. You also see what doesn't work, very important.

Actually..writers should spend their time WRITING. Otherwise, they aren't writers, they're READERS. There's a difference.

I've been writing like crazy lately woo hoo. Working on two newsletters..one is mine, the other is work.

 

[koshergrl]

I've decided to channel most of my interest in writing to journaling instead of posting on forums.

I thought I'd start a thread for writers and we could encourage each other.

Oh lord, not this again.

There's already an entire forum set aside for bad writers to write badly in, where they are forced to treat each other as if their writing is coherent and worthwhile.

Hey, you don't like the topic, post elsewhere.

I can not like the topic, AND post. See how that works?

 

[Dhara]

I've decided to channel most of my interest in writing to journaling instead of posting on forums.

I thought I'd start a thread for writers and we could encourage each other.

Oh lord, not this again.

There's already an entire forum set aside for bad writers to write badly in, where they are forced to treat each other as if their writing is coherent and worthwhile.

Hey, you don't like the topic, post elsewhere.

I can not like the topic, AND post. See how that works?

Get lost.

 

[IsaacNewton]

Read. All writers should read everything in sight. You assimilate the way various people construct something. You also see what doesn't work, very important.

Believe it or not, one of America's greatest author's disagrees with you. He felt that the more you read, the more you cloud your own voice and muddled your own thoughts. IOW, it messed with your originality.

Other than history and biography, he rarely read. Interesting but true.

Mark Twain quotations - Reading

Hard to disagree with Mark Twain but I disagree with Mark Twain. It is hard to believe he didn't read anything in his life.

Great film makers watch movies, painters don't only look at blank canvases, musicians emulate those they like.

For all artists you start standing on the shoulders of those that came before, then you find your own voice or let it take the lead, then you get moving on your own.

Spielberg says many times when he is in the process of making a movie he will go home and watch movies to get ideas for a scene. Johnny Depp watched many old pirate movies, looked at various people for character traits, then he created the character Jack Sparrow in his own voice. The actors around him were confused by the way he chose to portray that character. But watching the movies you think, how else could it have been done?

There does comes a time when your own voice becomes the only one you listen to, no matter what anyone else says. And of course if ignoring all the world works for you then by all means go that route. It is definitely an individual thing and no two people will have the same process.

 

[koshergrl]

Read. All writers should read everything in sight. You assimilate the way various people construct something. You also see what doesn't work, very important.

Believe it or not, one of America's greatest author's disagrees with you. He felt that the more you read, the more you cloud your own voice and muddled your own thoughts. IOW, it messed with your originality.

Other than history and biography, he rarely read. Interesting but true.

Mark Twain quotations - Reading

Hard to disagree with Mark Twain but I disagree with Mark Twain. It is hard to believe he didn't read anything in his life.

Great film makers watch movies, painters don't only look at blank canvases, musicians emulate those they like.

For all artists you start standing on the shoulders of those that came before, then you find your own voice or let it take the lead, then you get moving on your own.

Spielberg says many times when he is in the process of making a movie he will go home and watch movies to get ideas for a scene. Johnny Depp watched many old pirate movies, looked at various people for character traits, then he created the character Jack Sparrow in his own voice. The actors around him were confused by the way he chose to portray that character. But watching the movies you think, how else could it have been done?

There does comes a time when your own voice becomes the only one you listen to, no matter what anyone else says. And of course if ignoring all the world works for you then by all means go that route. It is definitely an individual thing and no two people will have the same process.

He didn't say he didn't read anything. He said he read history and biography. There is a lot of material that is covered by that.

 

[koshergrl]

All the reading in the world isn't going to help you if you don't understand the words that are written.

And that, in turn, will prevent you from being a good writer.

 

[Dhara]

Writing alot makes a difference. Meeting up with other writers and having writing dates is fun. Taking writing classes have always been inspiring for me. What works for you?

 

[Dhara]

All the reading in the world isn't going to help you if you don't understand the words that are written.

And that, in turn, will prevent you from being a good writer.

What newsletters do you write? Church? Job?

 

[Dhara]

I like this site:

https://killzoneblog.com/

 

[MisterBeale]

All the reading in the world isn't going to help you if you don't understand the words that are written.

And that, in turn, will prevent you from being a good writer.

Agreed.

What IsaacNewton was describing was how Hollywood types and 5th Ave. regurgitate pop culture and what intellectuals do to create art. Is it any wonder the same swill we are consuming is little different than what we consumed in the 1970's?

I think there is a substantive difference between pop culture and high art.

Oh irony of ironies. . .

 

[IsaacNewton]

Writing alot makes a difference. Meeting up with other writers and having writing dates is fun. Taking writing classes have always been inspiring for me. What works for you?

Yes writing alot of course. If you want to write, then you write.

Some writers prefer a blank page and then they begin without any preconceived ideas. I can't do that. I have the general story already figured out and then have to set about filling in the story and that part is more stream of consciousness. Characters I find grow naturally out of the story line. If you are a sub captain in the navy then the story is going to be populated with the other people on the sub, the captain's family, and his superior officers. Likely people of an opposing military.

If the story is set in a prison, like Shawshank Redemption, then it will have other inmaters, guards, the Warden, lawyers, as characters. And consider that story for a moment. It is merely a retelling of a jail break story we've seen a thousand times. The big twist is the escape tunnel behind the poster on the wall. The original short story by Stephen King is titled Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption.

A story usually follows an arc. The main character is faced with an obstacle and the story follows him/her through all the hurdles to get over the obstacle, and the main character is tranformed into something new at the end. Usually in some way he/she had not forseen. Other characters may also be transformed, or they may be transformed in an opposite direction. Harvey Dent goes from being a squeaky clean almost better than Batman crime fighter to a vile new villlain at the end. But it is an arc.

 

[IsaacNewton]

Dhara, Beale suffers in misery and like most who do is vomiting on your thread. If you want to start a new one I'll be glad to join in. This site lends itself to the angries of the world. It likely isn't the best site to discuss writing.

 

[Dhara]

I've never completed a story. I've started a number of them but haven't brought them to completion.