http://www.slideshare.net/wjbriggs/25-writing-tips-from-25-great-writers?ref=http://episodicmag.blogspot.com/
Which piece of advice in the slide show above means the most to you? Why?
Tell me something I ought to know about you that will help me help
you as a writer -- your aspirations, your fears and doubts, etc.
Your comments should be as clear
and complete as you can make them in a blog post. Remember this is my
introduction to your writing. Impress me. Or at least don't bore me.
(Lesson #1: Boring readers is among the worst things you can do to them.
What's the worst? Probably to unintentionally confuse them.)
Please respond no later than Sunday at 4 p.m.
20 comments:
I am particularly drawn to the quote "all good writing is swimming underwater and holding your breath", because this is how i often feel when writing. Whether it be for a news article or some poetry i write in my spare time, I am almost always just only breaching the surface. I feel like the essence of what is important is sunken to the bottom like some sort of buried treasure. Although I was given the tools to reach the story I never leave the process feeling like I finally reached anything significant for the reader. I know this because i don't leave feeling accomplished. I am constantly holding my breath trying to give it everything I have but it always seems like i have missed the point to something that could have been more worth while. This quote just reiterates the pressures that can be on writers to search for gold.
I really like the quote by Ben Franklin: "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing". I love this quote because I often get stuck when I write. I am much more of a creative writer than a journalistic writer (in terms of relatively strict definition) and I find it really difficult to pull something out of the air if I have never experienced anything like it. I watched a Ted Talks the other day about a guy who wanted to go to Antarctica and didn't want to do a tourism program. His solution to this problem was to take a bus. He took bus after bus after bus from Washington D.C. down through Texas, through Mexico, and all the way down to the most southern tip of South America. From there, he hopped on a boat and went to Antarctica. He had so many stories and real life experiences, any of which are worth writing about. I truly feel that some of the best writers are inspired by things they've done or heard of others doing. I think those are the best types of stories.
I feel that the quote by William Zinsser, “clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions pompous frills and meaningless jargon” resonates with me the best. As a writer, I try to write to please whoever the reader may be. For me, adding extra information and not getting straight to the point is something I struggle with most. Although I know what I want to write, it just takes a couple extra, unnecessary words to get there. As an aspiring journalist that is what I need to stray away from; the extra “stuff.” To attain the reader’s interest, while also doing so in the perfect amount of words is something that I aspire to change. I want to write what is important, and want the reader to understand it from both my perspective and their own, but do so in a meaningful way that doesn’t use additional stuff to get their. To inform the reader and get their undivided attention is a task within itself, but hopefully in my future endeavors I can do so without having to try and entertain them to get this attention.
I think the piece of advice that resonated with me the most was Ben Franklin’s:
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
Short and sweet, but it still manages to convey two rather important points: firstly, that what you write should be worth actually reading; and secondly, that one cannot actually do that until you’ve gone out and experienced life for yourself. The most talented writers are the ones inspired by events in their own life, the ones whose experiences have managed to make it so that no one sounds quite like them, that no one has quite the same perspective. Furthermore, these are the writers you really want to read, because the way they view events is always startling and new, and it always forces you to think. To me, that’s the whole point of writing to begin with.
However, that doesn’t mean I believe that writing is for other people. As a writer, I believe you shouldn’t try to be unique or impressive; you should just speak your mind and be yourself. The best way to get someone to listen to what you’re saying is just to say it—which perhaps coincides with Oscar Wilde’s advice more than Franklin’s. In any case, I aspire to be the type of writer that forces people to examine the way they think, without altering or censoring how I feel.
As silly as it seems, I love Raymond Chandler's advice: "When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand." Maybe it's not the best thing to do with a piece of journalism, something that relies on the truth, but it could definitely help someone stalled on a piece of fiction (and I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows that feeling). It's not about the drama the man with the gun would provide, I don't think, nor is it something that has to show up in the finished piece. To me, it's about what the man with the gun would inspire in your characters.
Who would jump in front of the bullet, if a shot was fired, and who or what would that person be protecting? Who would do just the opposite and cower under a table? Would a bullet be fired at all? Maybe not, if someone in the room was brave enough to stand up and reason with the gunman. Is that impromptu negotiator always this calm under pressure, or is it just the adrenaline talking? Maybe someone in the room is a veteran, or a bank teller who was once in a hostage situation; maybe he or she panics at the sight of a gun. Maybe someone in the room is the target of a hit, and this many people in the room wasn't part of the plan...
Aren't the possibilities endless? I love to think about them, myself, and like I said, it's not even that I would leave the scene in the final piece. I would just drop that man with a gun into a room with my characters and see who responded in what way. It's not a common scenario and that's what makes it a good one--by its sheer unexpectedness, it would bring out the best and worst in characters I was having trouble pinning down. I'd know things about them I hadn't known before starting the scene, and armed (forgive the pun) with that, I could rescue those characters from the mad gunman and put them back to work.
There were a few quotes in the slideshow that made me laugh but the one that resonates with me the most, at least today- is the one by H.L. Mencken. "There are no dull subjects, only dull writers."
As a writer you have some freedom of time, you can write and rewrite and hope for new inspiration... but as a journalist sometimes we have to write things that are not inherently interesting. That doesn't mean we're not responsible for making them interesting. That to me is the challenge, writing a story on deadline, having it be as unbiased as possible, and having it be relatable to the reader in some way or at least compete for their time to read it.
What I hope to get out of this class is to learn a new style of writing, gain more experience and hopefully the skill of speaking my own voice without drowning out the message.
Almost forgot... my favorite quote wasn't in the slideshow.
"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." -Hemingway
The quote that stuck out for me was said by Mark Twain. "The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you being to clearly & logically perceive what it it that you really want to say."
I see so much truth in this because the only way to really accomplish what you want to say in an article is by writing, writing and rewriting. With just the skeleton of an article, you have a vague idea of what needs to be said. But with a finished article, you can see what still hasn't been said and what still needs to be said. When I have completed an article, I have a more vast understanding of what it is truly about and what the main point or argument is. In my mind, an article is never finished because there is always so much more that can be added or substituted. To be truly satisfied with something i've written, I need to take a step back when I think it's finished and then get right back into the heart of it.
The quote that meant the most to me was the Vonnegut quote, "Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted."
To me, the purpose of writing is to lose part of yourself to a page and words. Then, if you are giving your writing away for public consumption you need to say something larger. The kind of writing that forces the reader to identify something about themselves or about humanity or society as a larger entity is the stuff that's worth writing. I don't think writers should write for their audience initially, but there is a necessity to give your reader something.
In writing, I am doubtful that what I have to say means enough to be written down. Every time I sit down to write I think about Bukowski's poem, "So You Want to Be a Writer" and I worry that the writing isn't coming out of the visceral place, it isn't bursting out of my gut to be written. Then, even if it does feel so internal, once I write it down I am doubtful of the poignancy of my own experience which leaves my writing feeling dull and listless.
The advice that means to most to me is definitely H.L. Mencken’s quote, “there are no dull subjects. There are only dull writers.” The difference between good writers and bad writers is that good writers can make the mundane, dull details of life into something vibrant and interesting. Dull subjects don’t exist if you can approach them in a new way and that’s what I always strive to do in my writing— approach things in a new way. I don’t want to use tired language and clichés to try to make people connect to my work. I want my journalistic writing to be just as linguistically appealing as my creative work. I think writing should be crafted to be beautiful regardless of the subject.
My favorite quote of the bunch was Kurt Vonnegut’s advice to, “Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.” I hope that no one would ever consider an experience with me as a waste of time, but more importantly, I don’t want to waste my own time with dull human beings, myself included. I want to be a writer for some very selfish reasons: to be able to expose myself to a wide variety of people and experiences; to make a living off expressing and learning about myself; and then have the people ooh and ah at my eloquent, insightful depiction of it all. Most of all, I want to feed my soul to the world. And then write down where we go.
More benevolently, I’m interested in making truth more accessible to those of us who seek it. Writers have the choice of exposing themselves or the world; great writers do both, seamlessly and almost appearing to not have meant to. I had a professor last semester who called journalists “the moderators of a great conversation,” and I feel that being able to bring life into experiences, so that they were are not a waste of time, is necessary to make the conversation meaningful or true. That’s what got me into this, in the first place—the admirable goal of trying to say something meaningful or true.
I liked Hemingway's quote "Work Every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before, get up & bit the nail," best. I interpreted it as perseverance to continue to work regardless of whatever happened to you. I think that while I am very good at moving on and not letting myself get winded by what's going on in my life, there are moments and people and events that have caused me to wallow and put me out of commission longer than I would like to. I think what Hemingway is trying to say is that you can't drown into yourself and you need to work so you have a life vest to keep you from doing so. I think this is one of my biggest problems as a writer as well. I think I'll think too much about something I'm trying to write that I get so deep in I can't claw myself out and put pen to paper. I don't know if it's that I go to deep or if I am just nuts and am too afraid to see my feelings and have them speak back to me. I try to be above a lot of what I feel and think and while I know and feel that what I think and feel is normal, I don't think my writing is speaking that to me just yet. There's a disconnect between myself and what my writing says to me sometimes, and I just want to get over that. I have this deep craving to please others, but I think the person I need to please most right now is myself. As selfish and awful as that sounds, I think you can't write selflessly and completely free of your desires in your writing. If you can't like what you put on paper, how can you expect anyone else to?
The quote that struck the biggest chord in me was definitely from H.L. Mencken: "There are no dull subjects, there are only dull writers." I have definitely struggled to write about certain topics because of how interesting they were, and then I discover other writers who are able to approach a seemingly dull topic from a new angle. After watching a documentary in Feature Writing class last semester about a parking lot, I am convinced that any subject, regardless of how "dull" it seems, can be written about or reported on in an interesting way. I guess one of my biggest fears is that people will stop seeing my writing as anything original, which is why one of my goals is to maintain my own unique voice within everything I do.
I think I can relate most to Jack London's piece of advice "You can't wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club." As much as I love writing, I haven't written creatively for a little while now, not for a lack of wanting to but because I simply don't know what to write about. I think if I have a set idea or topic I want to write about then the words come and I'm able to really get into it, but my biggest struggle is really figuring out what I want to write about and what I want to say about it. In terms of this class, I think that will be my biggest challenge, as I feel like I have no incredibly interesting or moving experiences or stories to tell, but there must be something in there and I just need to dig it up. I really think this advice is quite perfect actually. I can't sit around trying to rack my brain for things to write about, I need to go out there and find the spark and go after the inspiration myself. I know that if I'm able to find the the right inspiration and the right subject and the right story to tell then I will have overcome my biggest challenge in writing.
The quote "there are no dull subjects; there are only dull writers" is really inspiring to me. As journalists, we may be assigned to report on stories we may think are boring, but it is our job to make the story interesting. In Journalism 2, I learned to find something unique while reporting and to bring an unexpected element into an otherwise "dull" story. While reporting, and also while reading others' stories, I try to notice how the story is made more interesting and how it would otherwise be boring.
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I particularly like Richard Wright’s quote about hurling “words into the dark”. Sometimes, in order for me to find or reach a unique thought or feeling when I write, I need to hurl words into a dark abyss. Often a word or sentence might strike an old bell or cluster of memories that clank, ring, or scream when hit. It’s a good idea to describe the sounds that come back. Writing is the pursuit of mental vibrations. If I ever capture essence in writing, it’s like a bright apparition slips through the pores of my mind and rings a large heavy bell. The resounding powerful vibrations color my thoughts and I see the world through orange sunglasses.
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