I know that all writers have to start somewhere. But, my goodness. What did people do before the Internet?
I'll tell you, because I started writing back before even Gopher was around. You read books. Lots and lots of books. Everything that interested you. Books on writing, if you could find them. But mostly the type of stuff you wanted to write. Eventually, if you read enough, and emulated enough, and practiced enough, the basics of writing would sink through your pores and into your brain and come back out through your pen.
Can anyone learn to write well? Yes, I believe so. Some people are born with the ability to transfer their thoughts to the written word with ease, with their own voice and magical flow already in place. Most of us, though, have to work at it. We spend years perfecting our skills, and even when we're good, we can still be better. But that's the key: WORK.
Jumping online, Googling "writing" and posting questions on a forum for people to teach you all about writing is not WORK. It's a shortcut.
WORK is spending time learning how to write instead of assuming you already know how. It's brushing up on grammar, how to form sentences, how to use punctuation. It's learning how to read like a writer, objectively, analytically. It's understanding that writing is an art and a skill that needs to be honed and nourished, and knowing that if you want to be a writer, YOU need to do the WORK.
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TOPAZ status: Just finished Chapter 30 this morning. I think I have about three chapters left. That's...kind of scary.
4 comments:
Work. That's basically what it boils down to. Talent can only get you so far. A painter doesn't just start painting masterpieces because he has the image in his head. He has to learn how to maneuver the brushes, mix the colors, etc, etc. And he has to practice (read "work" here). It doesn't happen overnight.
I'm still amazed at the misconceptions people have about what really does go into producing a story of any length, but especially, novels. Good grief. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard THIS over the past year...
"Is your book done yet?"
"No. Still polishing."
*look of confusion, or maybe, concern for my mental health*
"So when can I see it?"
"Get back to me in three years, give or take, after I finish polishing, snag an agent, sell it to a publisher, go through extensive rewrites (again) with a professional editor, and they finally print and bind it and put it on a shelf."
*blank stare*
"That'll be five cents, please. Consider it a donation toward aiding the plight of an author."
Absolutely true. Non-writers don't understand that just because you've finished a novel doesn't mean it's anywhere close to being published or even publishable.
Hiya Jenn. It's Jon, aka Denim Trousers from the forums.
Anyway, I thought I'd give an example of what you're discussing here. When Dr Hunter S Thompson -- the famous Gonzo journalist known for many things, particularly Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -- was starting out, before he got his gig to follow around the Hell's Angels, he would sit at a typewriter and copy The Great Gatsby word-for-word til his fingers bled. Well, maybe not that far, but he still did it. His method of learning how to write was to copy the book he admired the most, the one that he identified with the best, and then to take that processed knowledge and turn it into his own writings. He did a lot of real work when he was learning, and kept at it until he got that one big break.
That's actually similar to how I learned to write, although I didn't take it to the extreme of copying out a book word-for-word. When I was in my teens and really starting to get into writing, I decided to emulate the style of my favourite author at the time, Mercedes Lackey. Something about her style appealed to me and I loved her books, especially the urban fantasy ones. (Gah, another author I forgot in my reading list! I'll have to make a Part Two.) By emulating her style, I was able to find my own style and my own voice. As I've gotten older and written more, my style has grown as well, and, I think, without that firm basis for its creation, it wouldn't have turned out so well.
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