Write or DIE! |OT|
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Are you a novelist with the next Pulitzer brewing in your head but not a sentence written?
Are you the next Nobel Prize-winning poet incensed with iambs and tussling with trochees?
Are you an aspiring journalist getting blown away by the beat-writer blues?
Are you an esteemed essayist on your ninth draft of your introduction?
Are you a busy blogger who destroys drafts daily with a large following posting your stuff on Twitter?
This topic is for you.
But first, I provide here a generous bombardment of motivation. Choose one of your liking, print it and place it in the most conspicuous locations everywhere you frequent.
It is no mistake that great writers are also voracious readers, but one can be a voracious reader yet struggle with writing. The factors for this vary from limited time to lacking inspiration to feeling inadequate to perfectionism.
Personally I’m proud to be published academically in the same book as one Henry Louis Gates Jr., but not proud of what I produced to be published. The proportion of fun derived from giving people intellectual smack-downs in esoteric academise is anemic compared to the fun I had producing stuff originally for my personal pleasure—drafts of characters for some work(s) of fiction that I have no real plans to finish, and writing about video games.
When a quarter-life crisis forced me out of the academia, I felt like a man without a country when I entered into “the real world.” Americans are watchers of TV and YouTube rather than readers and writers. Anyone with a FB account has probably resisted the urge to punch their monitor every time they see someone mistake “their” for “there.”
I called myself starting a blog, not caring if anyone read it or not, because I had to write again to relieve the pressure of the ideas building in my head before I suffered from cerebral edema. Fortunately, a HS friend of mine who became a journalist joined a website. He contributed to their comics section on a volunteer basis. I asked if they could use someone writing on video games. They agreed. That’s when I began my hunger for views.
I have since left that site and joined another that is a more agreeable fit. Still, it has its own set of problems. One of them being that there are a couple of creative writers there, but nobody formally trained. Because of this, I have trouble getting anyone to provide feedback for my stuff. Intimidated? Un(der)qualified? Apathetic? I do not know, but it’s frustrating when your peers are not acting like peers. I have gone back through a few of my works and noticed poor word choices or redundancies.
Everyone takes their writing personally, because it is difficult to sever the connection between work and self. My writing is a part of me, so a criticism of my writing is a criticism of me. Thus, there is the conundrum of making ourselves vulnerable to criticism so that we can get better.
For any of you writers out there, if you need a reader, suggestions, motivation for writing, or just want to get some clicks for your creations, I invite you to publish or link up your stuff here! If nobody else cares, know that *I* will.
Some tangible examples of things I would personally like to work on:
1. Eliminating reliance on constructions of being—am, is, are, was, were, has, have, and had
From: This game is excellent.
To: This game exudes excellence.
Rarely do I encounter an occasion where a “being” verb is stronger than a(n) (in)transitive.
2. Expand vocabulary. Who doesn’t want to do this—learn new words? The key here is to sound intelligent, but not like a tryhard who just learned a word like “anachronism” and wants to use it where it doesn’t belong. The other part of this is completely eliminating colloquial adverbs such as “quite” and “extremely.”
3.eliminate passive voice. I'm generally good at this, but like #1, it's a struggle.
I feel that that the digital Thesauruses are inadequate. If I try to find a better word for “big,” none of them will ever suggest “voluminous,” so I have to keep my own personal Thesaurus open in a separate document as I write. Sometimes I take a few words out of it and put it on a sticky note on my desktop: “Make sure you use these ONCE in this essay!” it says.
Do Yo Thang!
(this topic is inspired by IWMTB19, who posted three of his writings in another thread)
Are you the next Nobel Prize-winning poet incensed with iambs and tussling with trochees?
Are you an aspiring journalist getting blown away by the beat-writer blues?
Are you an esteemed essayist on your ninth draft of your introduction?
Are you a busy blogger who destroys drafts daily with a large following posting your stuff on Twitter?
This topic is for you.
But first, I provide here a generous bombardment of motivation. Choose one of your liking, print it and place it in the most conspicuous locations everywhere you frequent.
It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.
- Ernest Hemingway
It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.
- C. J. Cherryh
Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything.
- Philip K. Dick
The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn’t require any.
- Russell Baker
People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it.
- Harlan Ellison
Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for?
-Alice Walker
People do not deserve to have good writing, they are so pleased with bad.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.
-Toni Morrison
I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.
- Erica Jong
I can’t write five words but that I change seven.
- Dorothy Parker
I felt that I had to write. Even if I had never been published, I knew that I would go on writing, enjoying it and experiencing the challenge.
-Gwendolyn Brooks
Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.
- Barbara Kingsolver
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
Some critics will write 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.
-Maya Angelou
Writing is its own reward.
- Henry Miller
The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with.
Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.
- William Faulkner
It is no mistake that great writers are also voracious readers, but one can be a voracious reader yet struggle with writing. The factors for this vary from limited time to lacking inspiration to feeling inadequate to perfectionism.
Personally I’m proud to be published academically in the same book as one Henry Louis Gates Jr., but not proud of what I produced to be published. The proportion of fun derived from giving people intellectual smack-downs in esoteric academise is anemic compared to the fun I had producing stuff originally for my personal pleasure—drafts of characters for some work(s) of fiction that I have no real plans to finish, and writing about video games.
When a quarter-life crisis forced me out of the academia, I felt like a man without a country when I entered into “the real world.” Americans are watchers of TV and YouTube rather than readers and writers. Anyone with a FB account has probably resisted the urge to punch their monitor every time they see someone mistake “their” for “there.”
I called myself starting a blog, not caring if anyone read it or not, because I had to write again to relieve the pressure of the ideas building in my head before I suffered from cerebral edema. Fortunately, a HS friend of mine who became a journalist joined a website. He contributed to their comics section on a volunteer basis. I asked if they could use someone writing on video games. They agreed. That’s when I began my hunger for views.
I have since left that site and joined another that is a more agreeable fit. Still, it has its own set of problems. One of them being that there are a couple of creative writers there, but nobody formally trained. Because of this, I have trouble getting anyone to provide feedback for my stuff. Intimidated? Un(der)qualified? Apathetic? I do not know, but it’s frustrating when your peers are not acting like peers. I have gone back through a few of my works and noticed poor word choices or redundancies.
Everyone takes their writing personally, because it is difficult to sever the connection between work and self. My writing is a part of me, so a criticism of my writing is a criticism of me. Thus, there is the conundrum of making ourselves vulnerable to criticism so that we can get better.
For any of you writers out there, if you need a reader, suggestions, motivation for writing, or just want to get some clicks for your creations, I invite you to publish or link up your stuff here! If nobody else cares, know that *I* will.
Some tangible examples of things I would personally like to work on:
1. Eliminating reliance on constructions of being—am, is, are, was, were, has, have, and had
From: This game is excellent.
To: This game exudes excellence.
Rarely do I encounter an occasion where a “being” verb is stronger than a(n) (in)transitive.
2. Expand vocabulary. Who doesn’t want to do this—learn new words? The key here is to sound intelligent, but not like a tryhard who just learned a word like “anachronism” and wants to use it where it doesn’t belong. The other part of this is completely eliminating colloquial adverbs such as “quite” and “extremely.”
3.eliminate passive voice. I'm generally good at this, but like #1, it's a struggle.
I feel that that the digital Thesauruses are inadequate. If I try to find a better word for “big,” none of them will ever suggest “voluminous,” so I have to keep my own personal Thesaurus open in a separate document as I write. Sometimes I take a few words out of it and put it on a sticky note on my desktop: “Make sure you use these ONCE in this essay!” it says.
Do Yo Thang!
(this topic is inspired by IWMTB19, who posted three of his writings in another thread)
Excellent thread. Got an idea for the site just reading this too btw, design-bros getting work
Crazy seeing a number of my favorite authors in your OP too. I didn't think people recognized CJ Cherryh like that
Crazy seeing a number of my favorite authors in your OP too. I didn't think people recognized CJ Cherryh like that
By DY_nastyExcellent thread. Got an idea for the site just reading this too btw, design-bros getting work
Crazy seeing a number of my favorite authors in your OP too. I didn't think people recognized CJ Cherryh like that
A female author of sci-fi winning a Hugo is a big deal. I was lucky to take a graduate-level course in sci-fi lit (the prof didn't think anyone would take it; bro, it was either your class or 17th century British lit!). That class was over my head, but I was exposed to a lot of names that most people familiar with the genre take for granted, from Lovecraft to Delany. I won't pretend like I know her thoroughly because I do not. Her quote is relevant to me because that was the only way I got through the first two chapters of my diss. I wrote like 60 pages of genuine **** and revised later. That technique was far more effective than when I wrote my prospectus/proposal, where I took an entire year to make a masterpiece of every sentence as I chronologically progressed from page one to page thirteen.
Most importantly, that class revealed to me my favorite genre: speculative fiction, especially the historical kind.
Been working on something for awhile... I am going to need some people willing to test-read for me... pretty excited about it! It's currently being edited but want some honest feedback on it...
By blackaceBeen working on something for awhile... I am going to need some people willing to test-read for me... pretty excited about it! It's currently being edited but want some honest feedback on it...
Whenever you're ready yo!
By Zero ToleranceBy blackaceBeen working on something for awhile... I am going to need some people willing to test-read for me... pretty excited about it! It's currently being edited but want some honest feedback on it...
Whenever you're ready yo!
Nice!! It's getting close. I have large chunks of it done but once I am a little closer I am going to call on you.. I still think it's crazy that I wrote a novel.. a fairly long one too. Even if it stinks I can say I finished it at least. About half way finished with part 2 as well...
I'm trying to self publish a poetry novel spanning 12 years of experiences across states, continents, and cultures. The only problems are there's some questionably legal experiences and I'm not entirely sure this belongs as a poetry book. I could write a memoir but it would greatly affect my chances of securing a career. I need a pound of weed, the kill myself music playlist, and some Dashboard Confessional to finish the poetry novel. It spans high school, undergraduate university, graduate university 1, graduate university 2, graduate university 3, and the struggle to deal with the recession as well growing up as a black man in a world without a support system or empathy. It's Black Pain meets Obama 2008 victory meets Boy Meets World (album and TV show) mixed with John Mayer, Dashboard Confessional, and the kill-yourself-slit-your-wrist all-stars providing the soundtrack. All is not lost as there is awesome life changing life affirming positive experiences.
As far as improving my writing goes, I'm kind of screwed. Obviously, I need to get rid of I sentences as well as passive voice. In addition to that, eliminating usage of commas is a must. There's a tendency to get real lazy when I'm getting paid for writing or it doesn't count for an assignment.
As far as improving my writing goes, I'm kind of screwed. Obviously, I need to get rid of I sentences as well as passive voice. In addition to that, eliminating usage of commas is a must. There's a tendency to get real lazy when I'm getting paid for writing or it doesn't count for an assignment.
By FuryousI'm trying to self publish a poetry novel spanning 12 years of experiences across states, continents, and cultures. The only problems are there's some questionably legal experiences and I'm not entirely sure this belongs as a poetry book. I could write a memoir but it would greatly affect my chances of securing a career. I need a pound of weed, the kill myself music playlist, and some Dashboard Confessional to finish the poetry novel. It spans high school, undergraduate university, graduate university 1, graduate university 2, graduate university 3, and the struggle to deal with the recession as well growing up as a black man in a world without a support system or empathy. It's Black Pain meets Obama 2008 victory meets Boy Meets World (album and TV show) mixed with John Mayer, Dashboard Confessional, and the kill-yourself-slit-your-wrist all-stars providing the soundtrack. All is not lost as there is awesome life changing life affirming positive experiences.
As far as improving my writing goes, I'm kind of screwed. Obviously, I need to get rid of I sentences as well as passive voice. In addition to that, eliminating usage of commas is a must. There's a tendency to get real lazy when I'm getting paid for writing or it doesn't count for an assignment.
You could be ambiguous enough in your poetry to circumvent any incoming legal repercussions if you choose to go the Long Poem Epic route.
If you're going to do prose in the form of a memoir, then yes, it is best for you to get the job or "make it" before publishing. I liked to use Obama's memoir, Dreams from My Father, as an example of (creative) non-fiction when I was teaching not only because Obama is relevant to today's youth/young adults, but also because he is actually a skillful writer who didn't "ghostwrite" a memoir so that people would know who the eff he is when he runs for president (I'm looking at you John McCain, Faith of My Fathers). Yeah, Obama published that memoir after he became the first black president of Harvard Law Review, and it is actually an interesting read as he reveals how he was raised in privilege and decided to become a community organizer to acquire his "ghetto pass."
Once you do whatever you believe is your equivalent to "becoming the first black president of [insert publication or whatever here]," yeah, hammer that thing out.
My problem is the reverse. I don't get paid jack diddly for writing (unless you count getting "paid" in video games) but I invest a lot of my personal time in doing so.
By Zero ToleranceBy ApolloI write short stories, screenplays, and stuff like that.
Do go on....
I just write. I've had some professors tell me to try and get shit published. Never tried though.
I need to get off my ass and just write. Motivation and time are my big hurdles, which I know are just excuses in the end. I need to set a schedule and stick to it.
By FactionI need to get off my ass and just write. Motivation and time are my big hurdles, which I know are just excuses in the end. I need to set a schedule and stick to it.I actually had a friend of mine do me a solid and think up a completely random topic/style to throw together 500-700 words on every few days. Kinda makes me accountable to someone other than myself and typically has me doing things outside of my comfort zone. Just a nice way to get myself back into the swing of things.
I used to write non-stop when I was younger but I lost the enthusiasm I had in it for a while because of work/life.
By DY_nastyBy FactionI need to get off my ass and just write. Motivation and time are my big hurdles, which I know are just excuses in the end. I need to set a schedule and stick to it.I actually had a friend of mine do me a solid and think up a completely random topic/style to throw together 500-700 words on every few days. Kinda makes me accountable to someone other than myself and typically has me doing things outside of my comfort zone. Just a nice way to get myself back into the swing of things.
I used to write non-stop when I was younger but I lost the enthusiasm I had in it for a while because of work/life.
I was the same way when I was younger. Churned out notebooks and notebooks full of writing. It was shit of course, but at least I was writing. My see about trying that, with a friend. Though I tend to really suck at shorter stories. An area to grow in at least.
By FactionSometimes that shit just needs polishing! lol. One of my teachers actually did the polishing for me once and that was a big reason I even got to college in the first place. You never know.By DY_nastyBy FactionI need to get off my ass and just write. Motivation and time are my big hurdles, which I know are just excuses in the end. I need to set a schedule and stick to it.I actually had a friend of mine do me a solid and think up a completely random topic/style to throw together 500-700 words on every few days. Kinda makes me accountable to someone other than myself and typically has me doing things outside of my comfort zone. Just a nice way to get myself back into the swing of things.
I used to write non-stop when I was younger but I lost the enthusiasm I had in it for a while because of work/life.
I was the same way when I was younger. Churned out notebooks and notebooks full of writing. It was shit of course, but at least I was writing. My see about trying that, with a friend. Though I tend to really suck at shorter stories. An area to grow in at least.
And I suck at shorter stories too. The first 3 times I tried to do this stuff with my friend, I was getting agitated at the fact that I was having my ideas cut off - but that's kind of the point. It drives you to write more outside of that and it forces you to tidy up your ideas a bit better (which was a huge hurdle for me).
That's actually a really interesting way of putting it. I've always found short stories confining, but as a way to learn how to keep things neat an tidy...hmm.
Ok, so here is the sequel to what I wrote in the Life topic:
If you didn't know me before now, well, now you do.
Imma let yall in my business pt 1:
tl;dr warning!
So on 9/5/14 I made a post concerning FB 'friends." Really what I was trying to say was that I value transparency. I am comfortable being open and honest about myself (and about my wife too when she permits me to discuss her) in an effort to encourage others to do the same. There are enough lies in this world already.
I said I would comment further on #whyIeft and #whyIstayed. Well the other night, I'm in the living room packing and my wife comes from the back room and notifies me that those hashtags were trending. One of them similar to the link I posted a day ago, " b/c he never hit me and I didn't think verbal abuse and emotional manipulation was considered an abusive relationship" resonated with her, and she came to share that it was a good feeling to be validated in her memory of our relationship prior to 2013 (known in the Pogue family as THE WORST YEAR EVER). I didn't respond, because 1) she simply needed to be heard, not replied to and 2) we had already overcome that phase in our relationship.
Before we were ever married, Jacquelyn made it clear that she was not to be yelled at. Parental trauma. So I never did. OFC I never put my hands on her (we make some inside jokes about the Waiting to Exhale clothes-in-car scene concerning the topic). However, in 2009 I had learned there was a such thing as an "emotional affair." Old GF from high school days found me on FB and I interacted with her in ways I shouldn't have as a married man. After my wife stumbled upon those emails, I also confessed to her my addiction to pornography. I would only come to terms with my video game addiction years after the fact.
Only just a year ago did I take responsibility and summon the strength to confess that, as a Christian, I had failed my marriage on BOTH of the conditions that Christ offers to justify divorce. I had committed adultery of the heart through pornography, and I had "abandoned" my wife emotionally. When I should have been spending quality time/conversation with her, I was either "working" (teaching, writing, reading) or nursing my wounds from the stress of grad school through the escapism of video games. And after everyone went to bed, porn. I was a nominally present husband/father. This lead to our eventual six-week separation in 2013.
Something that I have learned through marital counseling is that I should validate the feelings of my wife. If I feel that something "isn't' a big deal," that does not negate the fact that she may think that it "IS a big deal." This is a part of the emotional abuse that I WAS responsible for: "You're being emotional." "You're being too sensitive." "Why do we have to keep talking about this?" "You're just saying that because you are a woman." "But it doesn't bother ME." You're *too* holy/prude." "It's not like I'm involved with a REAL woman."
Just thought I'd share some of the struggles from within the Pogue household, but not without solutions. With the exception of addressing sadists, I don't think it's enough to simply say "men need to stop abuse." I feel that's tautological. Sometimes, men might not even REALIZE they're inflicting pain. Some may not even be equipped with the tools to stop their abuse (I, for example, was an addict, and my wife/marriage/kids were collateral damage). I think the biggest problem is the old hyper-masculine problem of men not talking about their feelings...rather than fisticuffs.
Feelings. Not thoughts. There is a difference, I have learned. I actually had to use the preschool charts with the facial expressions "happy, sad, mad, afraid, shocked, etc" to develop the vocabulary to express how I felt rather than what I thought. Yep, I was dissertating and yet I was incapable of producing simple words to describe how I felt.
I'm only realizing this right now as I write this, but I think my problem came from my dad. I have not spoken to him about this because...it's crazy but even as a grown man I'm not afraid that he'll blow up on me, but rather shut me out. Because that was his way of dealing with anger--isolation. He'd come home from work, pissed about the racism he'd faced (currently, he's about to retire with 24 years of a sterling record of law enforcement, frequently finishing as the top officer in the state of Alabama, but he was never promoted; also, his white fellow-offers would frequently use the N-word while he was in the office...but never to his face), and go straight to his room and close the door. If he ever came out, it was to eat. If I tried to interact with him, his answers were monosyllabic and curt. "Dad are you ok? You look mad" I'd say to him even as a teenager. "No I'm fine, Maurice" he'd say with a devil's scowl that expressed to me not to ask any more questions.
Mom on the other hand, I believe, tried to "make up" for my father's isolation by being "all up in my business" (and my brother's) all the time. She was trying her best to love, but she could not, cannot, fill dad's place. Even today she says, "Well, you know how your father is sometimes."
But why does it have to be that way? It doesn't. He can make the choice to work on his anger just like I worked on my addictions.
I feel like if he actually did open up about that stuff--be vulnerable and teach me how to deal with my feelings--my marriage might not have suffered like it did.
I think a lot of relationships would be better.
Imma let yall in my business pt 2
So on 9/10/14 I posted a follow-up to a post I made on 9/5/14 confirming that the struggle is real, and as 1 Cor 7:28 says, " Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles."
Troubles indeed. As per my previous post, some of the choices I made contributed to, but were not the entirety of why I ended up "dropping out" of grad school. But knowing that I was in no shape to finish my Ph.D., I didn't even bother applying for funding as a 7th year, and ended up instead getting a job at Culver's of Okemos. Those were some long nights, the hour commute on the bus and the mile walk home. My in-laws happened to be moving from NY to Texas and stopped by to drop off their 1999, 300k mile Camry. I'm grateful for that vehicle because none of what we have done thus far would have been possible.
The owner of that Culver's is, IMO was a good man for a fast food guy who offered me a job despite me being way overqualified for it. Without that job, we probably would have been homeless, but it was still fast food and $0.10 above minimum wage. So I played college instructor by day and burger flipper by night until my teaching contract expired, at which point I moved into a transition house to sober up while extending the limit on a credit card I used to pay rent on because you can't support a family of 5 on a fast food budget. Jacquelyn, losing faith that I could support the fam got a job as well.
By the time we had reconciled, neither of us had found better employment in our six months of searching. We were drowning. Every day I worked at Culver's I smiled but it was eating away from my soul because I knew that I was supposed to be doing more, doing better. But I was not, we were not. We where three months behind on Nathan's preschool bill, exceeding $300. Behind on electric bill. A member of my Thursday Night CR offered to pay our car note for a month. Student Loan companies were like, "We feel sorry for you, son...we'll hit you up later." We were rolling over the bills that we could the next month, paying half of this one this month, half the others next month.
About this time last years I was in tears as my wife went to pick up the kids. My parents told me to pray but didn't teach me how. I managed to find my knees for once and pleaded with God to do something because we were going to be wrecked.
Not even fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. It was Meijer. I was going to do labor in a -10 degree freezer in two weeks. It paid four more dollars/hr than what I was making. There was no way I was going to say no.
God answers prayer.
Two weeks later and after my orientation, my supervisor asks if I would take a job that translates to most industries as lower level management even though I technically didn't have authority over anyone. It would pay less than the labor position, but I would be in a better position for upward mobility in the company. So I accepted, taking the chance of short term sacrifice for long term gain.
I write this now because after hitting my rock bottom, things began to look up. In one year I was offered a position as supervisor in another complex and I accepted. They paid for my move (including all the little costs one accrues when moving and settling into a new place, such as uniforms for the kids' new school, shower curtains, etc), and they are training me with the expectation that I will "move up" in the company sooner than later. Ironically, I will actually do better than had I finished my Ph.D.
Time to write a new chapter in my testimony. My story is not yet finished
If you didn't know me before now, well, now you do.
By DY_nastyTried to write in 1st person the other day and almost had an aneurismsounds like me and doing any dialogue at all
By DY_nastyTried to write in 1st person the other day and almost had an aneurism
Years of forum writing should have trained you already.
By DY_nastyTried to write in 1st person the other day and almost had an aneurism
Hate writing in 1st person. During flashbacks I tend to write that way to give a sense that a person is telling the flashback to another person... but it really messes with you.
By DY_nastyTried to write in 1st person the other day and almost had an aneurism
First person is difficult not only because we are formally trained as writers that as the writer, first person is already assumed, so we avoid using personal pronouns like "I" and "me." When we make the switch creatively, our brains go WTF. That's what you are experiencing.
Also, first person is difficult because of all the little things that are secrets within characterization in the third person have to be revealed in the first, otherwise, you end up with an unreliable narrator. All those micro-thoughts and feelings that we take for granted in the third person that need not be revealed now have to be written.
I recommend reading Faulkner's As I Lay Dying as a sort of inspiration in executing first person but with a third person "feel."