After seeing a few people who had started the new Blogging University course about writing I thought I might jump on board too. So why do I write? Good question, but I don’t think I write so much as I blog…I know I post almost every day, but it usually just a few words scribbled out to go with some pretty pictures. I do write on another blog site, words and short stories that I never post into the real world. I have put snippets up in other small arts groups, but never seem to push them further. I do enjoy writing but I feel that my voice isn’t as strong as I like. I work on my stories in private and never really share them.
Often my stories are sparked from an image and vice versa. I have written a handful again recently and I would like to flesh them out further like I do with my art. I start with the bare bones of an idea and then add more details as I go. I find the more I work on a piece the more comfortable and confident I become, I am hoping to achieve the same sort of feel with my words as well. Just for me, perhaps a set of short stories, with images to match.
I am hoping that this short course will help me gain some understanding and aptitude for my writing styles; dark and moody as they are…..yes my stories are much like my images. Perhaps this is something I need to look into further, why are my words and my art so dark? I know it is fun to explore the dark side in the safety of my own world, but does it draw me so?
I have also enjoyed books and stories of fantasy and sometimes even Science fiction, I have dabbled with both, but more stories only seem to get so far. I have the initial burst of an idea and I write something down, the start of something wonderful…then it just peters out. It’s not so much writer’s block, but a lack of understanding in the concept of building a more complex story.
Even this very first post, I am supposed to write freestyle for 30 minutes…..10 minutes in and I have run out of steam, my art is bottomless and I can find inspiration over and over again, but when it comes to writing I do not have the same energy or resources. I guess it boils down to having confidence, I used to be worried that people didn’t like my art or would not understand it, and let’s face some people don’t. And I am good with all that, I don’t even care anymore I create because I want to, my art does not owe me anything beyond the joy it gives me to create and I share it with people because most of them seem to take some enjoyment from it too. I am the same with my writing, except that I do not share it, I write for me because I enjoy it. I don’t plan on sending it to publishers, or rehashing it over and over until it’s polished and shines, I will leave that for others, who feel the need to do that for themselves. Who feel a need to get their thoughts and words onto paper and on other people’s book shelves. I do not feel that need. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing?
I often wonder what pushed those that create such wonderful masterpieces? JK Rowling and David and Leigh Eddings, Terry Brooks, just to name a few of my favorites. Where do they find the energy and drive to keep going? It’s possible I have a really short attention span, I know I can jump from one thing to another, perhaps why my short stories never really have an ending, I create the start and leave it open to an unknown unseen audience to finish it, except that there is no audience.
I write in my journal, but I think it is a random form of bullet journaling, not in the traditional sense, but my own short hand, scribble sense, with bits of ideas and little drawings and random words thrown in, I can look back on these ideas and occasionally lose the original thread, but find something new, something that was missing. Perhaps I should start that with my stories. Or perhaps I should start a collaboration of sorts. Did you ever as a child, perhaps at school, start a story with just a few lines and then pass it along to the next person, who added a bit more and it continued until it came back to you, only to have the store change into something completely different from where you started? It was fun hearing where all these different children took your idea and to watch it bloom into something else entirely. I wonder if that can be done now, or am I too selfish and too pig headed?
As we get older I think we cherish things from our childhood or at least relish in the knowledge that we have the freedom that we no longer care as much about what others think. We can act silly because we want to. We no longer crave to fit in, we no longer yearn for some unattainable goal of success or beauty or wealth or whatever. We yearn to be accepted for who we truly are, we also have the wisdom (I hope) to only keep the company of those who do. We no longer wish for the drama of youth, just the feel of it. I honestly believe that youth is wasted on the young. I sound old when I say it, but I just don’t care. I am enjoying my life far more now than when I was young. I just wish the body could keep up.
~ Julz
Julie Powell - Photographer & Graphic Artist 
Having read a whole lot and listened to many experts and even went to a well-regarded seminar, let me give you my two-cents worth.
By the way, that sounds like a claim to authority . . . it’s not. I’m just stressing what I’ve come to realize for me fully cognizant that it might not apply to others. Except, maybe parts of it.
Anyway, I’ve met many people who say they want to write and then proceed to make excuses why they don’t. Some take classes or attend seminars or do something to “enable” that desire.
That basically tells me that while they like the idea of being one, they’re not really writers.
They like the idea, that’s all. Much like I like the idea of being a black belt in some deadly martial art or be able to shoot accurately enough to hit a target at 300 yards or handle a revolver so that I can shoot an aspirin out of mid-air. I could add a few more things . . . would love to play the piano or guitar, would love to be a great cook, would love to be a pilot, to sail, to rollerblade, to ski, to . . . you get my point.
The thing is, I don’t do any of those things and when I say I would love to, or wish, that’s pretty much like me saying I wish I was taller/shorter or a tiger or a bear. Never gonna happen. It’s just fanciful mind wanderings.
The way I view classes and seminars are thus . . . you already do “the thing” and you’ve reached a plateau in your self-learning quest but still want to get better.
You take classes because you have a passion to improve what you already do. By you, I mean people in general, not you specifically.
Writing is interesting . . . unless one goes back to a high school level course, one is hard-pressed to find instructions on how to write. Most of us already know how to write.
Want to write better? Read more. Write even more.
Read for the purpose of learning what works and what doesn’t. Find books you like and figure out what it is you like about them. Take a few pages from the book, read them, close the book, and then rewrite them in your own words trying to duplicate what it is you liked about what you read.
If you then read back what you wrote and it doesn’t give you the same feeling, then something’s not right . . . meaning, you haven’t figured out why or what you liked about the original. The equivalent example in photography is looking at a photo you like and trying to duplicate the elements you like about the photo. You’ll know right away if you failed.
Here’s the interesting thing . . . once you know how to duplicate something, you can then modify it to something you like even better. Put your own spin on “the thing.”
So, to bring it back around to courses and seminars and instructions on writing. If you want to learn the mechanics of plots, dialogue, tropes, what readers expect for each genre, and so on, that’s all available on line and for free. But whether someone tells you or you read it, nothing beats just doing it.
A lot of those courses are nothing more than people forcing you to write and then forcing you to examine what you wrote. Some may explain a few tricks, but the point is to write what you feel and write what you like (I write what I like to read).
There are lots of famous writers I don’t read precisely because I don’t like how they tell a story or the kind of stories they tell (Stephen King comes to mind) but his advice on writing is not about writing like him:
https://dispersertracks.com/2015/08/16/i-dont-read-stephen-king/
I said I took one seminar (Viable Paradise) and it was to figure out if I was publishable. I was told I was. I was also (indirectly) told why I’m unlikely to be published. I still write and don’t forsee stopping. I do know I won’t take another seminar or workshop or class and not because I know everything or feel I’m already a master. It’s because I’m beyond help (love saying that).
Note: I could have written twice as much without making any effort. The effort is always to stop writing. I say that because . . . well, let’s take photography (again) . . . when you finish a shoot, is it always because you ran out of photos you could take and just can’t think of anything else to shoot?
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wow, at least I know one person who read my post and for that I thank you 🙂 ……most of what you said is quite rightly true, nothing beats doing it, or even learning by pulling apart someone else’s work. I feel however that like photography there are tried and true methods for jump starting my inspiration. Excersises if you will, but I think as in photography I have already mapped out everything I want either on paper or in my head for a photoshoot, I know WHEN I have my shot, anymore than that I am wasting my time. Can’t seem to apply the same thing to writing. I guess the one thing (and not using it as an excuse really), I don’t seem to enjoy reading as much as I used to. I have no idea why. My idea of the perfect afternoon was curled up on the sofa with the dog and a book. Now I would rather be doing almost anything else. Perhaps becuase of this I have forgotten HOW to write? I do not think it is lack of imagination, that I have in spades, but beyond a simple short story, I seem to have lost my way.
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By the way, if I subscribe to a blog, I always read the posts. If I find myself not reading them, I unsubscribe.
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Nice to know, I know I get likes, but often wonder HOW many are actually reading them?
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Think of it as exercise and muscles. Lack of exercise atrophies the muscles . . . making it difficult to then exercise. Most of what I wrote for a long time were flash fiction and short stories (a lot of both). My first novel was finished in 2014 . . . four years after I started the blog and many, many years after I’ve started “writing.” Then, I wrote two more novels and they were easier.
I think there’s nothing wrong with short stories. Many authors love them and write nothing else.
But you just said something . . . you map out your photo shoots . . . perhaps outlining a novel or story is where you need to start. There’s lots of help with that as well (look into NaNoWriMo; some people outline the story for a couple of months before starting on November 1). Me? I’m a seat of the pants writer (and photographer). I pick up a pen (figuratively) or camera and start writing or shooting.
Another thing with what you said strikes a chord. You are looking for a given shot and know when you have it. Writing is more putting down ideas and scenes and characters and story and then going back to clean it up, throw some things away, add new things, edit, change, correct, etc. That’s the big effort, the preparing the finished product. Most writers will tell you to first write, then worry about making it pretty. Writers can do a novel in a month or two and then take six months to a year to hone the finished product (I just did some beta reading for a writer that has been editing this 135K words novel for the past 14 months).
Nothing you see of my photos or my writing is mapped out and planned. Then again, I don’t have a successful business in either, and can’t claim expertise in photography (or writing).
I guess I go back to that inspiration comment . . . If I go long enough without writing, stuff comes at me. If I just want to write, I start with a sentence and see where that leads me. One thing I can’t do very well is to force it.
. . . but I would if writing was a job and needed to put food on the table, but it’s not. Same goes for photography, I suppose.
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yes………..if our passion owed us a living that would be an entirely different scenario. But you could be right on the exercise front. Map I do need to map something out, I am a planner above all else, and just winging it is my problem? Something to consider
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I wing it when I’m writing. I never plan it out at all. If I try to, it doesn’t work. Nothing comes to me. Instead, I get “in the zone” and just write and write. As you know, I’m a planner too, so this breaks my heart a little. But it works for me, so I just do it.
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You don’t plan out any of it? Wow I’m impressed….i love your stories and assumed you had planned them out a little in advance
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No not at all. Like I said in my post, I sit down on the plane, headphones on, open the app and write. I don’t even know what I’m going to write about. It’s so weird. I just said to Amy – I’m scared I won’t be able to write without the airplane!
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I have no doubt you will be as scary as ever lol
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Hahaha thanks love.
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Completely unplanned here as well. The closest I come to any kind of planning is if I’m answering a writing prompt.
All of my flash and short stories are unplanned and without outlines, but I also wrote three novels like that and novels are a bit more difficult because it’s harder to keep track of events and things that happened 30 chapters back. So far, I’ve been lucky in avoiding major rewrites and plot holes.
I’ve tried outlining but I just end up writing the story.
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I read your post and truly enjoyed the stream of consciousness. Relating to most of your insights and wanting to read more.
Loved to read that youth is wasted on the young.
I think you could just share your words as much as you share your images.
I would read them because what draws me to read is to know how other people think and see the world. And I surely appreciate your way.
Maybe you could start writing together with Disperser. Just like when you did with other kids. The exchange of thoughts here is a delight to read.
Then invite other people to join in.
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. . . other kids?
I’ve been called immature (often and with gusto) but it’s been a while since I’ve been referred to as a kid.
. . . don’t know if I should be insulted or flattered . . .
As for collaborations, that’s really not in my nature (too controlling and set in my way). Comments? All they long as they align with both with my desire to help and my boundless ego.
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Julz mentioned in her post that she did this exercise with other kids at school. I was suggesting to replicate the action and hence I wasn’t calling neither of you kids.
It looks like one starts the story and the rest will take it from there till it is complete. Well, it was just a simple idea without much thinking rather than the fact that I enjoy reading your introspective words, and enjoyed reading Julz’s too, and wouldn’t mind to read more.
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LOL Lucile, I got it
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Nice to see someone else joining the course. I’m excited to see where it goes. I also like reading about how people write. We all do it so differently.
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Wasn’t castigating about the kid comment; the sequence of sentences had my mind go down that road. I suppose I should specify when I’m being less-than-serious, although that’s a pretty good assumption whenever I’m not discussing something in earnest.
The second part, though, is on the level. I’ve been asked before, and collaborations are just not appealing to me, no offense intended to anyone. Plus, one of the rules-of-thumbs is that the two writers really know each other because it can be stressful.
Some people fall into it naturally, but I know myself too well . . . I ain’t one of them people.
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I thought you were joking hehehe, but I completely understand where you are coming from, I am too pig headed to work with someone I don’t really know and completely trust. But I do like Lucile’s way of thinking, I wonder if it is possible, to start a random story and pass it on to a complete stranger…just to see where they take it
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BWhahahaha…I think Lucile was referring to the game I spoke of as children, not your intellect or maturity lol!!!!!!!
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