Are you left-handed Sooty? Or might have been forced or encouraged to become right-handed?
You seem to be very good at lateral thinking - which is really helpful with comedy, but have a problem with structuring those thoughts.
So how do I learn to write? Page 3
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ August 4 2009, 1:38 PM BSTIf I can find the old school book I learnt from Sootyj, I'll be happy to pass it on to you.
Cool bring it to the meetup.
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ August 4 2009, 3:18 PM BSTAre you left-handed Sooty? Or might have been forced or encouraged to become right-handed?
You seem to be very good at lateral thinking - which is really helpful with comedy, but have a problem with structuring those thoughts.
Nope I'm sort of dyslexic, my old Uni paid for me to have a full on Dylsexia test. The end result is I'm very fast thinker, but lousy at multi tasking and creating new memories.
Though I think he might have said "you're just not right."
http://sardoinucs.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-06-03T14%3A32%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7
I mention it in my blog which I need to update.
Maybe you've got assburgers.
(beat)
Doubtful my buns are often viewed as rather unapetising.
Quote: Tim Walker @ August 4 2009, 1:43 PM BSTIs there an audio edition of the dictionary? Read by Martin Jarvis, naturally.
Genius. Get on Dragon's Den now.
Quote: Timbo @ August 4 2009, 1:31 PM BSTEat Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss is a notable exception, and might be helpful in making sootyj realise that punctuation does actually matter.
I was going to suggest that one. It's great for getting your punctuation correct.
Despite what some might think, punctuation in creative writing is up for grabs as long as meaning is cogent, quickly graspable. Form is flexible.
May sound really obvious and you may well do so already, but read lots. If you want to write scripts read alot of scripts. If you want to write prose read a lot of the sort of prose that you would most like to write - I am thinking in terms of genre here.
The Penguin book on plain english is very informative. I haven't read it, as you can probably tell but it does look jolly good.
I would like, just once, to use a semi-colon and actually understand what it was for; apart from doing smileys of course;.
......sorry.
Except a place in my heart Griff, a place: in! my, heart}
Quote: Griff @ August 4 2009, 6:25 PM BSTThere is a difference though between the experimental, creative prose style of James Joyce or William Burroughs and someone just getting it wrong. And I think this is an important distinction.
"It was the, best of times it. Was, the worst of times, it was theage of wis-dom it, was the. Age of, Foolish ness"
is not going to get you anywhere.
Yeah but that's not punctuation Griff that's making mistakes. I wasn't condoning slip shod writing. I was advocating not starting from grammar as a place to learn how to write.
Case in point. (See what I did there) The first sentence of my first novel and my agent said this isn't a sentence. To which I replied. I know it isn't. The sentence stood. The problem was it didn't have a verb. It still doesn't.
'Night time on the river.'
Worked for me. Maning is everything. Putting thoughts and pictures in people's head. Start from there and the rest is cleaned up in the polish.
Quote: Leevil @ August 4 2009, 6:26 PM BSTExcept a place in my heart Griff, a place: in! my, heart}
Why are you excluding poor Griff?
Quote: Marc P @ August 4 2009, 6:33 PM BSTYeah but that's not punctuation Griff that's making mistakes. I wasn't condoning slip shod writing. I was advocating not starting from grammar as a place to learn how to write.
Case in point. (See what I did there) The first sentence of my first novel and my agent said this isn't a sentence. To which I replied. I know it isn't. The sentence stood. The problem was it didn't have a verb. It still doesn't.
'Night time on the river.'
Worked for me. Maning is everything. Putting thoughts and pictures in people's head. Start from there and the rest is cleaned up in the polish.
I think my issue is when my punctuation kills my jokes by misplacing punchlines etc.
If you didn't put your sketches up the instant you wrote them, you could go back to them the following day and spot mistakes easier, IMO.
Quote: sootyj @ August 4 2009, 6:35 PM BSTWhy are you excluding poor Griff?
I think my issue is when my punctuation kills my jokes by misplacing punchlines etc.
Then use elipses... dashes - etc, read it aloud and re-read what you have written and write it better. You are better placed to write better sootyj than most because you have to re-read stuff and look at it closely, which you don;t by the way, but are doing more so of now and are addressing the problem. Other people think what they have written is great and because there are no dyslexic or similar issues don;t bother looking at it closely. You have to be your own best editor, because if some one else is better at editing your work in a large degree then they are the better writer - and you can't have that!!
Quote: Nigel Kelly @ August 4 2009, 6:39 PM BSTIf you didn't put your sketches up the instant you wrote them, you could go back to them the following day and spot mistakes easier, IMO.
But by then they would no longer be be topical. 