Quote: Jennie @ July 9 2013, 12:35 PM BSTIf I sat and waited for inspiration to strike, I think I would be waiting forever!
Nevertheless, I think this is what everyone should do. Anything else is pencil shavings, not writing.
There is now so much dross in every field of the arts that it camouflages and chokes the genuine art.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ July 9 2013, 12:54 PM BSTNevertheless, I think this is what everyone should do. Anything else is pencil shavings, not writing.
There is now so much dross in every field of the arts that it camouflages and chokes the genuine art.
Can you get to genuine art without going through the dross? My dross never sees the light of day, but without it, I wouldn't have written the stuff I am quite proud of. It's a step in a process.
As Hemingway says, the first draft of anything is shit.
I am much more inclined to sit and wait for inspiration, as I am a natural perfectionist and hate writing anything that isn't perfect. But I have come to see it as a necessary part of the creative process.
Not sure writing for the screen is an art.
There's an art to it, for sure...
Godot's advice is, of course, the counsel of perfection, I'm afraid.
The real world has a nasty habit of sticking an oar in.
Quote: Lazzard @ July 9 2013, 1:41 PM BSTNot sure writing for the screen is an art.
Sure it is! Why is screenwriting any more or less valid than a novel? Or a play? Shakespeare was the blockbuster writer of his age.
Have you ever written perfection right from the word go?
Quote: Jennie @ July 9 2013, 1:45 PM BSTSure it is! Why is screenwriting any more or less valid than a novel? Or a play? Shakespeare was the blockbuster writer of his age.
Have you ever written perfection right from the word go?
Who said anything about valid?
Cooking food for your family is valid - turning grapes into wine is valid - crafting a beautifully comfortable chair from bits of wood is valid
Not art, though.
I believe I am an artisan not an artist.
You are working within parameters that are not necessarily your own - often as not in a collaborative way.
It can be elevated to 'art', possibly, with the right collaboration.
Novels?
Well, if you sit down and right 'Dubliners', you're an artist.
If you write a novel because a publisher says 'shopping books' are all the thing - you're a craftsman/woman.
And that's as valid as anything else.
And, no, I've never written perfection.
Not from the word go, nor by the time I've finished, either.
Quote: Lazzard @ July 9 2013, 1:54 PM BSTWell, if you sit down and right 'Dubliners', you're an artist.
If you write a novel because a publisher says 'shopping books' are all the thing - you're a craftsman/woman.
What if you sit down to and write 'Dubliners' because a publisher has told you that short stories on Irish domestic life are all the thing?
Quote: Lazzard @ July 9 2013, 1:41 PM BSTGodot's advice is, of course, the counsel of perfection, I'm afraid.
Aw, thanks Lazzard. That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me.
That's beautiful.
Quote: Jennie @ July 9 2013, 12:35 PM BSTMy tip is a website called 'Write or Die'. You can set a time or word limit, then you have to keep typing. If you stop, the screen starts flashing red. I find it quite effective.
I've tried using that! But it stressed me out too much. I have to be quite calm to get anything done.
Quote: Jennie @ July 9 2013, 3:56 PM BSTWhat if you sit down to and write 'Dubliners' because a publisher has told you that short stories on Irish domestic life are all the thing?
If you write like Joyce you're forgiven.
Thanks for that Godot, that's very special.
Quote: zooo @ July 9 2013, 4:16 PM BSTThat's beautiful.
I've tried using that! But it stressed me out too much. I have to be quite calm to get anything done.
I know what you mean. Writing when relaxed usually produces the best results. I went on a writer's retreat recently and found exactly that. A gorgeous manor house, the countryside, sleep, a bit of time to myself. Lots of random conversations with novelists over a bottle of wine in the evening.
I have officially become middle aged and pretentious. It seems my Magaluf days are well and truly behind me. 
Quote: Lazzard @ July 9 2013, 5:28 PM BSTIf you write like Joyce you're forgiven.
Always good to have something to aim for.
John Cleese once recalled that Peter Cook could sit down and rattle off a brilliant sketch in the first draft. But he also said that he'd never known anyone else who could do it, and of course Cleese himself rewrote endlessly.
Quote: Lazzard @ July 9 2013, 5:28 PM BSTIf you write like Joyce you're forgiven.
