Today all of my school work has risen over me like a great tidal wave of assignments. Feminist theory, language in Shakespeare, describing fictional interactions with people.
Today I am wondering how important it is to take time out for yourself. I wrote a sarcastic note on tumblr recently about aspiring students who think that their English major is going to make them into a writer. I can tell you from experience, my English major has done little to foster that.
I am a writer though, because at some point I took up the backside of my math notes and began a story. And I fell in love with it. And I could not stop. Soon I wrote on the back of all of my notes, and on envelopes, napkins, scraps.
It is important, of course, to hone your skills to the best they can possibly be. I just worked with a mentor long before I set foot in college. So, I blame little of my development on my schooling. As I am swamped with assignments, lack of sleep, caffeine withdrawals, and all of the irrationality that comes from being a college student (though luckily I don’t live in the dorms, so I still have some solace) I realize that I have not written, let alone read, anything for myself in almost two months.
I begin to feel cracks in my mental state, in my whole perception of my self. And this is why I think you are not a writer unless you truly think you are one, classes notwithstanding. I do not feel human when I am not writing on my own, for no purpose than my own pleasure.
Write on, Octopi. Hopefully I’ll make it through this semester alive!
Showing posts with label self. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self. Show all posts
Monday, October 17, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Write What You Know
“Spend some time living before you start writing. What I find to be very bad advice is the snappy little sentence, ‘Write what you know.’ It is the most tiresome and stupid advice that could possibly be given. If we write simply about what we know we never grow. We don't develop any facility for languages, or an interest in others, or a desire to travel and explore and face experience head-on. We just coil tighter and tighter into our boring little selves. What one should write about is what interests one.”-Annie Proulx
I recently stumbled across this quote by Annie Proulx, and I find it to be very apt. Many aspiring writers are, as she says, coiled tightly into themselves to the point that they cannot relate to the world in their writing. However I think there is something to be said for writing what you know, though I don’t mean it in the way Proulx is taking it . I give “write what you know” as the first piece of writing advice to anyone setting a pen to the page, in fact. Writing is a journey, a journey of self that takes you to that tightly coiled center of your boring little self, but the journey has a point, writing, as much as it goes inward, should bring what is inside out. If you are only going in, that is only half the journey. Writing is expressing those deepest thoughts in a way that others can relate to, a way that can bring your experience to others, rather than drag them into it. If you do not write what you know, then you bring nothing to the table. It is your thoughts and experiences that color your writing, otherwise you are simply another voice screaming in the void. Who cares for your thoughts? Nothing is new under the sun, and heaven help us if you ever find your thoughts to be unique. They are not. But only you come from your set of experiences, and that is what makes the need for you to “write what you know” so important. Have new experiences, learn new things, explore new ideas and locations. But write them from your soul, the thing you know better than anyone else. You can write magnificently on foreign lands, but if you have no experiences or emotions to attach to them, we’d just as well read an encyclopedia..
I recently stumbled across this quote by Annie Proulx, and I find it to be very apt. Many aspiring writers are, as she says, coiled tightly into themselves to the point that they cannot relate to the world in their writing. However I think there is something to be said for writing what you know, though I don’t mean it in the way Proulx is taking it . I give “write what you know” as the first piece of writing advice to anyone setting a pen to the page, in fact. Writing is a journey, a journey of self that takes you to that tightly coiled center of your boring little self, but the journey has a point, writing, as much as it goes inward, should bring what is inside out. If you are only going in, that is only half the journey. Writing is expressing those deepest thoughts in a way that others can relate to, a way that can bring your experience to others, rather than drag them into it. If you do not write what you know, then you bring nothing to the table. It is your thoughts and experiences that color your writing, otherwise you are simply another voice screaming in the void. Who cares for your thoughts? Nothing is new under the sun, and heaven help us if you ever find your thoughts to be unique. They are not. But only you come from your set of experiences, and that is what makes the need for you to “write what you know” so important. Have new experiences, learn new things, explore new ideas and locations. But write them from your soul, the thing you know better than anyone else. You can write magnificently on foreign lands, but if you have no experiences or emotions to attach to them, we’d just as well read an encyclopedia..
