Creative Writing

[Steven Coyle]

One of the gifts I received for Christmas included a Mac Classic computer. My intent is to write a daily journal, poems and dream imagery - with the hope of compiling it into a series for creative writing. As this would be a fairly new venture, I was wondering if any of you have any advice for the aspiring creative writer...

[bill]

Don't think about it - just write. Early in the morning, before you do anything else, write at least three A4 pages of WHATEVER passes through your brain - even if that may be "I am tired and fed up with life" over and over. Look upon this as your early morning jogging session. Keep a separate journal for more reflective writing done in the afternoon and evening.

But above all - write EVERYTHING down. If you have talent then you will eventually choose themes and hone things down to something that pleases you and may please others.

Not that I'm a fan of Hemmingway, but when asked what the name of his therapist was, he replied "Corona No.3".

Have fun.

[daybrown]

At some point, in my 20's, I decided I should see what had already been written. I read the New Testament cover to cover, then the Old Testament cover to cover. And realized what Bullshit Christianity was.

So, I looked for, and found even earlier writings, the Upanishads, the Bagavad Gita, Lao Tzu, Conficius, Zoroaster, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Gilgamesh... and saw also how much of the Bible had been ripped off from earlier sources.

But in the Greek tradition, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Sophocles, Euripides, Thucydides, Xenophon, and on up thru the Roman writers, Epictetus, Plotinus, Plutarch, Petronius, Asculpius, Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, et al, there arent any claims of divine revelation, and if someone does not foot note the original source, its not a big deal. The only question is whether the position is reasonable, logically consistent.

So- if Machiavelli or Gibbon pick up ideas from these earlier authors and run with them, its not plagiarism, and nobody gets on their case about it. You can write whatever you like, but until you are well read, you run the risk of being thot a fool by those few who are. And the same PC you write with can provide ascii copies of what has already been written free for the downloading.

[brokenhead]

At some point, in my 20's, I decided I should see what had already been written. I read the New Testament cover to cover, then the Old Testament cover to cover. And realized what Bullshit Christianity was.

So, I looked for, and found even earlier writings, the Upanishads, the Bagavad Gita, Lao Tzu, Conficius, Zoroaster, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Gilgamesh... and saw also how much of the Bible had been ripped off from earlier sources.

Respectfully disagree, d.b. The Habiru that wrote the O.T. and the Aryan/Hindi who wrote the Vedas and Upanishads were not ripping off but writing down what had been taught to them by those same earlier sources.

To see that there is more than the Hebrew Bible to Cristianity (i.e., that it is not "Bullshit"), you just have to ask yourself where does the Roman Catholic Church come up with the notion of a "Trinity" when there is no such thing in the Bible? Correct me if I'm wrong, please. I have read the N.T., but not the O.T., which was clearly not written for me. And yet we see the Trinity way back in the Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu concept. Clearly there is a tradition, or teaching, that is common to both.

Have you read the Urantia Book, d.b.? So far I can't find anybody on this forum who has. I'd like to know your take on it.

[Steven Coyle]

Thanks bill, thanks d.b.

[daybrown]

Thanks bill, thanks d.b.

Who you want to read it? You can skip all that classic stuff if you only want young people to read it, and most of their elders think History begins in 1776,

I've seen a few places where a Roman author, aware that he had the words of Greeks going back hundreds of years before his time, realized that his words mite be around long after his fellow Romans were history. They therefore began to think beyond the understanding of their fellow Romans.

[Steven Coyle]

Daybrown,

Well, I haven't thought that far into the future. I'd like to think of these journals as a series of sagely time capsules - for my own bookkeeping, as well as for the potential benefit of others, Either though my own inspired action, or possibly from some tangential thinking ...

The way I'm thinking these days, each day reads like a short story. So beginning here, should take me to "there," (though "where" is still largely a mystery), with some semblance of progression. Though, as my dreams are often descriptive of the following days content, I see my writing as potential for writing the future.

Same essential source material.

[daybrown]

There's money to be made providing what people want to read now. The copywrites will be expired for future generations, so the best you can hope for there is enduring fame.

I dont really expect that out of my website, http://daybrown.org or out of the vast majority of the blogs. But inevitably, there will be some that resonate with future generations. Some will be looked at scholars & twits, but if you're not there, as sen Senca asked, why should you care?

Art for the sake of art?

[Steven Coyle]

Art for the sake of art.

[Carl G]

Day Brown, what's with the crazy-assed font. Your website is unreadable by my Firefox Browser.

Steven, good luck with the writing. Writing well is tough, takes practice. You about have to be like a bulldog about it if you want to get good. One rule many pros agree upon: read lots regularly of the genre in which you wish to write.

[daybrown]

Day Brown, what's with the crazy-assed font. Your website is unreadable by my Firefox Browser.

Steven, good luck with the writing. Writing well is tough, takes practice. You about have to be like a bulldog about it if you want to get good. One rule many pros agree upon: read lots regularly of the genre in which you wish to write.

Its a brain filter Carl. Meant for only those with newer higher res monitors, 16x9, and people who know how to manipulate the graphic images of the screenshots. You would not like what it says anyway, so dont worry about it.

As I say at http://daybrown.org, the fonts are experimental; Some of us have more adaptable pattern recognition in the occipital lobes, and for us, as the visual images become familiar, we can read faster. I have identified some problems, which is not the same as saying I have the solutions. But for instance when the letter "r" precedes an "n" the result looks like an "m". or when the letter "i" is next to the lower case "l" it looks like two "ll". Sometimes the letter "k" followed by an "l" looks like an "l" followed by a "d". thus "kl" can look like "ld". Filling the hollow of the lower case, "d" solves that problem. It also solves the problem where the lower case "d" can have a stem so thin you cant see it, and think it is a lower case "a".

[Steven Coyle]

Thanks Carl.

Will lift foot weights while I type.

Get the blood (brain heat) flowing upstream.

Then hopefully, foot taps onward.

[Carl G]

Its a brain filter Carl. Meant for only those with newer higher res monitors, 16x9,

...which mine is.

and people who know how to manipulate the graphic images of the screenshots. You would not like what it says anyway, so dont worry about it.

Right, I won't worry my pretty little head, then.

As I say at http://daybrown.org, the fonts are experimental; Some of us have more adaptable pattern recognition in the occipital lobes, and for us, as the visual images become familiar, we can read faster. I have identified some problems, which is not the same as saying I have the solutions. But for instance when the letter "r" precedes an "n" the result looks like an "m". or when the letter "i" is next to the lower case "l" it looks like two "ll". Sometimes the letter "k" followed by an "l" looks like an "l" followed by a "d". thus "kl" can look like "ld". Filling the hollow of the lower case, "d" solves that problem. It also solves the problem where the lower case "d" can have a stem so thin you cant see it, and think it is a lower case "a".

Ouch. Good choice not worrying about your website. Pretty little head hurting.

[daybrown]

Nearly 20 years ago, in a BBS forum a lot like this, I saw a poster refuted with his own words, which had been plucked out of the digital archive from 6 months before. Right then I realized that some one might find my words on this screen in some archive, from the time I post this on.

Some of the words already posted were first posted before some of those reading them were even born. I have no idea of how many generations this will continue, that there will be those reading what you have to say for an insight to these times who are not even conceived yet.

Some webmasters have considered that, some have not. We all have different expected audiences. I'm making bets on what some of the yet unconceived mite be interested in. Maybe the diversity of opinion online will become so vast that no single form of group think can contain it, and you actually get to think for yourself.

Imagine that.

[Carl G]

Ouch some more. You are WAY too esoteric for me. Codify onwards, in good health, Bro'.

[daybrown]

Ouch some more. You are WAY too esoteric for me. Codify onwards, in good health, Bro'.

Dont worry; nobody's gonna come after your ass. Not at least until after a revolution. Who would care what we say? We may all be dead and gone before anyone does, and then we are beyond their reach.

[Perishable]

Express yourself through building literature by transferring your feelings and emotions to thoughts and then building them into restless words that compromise with one another... So that when a being comprehends your writings (even if that being is yourself) those expressive emotions are once again understood...and if done brilliantly severe enough, perhaps even recapitulated...experienced on a divergent level... and once again brought up to the human mind.
That is my perception of well created Creative writing.

[Boyan]

Steven, I see you got some sound advice already in this thread, so I just want to recommend Schopenhauer's short and very valuable work called On writing and style. He was one of the best writers among philosophers which is why he influenced so many literary figures. I have just read it, and it has opened my eyes a great deal concerning writing.

[Perishable]

Schopenhauer's short and very valuable work called On writing and style

How long is this book?

[Boyan]

70 small pages.

[Carl G]

How small a page are we talking?

[Boyan]

Depends How small do you need?

[Carl G]

Specifically, in inches, how big are the pages?

To help this guy Perishable establish that reading the book would not be too great a challenge for him.

[Boyan]

Oh, I see. Well I'm on the metric system myself here but just for you I'll put it in inches.

It's 8 inches long and about 6 in wide. But you must take into account that the entire frame is not filled with text, as there is about an inch of space left empty on all four sides of it.

But seriously it is well worth the few hours it takes to read it. Simply it has sound advice given from someone who practiced what he preached regarding writing. Schopenhauer was one of the deepest thinkers. I particularly liked the relentless tirades he aimed at the likes of Hegel and Schelling with their affinity towards writing with an obscure style.

And this remark from another work of his is priceless :)


''If I were to say that the so-called philosophy of this fellow Hegel is a colossal piece of mystification which will yet provide posterity with an inexhaustible theme for laughter at our times, that it is a pseudo-philosophy paralyzing all mental powers, stifling all real thinking, and, by the most outrageous misuse of language, putting in its place the hollowest, most senseless, thoughtless, and, as is confirmed by its success, most stupefying verbiage, I should be quite right.

Further, if I were to say that this summus philosophus [...] scribbled nonsense quite unlike any mortal before him, so that whoever could read his most eulogized work, the so-called Phenomenology of the Mind, without feeling as if he were in a madhouse, would qualify as an inmate for Bedlam, I should be no less right.''

Priceless.

[Steven Coyle]

Boyan,

Thanks for the insightful recommendation. Is 'On Writing and Style' the title of the work? I'm having trouble locating it online.