_____________________________________________________________
When I give myself a wide birth I'm allowing myself the ability to be misunderstood and when allowing someone else a wide birth, allowing them the ability to misunderstand. Could you get through that sentence without reading it twice? If you could, thine be mine bretherin. If not, well then... Sorry to have to do this but I feel that it is an important, nay, a paramount point that has to be said. I am no elitist and insist that learning, is a long, swooping, never ending curve. I was always told to write as if writing for a three year old, or there abouts. The idea is that anyone can read your work and your work can be understood. Fair enough. But, wait. What if everyone suddenly turns into genii? Yes, it is a word, plural for geniuses. Whoops, there I go again. I'd have to up my game a bit so that my work isn't passed off as remedial when it is supposed to be something more. Come on, what if everyone turned into morons? Exactly, I would say. I'd just have to write so much more carefully, on a hope and a prayer that the morons reading my work had the necessary attention span to get to the end. I would, after all, have to use more words as the bigger words that would not be understood would require whole sentences to get the meaning across to these third graders. Let me give you an example. Shakespere I was about thirteen years old sooo, lets say this is 1995. Holy shit! A long time ago. Hmm. Anyway, my upper school class along with myself were taken along to a certain movie, originally penned by William Shakespere, reproduced and depicted with the help of one, Leonardo DiCaprio. The problem was, that the original Shakespearean language was not tampered with and the dialemma, that it left me sitting next to my best mate, telling me he didn't understand a word. Oh Shit. Well, normally I would have turned to said person in the theatre and asked them if they spoke English. Nay, I did not for I have a kind heart in my breast may it damn me to hell. I just tried to give my friend the general idea of what was going on while Mercutio was pointing his 'swords' at everyone. And we return. Now I am somewhat the twenty years on now, I have the advantage of retrospect and can use it in this well formulated and entirely improvsed illustration. Just when are we going to be able to write for those that aren't idiots? Yes, he was my best friend and I do not mean to impinge on any of you that do not understand what I am saying, just, that I am bored having to make myself more stupid in order to create something new. If I want to sell a shit load of volumes and books, signings, posters, publicity and interviews and what ever so have you, yes... I have to write for the masses and leave my true talent, truly, wasted. I can freely understand that a paper that has to be specific in all areas of accuracy such as counting and measuring must be without any room for dispute. But those that have this room, the arts such as literature, for one, art, for one and all by one, dance, music, all the fun bits in life that spur the imagination so that the scientists may take and use them for a new idea of where to look and what to look for... have been encouraged to be so, bloody, stupid. Cavemen Complex I will ask that one imagine the beginning of, consciousness... for humankind, at the very least. A caveman perhaps, a monkey in a tree if you're more open to further possibilities. Now, take your future, as you see it now, where we have come from and where we are now along with everything in between and spin it, 180 degrees. Do you think we will have gotten as far as we are now? Do you think that by going in the opposite direction, we will have gone backwards? Do you think we will have found something new? Do you think we will have surpassed our current circumstances? Do you think that we will have become stunted as a result? Do any of you think that by approaching the problem from the opposite angle there is a possibility we may have advanced further than we have achieved to this date, from the direction the human race actually did decide upon? You can, also argue that we had no choice, fair play. I implied this earlier but feel that I should make it quite clear now. This, what I am writing, is unedited. Just like how you prattle and honk with your friends and family, I'm just spewing my own bullshit in the way that I see fit. There is an upside to this, unedited, live type as well. It is un-moderated. No one to tell me when to stop, what not to say nor when not to say it. No questions, no answers, no conclusions. There's another. It's true language. If you don't get it, tough shit and you can call me a bullshitter, talking utter nonsense and going nowhere without a point but, hold on, aren't there entire professions for this? Training Idiots Lecturers? Yes, Lecturers do the exact same thing but they will indeed have an entire script ready to read from that has been doctored and edited and messed with and refined so that the largest demographic, who ever they are, can understand it. Huh? Why? I don't see the point. If everyone can understand it then there's no point in giving a lecture, surely they'll figure it out for themselves one day... Might be a good idea to inform those that will never know, but they aren't going to be in the audience, are they? I say, challenge, push, and push hard. Doesn't mean that anyone or everyone is a loser, just means that they didn't catch the previous class. They can catch up later. I'm one of those, I'm catching up and not everything I hear is understood. Some things make no sense to me at all and I might even call some of them utter bullshit. That doesn't mean that in a hundred years time these things won't be known as law or fact or history. No, just means I'm just as much of an idiot as everyone else. The only difference will be is that I was not treated like one and did not consider myself one. Treating students like idiots, will surly turn them into idiots. Treating anyone like genii, will surly, turn them into geniuses as well and I beg for the day that the geniuses of this world are allowed to write for the geniuses of this world, as well... not, the idiots! | Shakespere Cavemen Education |
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
3 May 2014
Writing For Idiots
By Roger Colins
28 April 2014
Rejection: The Critical Reception
By Roger Colins
After nearly two months of waiting I finally have a rejection letter and could not be happier. Some time ago I wrote a post upon finishing my first book where I detailed the unexpected, strange void that appeared. Unknowingly, I was talking about Critical Reception.
Without mentioning who or where I gave my submission to, the rejection letter was brief and to the point. I was thanked for my submission, told that the agent enjoyed reading it but that it was not something that he was looking for. Most would be mortified but some, can take this and use it.
Walls
Perhaps I am just strange but having been rejected I have found an improved focus as I move forwards where for the last two months I have been stuck with quite without a wall.
Most do not appreciate a wall, see it as an obstacle but if I don't have a wall then I have no point of reference and can find myself running around in circles not knowing which way is forward.
The simplest of things can be the best wall to reflect upon and take bearing from. A far off mountain top for the rambler, the pole star for a sailor, for the rest of us - the bar tender at the end of the road. My prospective agent may know it not but he has helped me in more ways than he knows with but two short sentences. Whether this was just a polite response or an actual honest opinion, doesn't matter. What matters is he read it, and gave an opinion. This is useful for a number of reasons because I can educate a rough idea of why he chose not to accept my book.
It could be that he spent hours littering the synopsis and sample with red ink, could be that he didn't read it at all, just glanced at the title and made a decision right then and there.
I know my work better than anyone. The only thing that I don't know, is what it is not. Whatever may have happened after I sent off the first chapter I'll probably never really know but the response gave me an insight into what my book is not and that is something that will cleave the unknown in two. I can now say for sure that my book is not something for this particular agent and this is knowledge I did not have before. I can research what authors the agent has represented, I can read their books, I can construct a deductive comparison with them against my own. It would certainly be strange if all of them were identical to what I've written but never the less, there would be enough differences for me to bounce off the wall and see where they land.
The Desert
'You're just a writer.'
is a pitiful excuse. If you've ever heard this before then you'll know that people don't know where things go. Ever handed someone a map and watched them turn it over? Well I have. As hilarious as it is to witness, it is useless because you know you're not going to get to where you want to go and that is exactly the point. A rejection is when the man hands it back and tells you it's the wrong map. You can toss it and start looking for the right one.
Without any critical reception you're still stuck without a guiding reference. You and your book could be just a stone's throw from civilisation, hidden behind an unlucky sand dune. Alternatively you could be truly lost, smack bang in the middle of nowhere or you could be on the silk road just waiting for a convoy to pass by and pick you up.
Critical reception will let you know that the metropolis is just over the hill, that you are in Death Valley or on a dangerous but none the less, important path. You're already in the wrong place and being told as much is as useful as the man that turned the map over but when someone tells you where you are not, you have options. If civilisation is where you were looking for all along then you climb the hill but if you've wandered so far off course, you can now turn back and brace the desert again.
Now that someone has told me where I am not, I've got a reference, and can divide my vector into two hemispheres. That which is the wrong direction and that which is the right one. I may still be a long, long way from where I want to go but I can get moving again. This is critical reception. If you're hungry, tired, alone and don't know where to go, you'll fall asleep and you might even die. If you're moving, you've got something to work with and it'll keep you awake.
#rejection #writing #psychology
After nearly two months of waiting I finally have a rejection letter and could not be happier. Some time ago I wrote a post upon finishing my first book where I detailed the unexpected, strange void that appeared. Unknowingly, I was talking about Critical Reception.
Without mentioning who or where I gave my submission to, the rejection letter was brief and to the point. I was thanked for my submission, told that the agent enjoyed reading it but that it was not something that he was looking for. Most would be mortified but some, can take this and use it.
Walls
Perhaps I am just strange but having been rejected I have found an improved focus as I move forwards where for the last two months I have been stuck with quite without a wall.
Most do not appreciate a wall, see it as an obstacle but if I don't have a wall then I have no point of reference and can find myself running around in circles not knowing which way is forward.
The simplest of things can be the best wall to reflect upon and take bearing from. A far off mountain top for the rambler, the pole star for a sailor, for the rest of us - the bar tender at the end of the road. My prospective agent may know it not but he has helped me in more ways than he knows with but two short sentences. Whether this was just a polite response or an actual honest opinion, doesn't matter. What matters is he read it, and gave an opinion. This is useful for a number of reasons because I can educate a rough idea of why he chose not to accept my book.
It could be that he spent hours littering the synopsis and sample with red ink, could be that he didn't read it at all, just glanced at the title and made a decision right then and there.
I know my work better than anyone. The only thing that I don't know, is what it is not. Whatever may have happened after I sent off the first chapter I'll probably never really know but the response gave me an insight into what my book is not and that is something that will cleave the unknown in two. I can now say for sure that my book is not something for this particular agent and this is knowledge I did not have before. I can research what authors the agent has represented, I can read their books, I can construct a deductive comparison with them against my own. It would certainly be strange if all of them were identical to what I've written but never the less, there would be enough differences for me to bounce off the wall and see where they land.
The Desert
'You're just a writer.'
is a pitiful excuse. If you've ever heard this before then you'll know that people don't know where things go. Ever handed someone a map and watched them turn it over? Well I have. As hilarious as it is to witness, it is useless because you know you're not going to get to where you want to go and that is exactly the point. A rejection is when the man hands it back and tells you it's the wrong map. You can toss it and start looking for the right one.
Without any critical reception you're still stuck without a guiding reference. You and your book could be just a stone's throw from civilisation, hidden behind an unlucky sand dune. Alternatively you could be truly lost, smack bang in the middle of nowhere or you could be on the silk road just waiting for a convoy to pass by and pick you up.
Critical reception will let you know that the metropolis is just over the hill, that you are in Death Valley or on a dangerous but none the less, important path. You're already in the wrong place and being told as much is as useful as the man that turned the map over but when someone tells you where you are not, you have options. If civilisation is where you were looking for all along then you climb the hill but if you've wandered so far off course, you can now turn back and brace the desert again.
Now that someone has told me where I am not, I've got a reference, and can divide my vector into two hemispheres. That which is the wrong direction and that which is the right one. I may still be a long, long way from where I want to go but I can get moving again. This is critical reception. If you're hungry, tired, alone and don't know where to go, you'll fall asleep and you might even die. If you're moving, you've got something to work with and it'll keep you awake.
#rejection #writing #psychology
12 March 2014
Interpreting Literature
By Roger Colins
I actually have a great deal to say on this subject but for the sake of the reader's eyes I'll try as always to keep things as short and concise as possible.
I've finished and published The Post Office part one so should anyone have an electronic viewing device and an interest in spy thrillers, feel free to check it out from Amazon here.
You can also follow the link in the top right of this page for the other posts I've made on the book. I'll be sending off a few emails to fiction agents in the coming week so with a little luck you might even be able to pick up a copy in paperback, some time.
A Depressing Finish
I always imagined that upon finishing any work of an immense mass, there would be some sort of satisfaction involved but upon encountering this particular experience, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Now, I strongly believe in the initial premise for writing this book. I still believe it is the finest thing I have done and am confident that with time and a few follow up novels it find will a small modicum of success. I do not feel that there is nothing more to do. Sometimes this odd depression can arise as there may be an emptiness in the realisation that I don't know what I am going to do next. It is difficult to explain but that is after all, the whole point.
I have felt no accomplishment in finishing this book because it works. I wrote the whole thing from beginning to end for myself and as far as I am concerned I hit the bullseye, I would have accepted nothing less.
The depression stems from the fact that I will never get to read it for the first time and seems something not too far removed from suicide. There's a lingering irony and humour there somewhere and can't help but assume I'd actually feel better if it gets panned by the critics, as I would have my evidence that it was not understood.
Alas, I suppose I should have seen this coming but since I did not, it is worthwhile leaving a brief caution for those that endeavour to do likewise and write for themselves.
Insanity
One theme I have included in the book was on perspective. We have all heard that a painting can tell a thousand words but a book, can have a million different perspectives. The plasticity of the brain just shifts things around when we go through a bunch of sentences. Even scientists and reporting journalists will get comments and feedback that go right from one end of the spectrum to the other.
It appears utterly pointless to hear interpretations of literature because each person's interpretation is going to be different. Sure, one can share thoughts and point out bits that another missed but there we have it again, that first read.
The first time is not only irreplaceable but unchangeable as well. Therefore, what I have attempted to do in the most studious way is to write something that can be read differently the second time. In doing this, my hope is that all that do read it will find their own personal interpretation entirely separated from all others, as well as find something new with each follow up read.
Having said that, there is more. I also kept the prose, rhythm and style quite linear. This, in order that the first read is not damaged and, so that we might be able to appreciate just how fallible literature really is.
Even though I wrote this in military fashion, even though I sorted through grammar books and thesaurus's and the greats to ensure that there is nothing, not one word in the document that can be misinterpreted, underneath there is a universe for each individual.
Consider those books and novels that are, dubious. The book with a turn of phrase, a saying or proverb or quote of wisdom, a life affirmation to elicit some sort of emotional response. If my book turns to water then these others must turn to plasma.
Words are not thoughts. Collect a few words together and you'll get a picture but move some around and the picture changes. We all have our own way of attaching words to a thought and even though we may wish that they be uniform, they are not. Not even close. Us English speakers should consider ourselves lucky with our million word vocabulary and gold medal eloquence factor but compare that stunning accomplishment of human history to the brain in your skull, would be to compare a letter to an alphabet.
#literature #ThePostOffice #interpretation
I actually have a great deal to say on this subject but for the sake of the reader's eyes I'll try as always to keep things as short and concise as possible.
I've finished and published The Post Office part one so should anyone have an electronic viewing device and an interest in spy thrillers, feel free to check it out from Amazon here.
You can also follow the link in the top right of this page for the other posts I've made on the book. I'll be sending off a few emails to fiction agents in the coming week so with a little luck you might even be able to pick up a copy in paperback, some time.
A Depressing Finish
I always imagined that upon finishing any work of an immense mass, there would be some sort of satisfaction involved but upon encountering this particular experience, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Now, I strongly believe in the initial premise for writing this book. I still believe it is the finest thing I have done and am confident that with time and a few follow up novels it find will a small modicum of success. I do not feel that there is nothing more to do. Sometimes this odd depression can arise as there may be an emptiness in the realisation that I don't know what I am going to do next. It is difficult to explain but that is after all, the whole point.
I have felt no accomplishment in finishing this book because it works. I wrote the whole thing from beginning to end for myself and as far as I am concerned I hit the bullseye, I would have accepted nothing less.
The depression stems from the fact that I will never get to read it for the first time and seems something not too far removed from suicide. There's a lingering irony and humour there somewhere and can't help but assume I'd actually feel better if it gets panned by the critics, as I would have my evidence that it was not understood.
Alas, I suppose I should have seen this coming but since I did not, it is worthwhile leaving a brief caution for those that endeavour to do likewise and write for themselves.
Insanity
One theme I have included in the book was on perspective. We have all heard that a painting can tell a thousand words but a book, can have a million different perspectives. The plasticity of the brain just shifts things around when we go through a bunch of sentences. Even scientists and reporting journalists will get comments and feedback that go right from one end of the spectrum to the other.
It appears utterly pointless to hear interpretations of literature because each person's interpretation is going to be different. Sure, one can share thoughts and point out bits that another missed but there we have it again, that first read.
The first time is not only irreplaceable but unchangeable as well. Therefore, what I have attempted to do in the most studious way is to write something that can be read differently the second time. In doing this, my hope is that all that do read it will find their own personal interpretation entirely separated from all others, as well as find something new with each follow up read.
Having said that, there is more. I also kept the prose, rhythm and style quite linear. This, in order that the first read is not damaged and, so that we might be able to appreciate just how fallible literature really is.
Even though I wrote this in military fashion, even though I sorted through grammar books and thesaurus's and the greats to ensure that there is nothing, not one word in the document that can be misinterpreted, underneath there is a universe for each individual.
Consider those books and novels that are, dubious. The book with a turn of phrase, a saying or proverb or quote of wisdom, a life affirmation to elicit some sort of emotional response. If my book turns to water then these others must turn to plasma.
Words are not thoughts. Collect a few words together and you'll get a picture but move some around and the picture changes. We all have our own way of attaching words to a thought and even though we may wish that they be uniform, they are not. Not even close. Us English speakers should consider ourselves lucky with our million word vocabulary and gold medal eloquence factor but compare that stunning accomplishment of human history to the brain in your skull, would be to compare a letter to an alphabet.
#literature #ThePostOffice #interpretation
12 February 2014
Writing Style
Roger Colins
Style comes from the finished product. It can be seen as a whole as once the final page is written in, from thereon, it can't be changed any more.
You can't really tell what style any product will have until it can be read with the unsuspecting eye. Aiming for a particular style as the product gets written, may get you exactly what you were looking for and sometimes the piece can have a different style all of it's very own.
Essence
Mood has to be considered. The audience reaction to where they are led, what they encounter bears down on how the style is mirrored in it. Moods can lift and fall and change, leave the audience not knowing what to think.
The style of writing and the mood can come from atmosphere, content or mixture of both. Intentional or not, the piece will arrive with it's own style, it's own mood.
Matter
The content is purposeful, the subject matter being addressed, written in the style sought after where atmosphere, usually develops from. Developments in the text and context alter the mood as it progresses, a creepy chapter in a horror or final lines in a romance.
How, where and when these changes are written can depend on pacing, the speed and regularity of instances and space between them can be even throughout, go up, go down or twist and turn.
The layout of chapters, sections, paragraphs all attribute to how the pacing looks. Should the mood change, the pace of the text is more likely to alter as well. If the book seems slow and easy, not too many surprises then the pace can be reflected as even. Dramatics deal with rapid change of delivery and would accelerate the pace.
Timing
The sentences provide timing for these instances in paragraphs or sections where they change from melancholy to informative, prose to speech. Many, long sentences can fill up a paragraph leaving a gap before the next change of pace. Short, sharp speech can enliven the page or flatten it out to something new.
The words in the sentences are the content, what is being said, the way it wants to be said. Vocabulary and grammar, lexis and syntax accompanied buy their chosen rhythm and stresses or stress timing. How the sentences link and interlink together as part of context, builds the style.
Having stuck a few sentences together, their content will reveal the progression of style as linear changes, from one to the next, takes place. Halfway through, the essence of the piece's atmosphere should become apparent, one way or another.
Curiously enough, delivering the best quality of any one particular style has something to do with atmosphere. Perhaps, because the reader is always going to have the same atmosphere of reading a book, when he's reading a book...
Having picked out a few ideas for nice vocabulary and a decided progression from A to B, sticking it together forms the atmosphere, the overall mood and pace dictated thereof. This is what the reader will see, what the audience will experience as the text grows and changes until the very end when the style, of the piece can be fully appreciated.
PS
Style writing or stylistic writing are different to, writing style.
#writing #style
Style comes from the finished product. It can be seen as a whole as once the final page is written in, from thereon, it can't be changed any more.
You can't really tell what style any product will have until it can be read with the unsuspecting eye. Aiming for a particular style as the product gets written, may get you exactly what you were looking for and sometimes the piece can have a different style all of it's very own.
Essence
Mood has to be considered. The audience reaction to where they are led, what they encounter bears down on how the style is mirrored in it. Moods can lift and fall and change, leave the audience not knowing what to think.
The style of writing and the mood can come from atmosphere, content or mixture of both. Intentional or not, the piece will arrive with it's own style, it's own mood.
Matter
The content is purposeful, the subject matter being addressed, written in the style sought after where atmosphere, usually develops from. Developments in the text and context alter the mood as it progresses, a creepy chapter in a horror or final lines in a romance.
How, where and when these changes are written can depend on pacing, the speed and regularity of instances and space between them can be even throughout, go up, go down or twist and turn.
The layout of chapters, sections, paragraphs all attribute to how the pacing looks. Should the mood change, the pace of the text is more likely to alter as well. If the book seems slow and easy, not too many surprises then the pace can be reflected as even. Dramatics deal with rapid change of delivery and would accelerate the pace.
Timing
The sentences provide timing for these instances in paragraphs or sections where they change from melancholy to informative, prose to speech. Many, long sentences can fill up a paragraph leaving a gap before the next change of pace. Short, sharp speech can enliven the page or flatten it out to something new.
The words in the sentences are the content, what is being said, the way it wants to be said. Vocabulary and grammar, lexis and syntax accompanied buy their chosen rhythm and stresses or stress timing. How the sentences link and interlink together as part of context, builds the style.
Having stuck a few sentences together, their content will reveal the progression of style as linear changes, from one to the next, takes place. Halfway through, the essence of the piece's atmosphere should become apparent, one way or another.
Curiously enough, delivering the best quality of any one particular style has something to do with atmosphere. Perhaps, because the reader is always going to have the same atmosphere of reading a book, when he's reading a book...
Having picked out a few ideas for nice vocabulary and a decided progression from A to B, sticking it together forms the atmosphere, the overall mood and pace dictated thereof. This is what the reader will see, what the audience will experience as the text grows and changes until the very end when the style, of the piece can be fully appreciated.
PS
Style writing or stylistic writing are different to, writing style.
#writing #style
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