Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime
Comments
Got to go - the fish fingers are nearly ready, and the washing-machine has stopped.
I read extensively, always have done, and certainly in the beginning there was a distinct tendency to write like Ray Bradbury (my hero) but my own 'voice' developed after a while and has remained.
Interesting question, Jay. Got to go, the gluten free bread is cooling and needs its chocolate spread before it turns into the consistency of cooked cardboard. It is not the nicest bread in the world ...
As for me, no writing qualifications, though I have completed an OU course. I wish i'd gone to University to study Literature but didn't so i'm having to do the best I can. I've got an Arvon course in October which i'm sure will help, but otherwise it's just been a matter of picking things up as I go along, both as a reader and writer.
Richard
Personally I wouldn't want to do a Creative Writing course as I don't think it would suit me at the moment.
I feel okay about spelling and grammar as I was taught the old way just before trendy ideas took over.
You don't stop learning from anything.
And they do say there are only so many plots, it's how you use them that's important.
Then again...it was sooooo long ago!
I didn't take up my place at university, and don't regret this. Maybe I should have taken different 'A' levels, though (I did French, Italian and history) - maths or German instead of history, and Spanish instead of Italian. Or perhaps I should have become a pharmacist - I practically live in our local chemist's as it is.
I've led a fairly uneventful life, and there's a mixture of imagination and making the most of what I do see/hear in my writing.
When I was young, I was always reading, and I also tried to write. At fourteen, I was onto Dostoyevsky and wrote a 300-page unfinished science fiction story. Like Flick, I hated analysing books.
I seem to be good at dialogue, but often fail to describe people and places. I'm not sure I know much about structure and plotting. I love playing with language.
My O'levels included English language and oral English at Grade B, and Eng Lit at Grade A, so I had a leaning towards words even then.
I guess I just have a head full of stories that need to come out and until I run dry I'll keep on doing it. Maybe oneday I'll achive my goal to become a children's author, until then - I'm keeping my fingers tapping on the keyboard and my mind alive with weird, wacky and wonderful creations.
I'm pretty wary of washing-machines now, ever since I opened one and all the water came out and flooded the kitchen floor. (I'd turned off the machine at the mains, which allowed me to open the door.) Half-past ten on a Sunday night.
Until it fell off.
Our machine plays up when the filter gets blocked, and trying to clear that usually ends up with towels soaking up the momentary deluge as you quickly undo the unit, grab the junk and shove back into position- before the floor floods. (we need to do this when it refuses to drain the water, because it won't spin properly.)
Bookworm since the age of six, still am and think I have finally found my own voice instead of falling into the style of whoever I am reading at the moment.
Keep thinking about a writing course of some description but I tend to feel that it is something that develops on its own over time and practice, same as painting. I don't think creativity can be taught.
Well done!
Mid thirties decided it was time to give long-held writing aspirations a go, so went on a brilliant one day course - take-home message "no-one has to read what you write so success lies in giving editors what they want". It was like a light-bulb switching on.
I then read -loads- of books on writing technique and on pitching to editors (cheers, WN Bookshelf, good investment). Realised no way could I do creative writing, even though that was my dream, but successs came from learning & applying the craft for non-fiction articles.
I was also advised early that editors like people who are reliable and co-operative, so I make sure I am, even if it means staying up past midnight to meet a deadline.
That wasn't me.
I don't have qualifications except in English lit and a lifetime of reading widely and ravenously. Nothing ever changes.
Well, so writing qualifications? I just had to answer this one as many Talkbackers will already know from previous posts I have an MA in writing. I talk about it a lot on my website http://www.josiehenley.net/MA.html so wont go on about it here, but suffice to say that I think it is not essential to have a qualification and that having the qualification does not necessarily guarantee you success as a writer, but was a brilliant experience for me and it certainly taught me a few things in terms of honing my skills, finding a voice and some direction.
MorbidMaiden I also went to Villiers Park way back in 1988 when I was doing my A Levels. Each school got to send one pupil to go on this creative writing weekend thing, and I was picked. I was soooo chuffed! I was doing English Literature, I also did an online creative writing module just before I did my MA. My main degree was in Psychology and Linguistics this is the mechanics of language: semantics, syntax, phonetics, language acquisition, that sort of thing. So it wasnt creative writing but it did give me a lot of insight and Ive always been fascinated by language.
So can we recognize each other's posts when the wrong name is shown against them?
I've just remembered I did a proof(please note second consonsant)-reading course. I suppose that helps with checking my work.
"Hello, Mum."
"I've got to buy a cabbage for Mum."
Every mum is loved by her/their children.
"My mum is eighty-seven." Not too sure about this one but, as it's got the word 'my' in front of mum, it may be right. You wouldn't write, "My Sister is ten."