presents “Two Voices” – a discussion about writing
by 2 writers, Alfred Brown and Anh Thi
(female) ANH |
(male) ALFRED |
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I would never encourage anyone to be a writer. That’s a choice that is self-made. Encouraging someone to do something that doesn’t automatically draw them is a waste of effort, and can steer a young person in the wrong direction. What I would do is encourage people to express themselves, whether by writing or any other method that calls to them. |
Writing in the sense of using the written word to communicate ideas is always a good skill to have, and to be proficient, one must practice. I’m so egalitarian that I’d even consider texting some misspelled treacle to one’s “bf” like “I luv u 4vr u mak me cri evrityme” to be good practice.
But I feel better practice if it’s proper spelling and grammar. What is proper, or correct, is hard to say. I never use emoticons when I text, not even a smiley face, but that’s just my style, and I would never say it is one by which all must abide. |
| Any endeavor is going to take sacrifice and work. If it’s a creative endeavor, there is the element of subjectivity which leads to self-doubt.
Why? Because you can never objectively have someone measure how good or bad your efforts are. It’s subjective. It’s an opinion, not tied to any logic. Doubting yourself is a very easy thing to do. Second guessing yourself is human nature, and it can be destructive if you don’t love what you’re doing. If there’s no redeeming aspect to the work and sacrifice, as in you want to do it, writing will be hell. |
Would I encourage creative writing? Depends on what you want from it, or rather what you are willing to accept may come from it.
Why? Because you might want it to do something amazing, but you may need to eventually accept a much tamer definition of amazing than perhaps you originally wanted. I agree that writing will be hell if you don’t find something redeeming in it. For me, with creative writing, I think whatever else I might be doing would probably be worse, as my writing is often in response to stress. Instead of writing, I might go online and look at memes of misspelled texts to bfs, and then afterwards have nothing to show for it. |
| So for those who choose to write, or just plain can’t help themselves, I would encourage you to learn your craft. That’s the boring part of doing anything – learning how to do it.
Grammar, spelling, sentence structure, parsing out the meaning of a word or phrase, understanding the rhythm and structure of a story, editing, re-writing, overcoming mental blocks, research, and just keep chugging along. Writing is practice, and the practice of writing takes time. And it’s a lonely thing to do. Writers, even in teams, write alone. Your voice is not a shared voice, but something that develops as you experience life in your own unique way, and finding that voice means only you can express your singular style. And that’s a great thing to finally being able to find yourself!
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I accept every time I creatively write that, yet again, my words may be seen by no one. But there’s always a chance. And there is very little value with time spent alone on the internet, or TV, or any other “consuming” activity with no end product (time spent socially at least has an end product of bonding).
But I don’t think that learning how to write needs to be boring. Not if you approach it creatively. There were some researchers at Stanford who found much more success in teaching math by encouraging creative thinking and creative approaches to problem solving, instead of rote methods. So I feel it should be with most learning. Even learning something inherently creative, like creative writing. There’s always multiple ways to come out with something, even in structure or being “grammatically correct”. Look at each time as a challenge that you get to choose how to tackle, and even writing “properly” or “structured” can be fun. And finding ways to engage yourself in creative problem solving is yet another useful skill. So, yes, I encourage creative writing. The only thing I don’t want to encourage is a sense that you must be the best, the most accomplished, the next J.K. Rowlings, or Tom Clancy, or whomever actually makes money writing. For value comes in lots of unexpected ways. And that feeling you must be exceptional, followed by a feeling of being a failure because you are “not,” is very much not exceptional. And very much unfortunate. |