So You Want to Be a Writer?

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Thursday, September 19. 2019

So You Want to Be a Writer?

Can anyone be taught to be a writer? I sort of doubt it, but anybody can learn to structure a coherent essay, and if that's interesting to read then that's a good start. Many lines of work require that. For writing, talent helps, so does IQ, curiosity, observational power, and wit.

I have always (like so many, because music is harder) aspired to be a fine writer, but I lack the talent. I can do simple declarative, mostly grammatical sentences, but that's all.

So You Want to Be a Writer? A review of Why They Can’t Write by John Warner

Posted by The Barrister in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 18:15 | Comments (11) | Trackbacks (0)

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"Writing, he reminds us, is hard, and has always been so."
This article is simply a leftist diatribe against capitalism. The author wants young people to believe that "writing" can exist independently from life. It can't. The reason that so many kids can't write today is that they are afraid to say anything. It's much safer to remain silent; or to imagine a world which has no connection to reality. If kids felt free, and encouraged, they would write a lot. But they are afraid. So they mask their fear with cynicism.

#1 Ron B Liebermann on 2019-09-19 19:24 (Reply)

My God, that was a boring read.

#2 Harpo on 2019-09-19 20:13 (Reply)

Yeah, that's not someone to take writing advice from. A bit horrifying that he is a writing teacher.

#2.1 JK Brown on 2019-09-19 20:44 (Reply)

So you want to be a writer? Thank capitalism, assuming you aren't from an aristocratic family who gained their fortune off the backs of the poor in Medieval times.

QUOTE:

In the precapitalistic ages writing was an unremunerative art. Blacksmiths and shoemakers could make a living, but authors could not. Writing was a liberal art, a hobby, but not a profession. It was a noble pursuit of wealthy people, of kings, grandees and statesmen, of patricians and other gentlemen of independent means. It was practiced in spare time by bishops and monks, university teachers and soldiers. The penniless man whom an irresistible impulse prompted to write had first to secure some source of revenue other than authorship.

--Mises, Ludwig von (1956). The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality

#3 JK Brown on 2019-09-19 20:37 (Reply)

…(commenting as a reader to authors) Writing is essentially oral storytelling set in words...consider if no one had ever read it, who would stay around if you just told the story. And read extensively - not just the "classics and best sellers " but the lesser books, and try to learn why you are excited by one of them. Or why you wish the author would either get to the point or end the book. Learn the use of language - I would recommend Winston Churchill's books (agree with content or not). He used exactly the right word to convey a precise shade of meaning...Finally, dogged daily writing produces drivel (do it, but do not publish)...mull your writing over in your mind till the sudden insight finally comes - as it will...and the words flow...

#4 Don McCollor on 2019-09-19 21:09 (Reply)

Thanks to the internet, there are way too many people churning out “writing”.

#5 SharonJG on 2019-09-19 22:58 (Reply)

Ivan Doig was a kid from Montana. His original focus was in the journalistic style. Then he decided to write a story about what he knew--history of Montana and the stories of it's people. He did such a wonderful job with first two books (the first being breathtaking beautiful). Then his wife wanted to go to Seattle, which they did. He enrolled himself in an advanced writing program and ended up with a doctorate degree and along the way they beat the hell out of his gift. IMHO--it disappeared in the years he was studying how to be a writer!

#6 Apple Pie on 2019-09-19 23:43 (Reply)

Couldn't get through the first two sentences, sorry.

#7 Bull on 2019-09-20 01:20 (Reply)

I've heard that fewer young people are reading books. Pretty soon it will all be audio/video.

#8 LP on 2019-09-20 07:41 (Reply)

Proving your own point, you're missing a comma in the second paragraph:

" I can do simple declarative, mostly grammatical, sentences, but that's all."

#9 Another guy named Dan on 2019-09-20 07:52 (Reply)

Want to be a writer? Never, ever enter a university program for writing.

#10 RebeccaH on 2019-09-21 13:00 (Reply)

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Thursday, September 19. 2019

So You Want to Be a Writer?