Read an interesting story in The Australian by Jenny Sinclair. Okay, I can hear some of you saying already, "Yeah, yeah, yeah ... heard it all before." Absolutely true, but I like her beginning and her ending.
Beginning: 'EVERYWHERE I turn, it seems, I see advertisements for writing courses, writing workshops, writing weekends, writing holidays. All of them promise to help participants polish their prose and carve out their characters ...'
Ending: '... It's not writing that should be encouraged but reading, widely and voraciously, reading the classics, reading the modern masters. That, if my university lecturers are right, is what will bring out the real writers among us. Magazine editors, publishers and writing competitions are groaning under the output of all those writing courses and I want to say stop. Stop if you can. And if you can't stop, write.'
Like in all stories different people will take away different parts from it to call their own. Here are some vignettes.
'What they (the multiplicity of courses) do is provide toolboxes, and with those toolboxes the vaguely talented often turn out the equivalent of high school carpentry projects: a procession of by-the-numbers breakfast trays and carved wooden animals.'
'Writing is not a good in itself that everyone should be encouraged to attempt, such as cycling to work or eating more broccoli ... Training and encouragement will not bring out the real writers. The threat of not writing will.'
And then I got cancer. Death threatened ... I had an epiphany: it didn't matter to me if I was any good as long as I wrote.
I know what you are thinking: "Wah, so drama ..." Nevermind. Read the article at: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21105051-5001986,00.html
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i truly believe that you can only write well if you are well read! only then, will you be able to expect your readers to make sense of what you've written on:)
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