Jerry
Minstrel
Joyce Carol Oates said, as many a teacher and author have used this metaphor in some form or another; "Think of yourself as a photographer with a camera and you're looking through a lens. And when you have your magic camera - that's your writing. With the lens you see the subject, but the camera is your writing. That's your position. Your perspective. And that's what gives you your power. But in able to have to do this, you have to have the language and the craft. You have to have some place to put it. Know how to divide it up and how the sentences work."
The last part is my struggle. As all writers, of course, we have a vision, perhaps not just the visuals, but some written words, sprawled on scraps of paper or mental notes. Mine are heavy on the mental notes. Heavy. I understand the craft, feel I have a strong grasp on language, form and structure, I trust. But it's that transformation out of the visual and magically, talently, into words. I do say literally, for as writer, this is what should be natural to us. I understand struggles, blocks, empty pages, and the like... but if I have a simple scene set up in my camera, my visual, the power to transform it into simple words escape me. Could it be perhaps a few writing classes could solve? I've taken a few from Writer's Digest (expensive) and while it helps a bit, the classes seem more like rushed prompts to be graded. I loved the idea of being forced to write as I thought that may be the answer, but all I wrote was forced and not readable, even in draft stages. Incoherent babble. As writer's... does it come easy to you? We all struggle, I know, sometimes harshly. But... what is out there that can open the flood gates? Most times... I can't write what I want to say. I just simply can't write it. I don't think I'm overthinking. Honestly... I know I do hear that damn editor cursing me, that I'm not following the rules of structure or form, and sometimes it does handcuff me till I realize and break away from it.
I thought perhaps to just freewrite my WIP, very little in progress. Just write what is supposed to happen in the story. Whether it's just a few words or sentences, just to get me from point A to B, the beginning and end of a scene. I have, but that's where I'm at.
I have a simple scene. I look at the page and struggle with how to write it as I visually see it. It won't come out. Simple words and simple actions I seem to not be able to put into words. What can a writer do to unpossess himself of such ridiculous demons. Help. I'm blank.
The last part is my struggle. As all writers, of course, we have a vision, perhaps not just the visuals, but some written words, sprawled on scraps of paper or mental notes. Mine are heavy on the mental notes. Heavy. I understand the craft, feel I have a strong grasp on language, form and structure, I trust. But it's that transformation out of the visual and magically, talently, into words. I do say literally, for as writer, this is what should be natural to us. I understand struggles, blocks, empty pages, and the like... but if I have a simple scene set up in my camera, my visual, the power to transform it into simple words escape me. Could it be perhaps a few writing classes could solve? I've taken a few from Writer's Digest (expensive) and while it helps a bit, the classes seem more like rushed prompts to be graded. I loved the idea of being forced to write as I thought that may be the answer, but all I wrote was forced and not readable, even in draft stages. Incoherent babble. As writer's... does it come easy to you? We all struggle, I know, sometimes harshly. But... what is out there that can open the flood gates? Most times... I can't write what I want to say. I just simply can't write it. I don't think I'm overthinking. Honestly... I know I do hear that damn editor cursing me, that I'm not following the rules of structure or form, and sometimes it does handcuff me till I realize and break away from it.
I thought perhaps to just freewrite my WIP, very little in progress. Just write what is supposed to happen in the story. Whether it's just a few words or sentences, just to get me from point A to B, the beginning and end of a scene. I have, but that's where I'm at.
I have a simple scene. I look at the page and struggle with how to write it as I visually see it. It won't come out. Simple words and simple actions I seem to not be able to put into words. What can a writer do to unpossess himself of such ridiculous demons. Help. I'm blank.