The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
I am wrong.
You see, I had this wonderful perception that writing wasn't about words, but about emotion. About telling people about yourself, and your mind.
But I am wrong.
For you see, writing isn't about any of those things. It's about description.
Because if you describe something with enough words that you have to look up in a dictionary to understand, then you can communicate with people.
And there was me thinking that you know, it was just the ability to grab someone, and talk to them for a while without them getting bored. That's what reading is, surely? You shouldn't have to really, really concentrate to read something? Does a film maker force you to keep your eyes and ears open through the whole of the film? Does a musician ask for you to be silent while he sings? No, because these things we want to listen to, we want to watch. We have that decision to make, and we can make it ourselves.
Except when it comes to writing. In order to win a competition, you don't have to write something that people want to read... you have to write something that only the elite can read. Yes, the ones that enjoy writing because it's an intelligent past-time. All the kids with their greased down hair won't pick on you now, will they? You've found your religion, and a thousand other idiots just like you. All followed the wrong roads, believe they're superior.
Superior fashions, "We're not like them, because there are thousands like me." Comfort in finding something different, but still not being yourself.
What sparked all this off? I've been searching for competitions. Seeing what's won them.
Things you have to go back and re-read a few times, just so you understand it. What the hell is the point? Writing is about communication... trying to speak to thousands. No wonder hardly anyone reads, the writers are driving them away.
Don't they want their work to be read?
"No, I'd rather have my audience of INTELLIGENT people, thank you. I don't write books for children."
Easy to understand, of course, makes something childish. Something that you don't have to re-read a thousand times while the author bangs one off in the corner because he's so fascinating and hard to understand... he knows nothing. An artist. Someone who wishes to be alone, to inspire no-one but himself.
People like that make me sick. And the world is full of them. And they're winning competitions.
It's going to be a damn hard time to find someone who enjoys my style of writing. Instead of seeing "Hmmm... well, that's good, but his vocabulary is a little slim...", seeing "Hell, I want to read that again." Because that's all I want really. Someone to just pick up something I've wrote, and to read it.
Or pick up something I've made, and watch it, play it, use it. I have no intention of trying to segregrate myself from society so I can go to wine parties and be told how amazing my mind is.
Sure, it's a nice compliment, but people who are told that don't care. They don't care about you, they just know that they can write any old crap, they can do it inbetween the news and Emmerdale, and they can still sell books.
Word word word word word... instead of wordy word word, worrrrd, word wordy wordy word. They speak in different languages, they quote in phrases that they know nobody understands, but they had to look it up themselves to know. If you can write something, using words that people understand, but still confuse them, THEN, you are a genius. But we shouldn't confuse people. Just try to help them understand a bit more.
Communication can lead to a united people. Why is everyone so afraid?
You see, I had this wonderful perception that writing wasn't about words, but about emotion. About telling people about yourself, and your mind.
But I am wrong.
For you see, writing isn't about any of those things. It's about description.
Because if you describe something with enough words that you have to look up in a dictionary to understand, then you can communicate with people.
And there was me thinking that you know, it was just the ability to grab someone, and talk to them for a while without them getting bored. That's what reading is, surely? You shouldn't have to really, really concentrate to read something? Does a film maker force you to keep your eyes and ears open through the whole of the film? Does a musician ask for you to be silent while he sings? No, because these things we want to listen to, we want to watch. We have that decision to make, and we can make it ourselves.
Except when it comes to writing. In order to win a competition, you don't have to write something that people want to read... you have to write something that only the elite can read. Yes, the ones that enjoy writing because it's an intelligent past-time. All the kids with their greased down hair won't pick on you now, will they? You've found your religion, and a thousand other idiots just like you. All followed the wrong roads, believe they're superior.
Superior fashions, "We're not like them, because there are thousands like me." Comfort in finding something different, but still not being yourself.
What sparked all this off? I've been searching for competitions. Seeing what's won them.
Things you have to go back and re-read a few times, just so you understand it. What the hell is the point? Writing is about communication... trying to speak to thousands. No wonder hardly anyone reads, the writers are driving them away.
Don't they want their work to be read?
"No, I'd rather have my audience of INTELLIGENT people, thank you. I don't write books for children."
Easy to understand, of course, makes something childish. Something that you don't have to re-read a thousand times while the author bangs one off in the corner because he's so fascinating and hard to understand... he knows nothing. An artist. Someone who wishes to be alone, to inspire no-one but himself.
People like that make me sick. And the world is full of them. And they're winning competitions.
It's going to be a damn hard time to find someone who enjoys my style of writing. Instead of seeing "Hmmm... well, that's good, but his vocabulary is a little slim...", seeing "Hell, I want to read that again." Because that's all I want really. Someone to just pick up something I've wrote, and to read it.
Or pick up something I've made, and watch it, play it, use it. I have no intention of trying to segregrate myself from society so I can go to wine parties and be told how amazing my mind is.
Sure, it's a nice compliment, but people who are told that don't care. They don't care about you, they just know that they can write any old crap, they can do it inbetween the news and Emmerdale, and they can still sell books.
Word word word word word... instead of wordy word word, worrrrd, word wordy wordy word. They speak in different languages, they quote in phrases that they know nobody understands, but they had to look it up themselves to know. If you can write something, using words that people understand, but still confuse them, THEN, you are a genius. But we shouldn't confuse people. Just try to help them understand a bit more.
Communication can lead to a united people. Why is everyone so afraid?
Page:
Mr. Happy wrote:
>I heard about a really cool book today
That does sound cool: if you can remember the title then please post it. I don't know if you've read Jorge Luis Borges, but you really should: short stories that just blow your mind. Oh, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez really is quite a 'simple' writer: I managed to read 'One Hundred Years...' in the original, and my Spanish is very, very limited!
>I heard about a really cool book today
That does sound cool: if you can remember the title then please post it. I don't know if you've read Jorge Luis Borges, but you really should: short stories that just blow your mind. Oh, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez really is quite a 'simple' writer: I managed to read 'One Hundred Years...' in the original, and my Spanish is very, very limited!
unknown kernel wrote:
> Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Not necessarily, I think the reason he writes simplistically is more the translator's influence than Garcia's. But I completely agree that he is a magnificent writer. I finished 100 Years of Solitude a few weeks ago. A truly brilliant masterpiece.
I heard about a really cool book today. Can't remember who it's by, but it's new. Basically the narrator is a foreigner who has to communicate things very simply because he doesn't know much English, then halfway through the book, in a stroke of literary genius, he finds a thesaurus and endless malapropisms ensue as he tries to spruce up his language. That sounds cool.
> Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Not necessarily, I think the reason he writes simplistically is more the translator's influence than Garcia's. But I completely agree that he is a magnificent writer. I finished 100 Years of Solitude a few weeks ago. A truly brilliant masterpiece.
I heard about a really cool book today. Can't remember who it's by, but it's new. Basically the narrator is a foreigner who has to communicate things very simply because he doesn't know much English, then halfway through the book, in a stroke of literary genius, he finds a thesaurus and endless malapropisms ensue as he tries to spruce up his language. That sounds cool.
Grix Thraves wrote:
> Except when it comes to writing. In order to win a competition, you don't have to write something that people want to read... you have to write something that only the elite can read.
Good point - I hate the way wordiness is so often a substitute for good writing. One of the few things that I took from school was some advice from my English teacher: "Good writers don't need to use long and complicated words - bad writers do." You see this sort of thing all the time. At university I had to read academic articles stuffed full of incomprehensible words (and words not even in the dictionary) just to grasp a simple idea. On TV you'll often hear people trying to sound super-intelligent in interviews by reading out scripted answers: they just come across as fake. And then there is the self-appointed 'literati' of people like Will Self and Martin Amis: books full of poly-syllabic words but not one decent idea, feeling or phrase.
All my favourite writers manage to work miracles with a simple - not necessarily small - vocabulary. Check out the work of Dylan Thomas, Jorge Luis Borges or Gabriel Garcia Marquez: accessible but beautiful writing in all of them. Even Shakespeare was readily understood at the time because he messed around with a language that people understood. Sure he used it in different ways, but audiences didn't need to bring the OED to the theatre.
So don't change your style, whatever you do!
> Except when it comes to writing. In order to win a competition, you don't have to write something that people want to read... you have to write something that only the elite can read.
Good point - I hate the way wordiness is so often a substitute for good writing. One of the few things that I took from school was some advice from my English teacher: "Good writers don't need to use long and complicated words - bad writers do." You see this sort of thing all the time. At university I had to read academic articles stuffed full of incomprehensible words (and words not even in the dictionary) just to grasp a simple idea. On TV you'll often hear people trying to sound super-intelligent in interviews by reading out scripted answers: they just come across as fake. And then there is the self-appointed 'literati' of people like Will Self and Martin Amis: books full of poly-syllabic words but not one decent idea, feeling or phrase.
All my favourite writers manage to work miracles with a simple - not necessarily small - vocabulary. Check out the work of Dylan Thomas, Jorge Luis Borges or Gabriel Garcia Marquez: accessible but beautiful writing in all of them. Even Shakespeare was readily understood at the time because he messed around with a language that people understood. Sure he used it in different ways, but audiences didn't need to bring the OED to the theatre.
So don't change your style, whatever you do!
I know, Cheese... but the problem is, that's not what a lot of people think, and it upsets me.
If you write something, and it is interesting to read, then it is good writing.
If you write something, and it is boring to read, then it is bad writing.
I don't see what all the confusion is about.
If you write something, and it is boring to read, then it is bad writing.
I don't see what all the confusion is about.
In the end though, I think there is a thin line in ANY art form between making the piece from your heart and making it just for yourself. If you make something that only you understand but is aesthetically pleasing, maybe people will enjoy it, but the point the creator was trying to make in the first place is irrelevant, because no-one understands what the hell he is trying to communicate to them! If someone wants people in general to get their point they can't make the art FOR themselves... It has to be what they are passionate about, AND what others can understand...
As I said, I think it's a very thin line...
As I said, I think it's a very thin line...
I write the same stuff a lot, Sheepy. :0D
I thought I replied to this
Now that could be cool. I'll go start a revolution in writing, by writing things people actually want to read. ;0)
Damnit. Wish I could at least fit in for a few minutes, just so I could handcuff myself to the chair and force them to listen to me ramble in the way *I* want to. :0D
Damnit. Wish I could at least fit in for a few minutes, just so I could handcuff myself to the chair and force them to listen to me ramble in the way *I* want to. :0D
Grix Thraves wrote:
> I don't really fit in with the horrible styles they use. Mainly.
That's a great thing though :-D
If you do something innovative you could found a whole literary movement.
There was this one American authour who published his 400 page book as a box of loose sheets that you could arrange and read in any order that you wanted to. That's taking it too far I think :-)
> I don't really fit in with the horrible styles they use. Mainly.
That's a great thing though :-D
If you do something innovative you could found a whole literary movement.
There was this one American authour who published his 400 page book as a box of loose sheets that you could arrange and read in any order that you wanted to. That's taking it too far I think :-)
Page: