tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954985364832387420.post4913745504184418463..comments2023-10-15T08:47:16.191-04:00Comments on Spiral Reverie - An Author's Musings: Why You Should Fail at LifeBenjamin Fennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969365899812684110noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954985364832387420.post-53015390390700043692009-03-10T09:06:00.000-04:002009-03-10T09:06:00.000-04:00Exactly what I seek to do in equal measure.No prob...Exactly what I seek to do in equal measure.<BR/><BR/>No problem. Welcome aboard, and enjoy! Always nice to have new readers and commenters.Benjamin Fennellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03969365899812684110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954985364832387420.post-25207022667630566422009-03-10T05:38:00.000-04:002009-03-10T05:38:00.000-04:00Inspirational and depressing.I feel enlightened an...Inspirational and depressing.<BR/><BR/>I feel enlightened and sobered. Slapped and comforted.<BR/><BR/>Effective. <BR/><BR/>Thank you,<BR/>I'll be subscribing to you now!Gunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11687209685350483337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954985364832387420.post-84900384307507793322009-03-03T12:38:00.000-05:002009-03-03T12:38:00.000-05:00Hrm, interesting. I've never been exposed to that ...Hrm, interesting. I've never been exposed to that particular school of thought before, so it's nice - and certainly reassuring - to hear that there's a lot more commonplace range of thought in regards to writers and what makes them qualified. It was concerns about becoming some "stuffy English major" who obsesses over grammar that kept me from being an English major in my undergrad years as is - I just took a couple of creative writing classes, and went through one workshop (In which the environment was constantly rather tense and unpleasant when people were critiquing each other), and kept my focus on non-writing things that interested me. Which largely amounted to some literature courses, a brief foray into poetry (Though I'm not much of a poet - my stuff mostly ended up being poetic narrative jokes with weird punchlines.), some film study, and a whole lot of history, culture, and politics across the globe.<BR/><BR/>With any luck, maybe this'll end up being some kind of strength, since I'm rather focused on zeroing in on and honing whatever natural talent I have. I try to experiment a good bit with the things I write as is - the very nature of the setting of my first novel isn't entirely concrete (Which I'm not sure if it'll help or not in the publishing process) and generally experimental in nature. But I also rely on a decent number of comfortable cliches here and there - though I try to present them in an intelligent, fresh, and subversive manner as so to keep the reader hooked. (And to make the writing itself interesting, of course. If the writing process isn't engaging and enjoyable, there's no point.)<BR/><BR/>But yeah, really good to hear, again. David Sedaris is a definite talent - I borrowed a couple of his books from my father a few years back and enjoyed them quite a bit.Benjamin Fennellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03969365899812684110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954985364832387420.post-31539710475514301222009-03-03T12:08:00.000-05:002009-03-03T12:08:00.000-05:00A teacher of mine in college who is a notable and ...A teacher of mine in college who is a notable and recognizable writer of novels galore has said that he found he was discriminated against by editors, agents and reviewers because he had gone to grad school for writing. There are definitely two different schools of thought on the matter. Some people feel that grad school "ruins" your raw talent and that you cannot be taught how to write creatively. My favorite example is David Sedaris, who really had no idea what the hell he was doing until his 40s. Don't give up and don't consider things like this a failure. I do not consider them to be failures in the least.<BR/><BR/>lindsay || <A HREF="http://www.newyorkwords.net" REL="nofollow">newyorkwords.net</A>Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18143993209515462136noreply@blogger.com