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Writers Should Try Living First - Greatest Weaknesses of Modern Authors
The Missal ^ | 7/31/06 | JWG

Posted on 12/06/2006 6:15:27 AM PST by occu77

I'm gonna list what I consider to be the Greatest Weaknesses of Modern Authors, their writings, worldviews, methods of working, work produced, etc.

1. Little or No Real World Experience: Too many modern authors, writers, screenwriters (not to mention artists of all kinds) have little or no real world experience. They go to school to learn how to write, they spend their lives obsessing over writing, they spend most all of their free time writing or learning to write. Yet they never lived and have nothing to write about except what is spawned within their own imaginations. They spend all of their time creating fictional worlds because they have nothing to say about and have made no observations on the real world. How could they? They've never spent any time living in it. Writing about what they see in their own heads is the only accomplishment they've ever had or tried to have.

(Excerpt) Read more at themissal.blogspot.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: art; literature; manhood; writing

1 posted on 12/06/2006 6:15:30 AM PST by occu77
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To: occu77
There is great truth in this. Wasn't it James Michener who didn't start writing until age 38, after he had bummed around the South Seas for a long time?

Too many writers write from the experiences of other people (or worse, other writers), and that has led directly to literary fiction becoming the province of a tightly closed circle of New York gays and lesbians. ;)

2 posted on 12/06/2006 6:24:38 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves ("When the government is invasive, the people are wanting." -- Tao Te Ching)
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To: occu77

That list encompasses far more than authors.


3 posted on 12/06/2006 6:24:45 AM PST by kerryusama04 (Isa 8:20, Eze 22:26)
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To: Mr. Jeeves

"Literary fiction" is involuted navel-gazing pap written by those who have nothing to say and no clue what a PLOT is.


4 posted on 12/06/2006 9:24:34 AM PST by Veto! (Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
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To: occu77

Sadly, I agree with all of you guys.


5 posted on 12/06/2006 11:13:24 AM PST by occu77
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To: occu77

I strongly suggest you stay away from the novels of Robbe-Grillet. You'll want to open a vein.


6 posted on 12/06/2006 11:53:47 AM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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