[quote]mrclean85 wrote:
We are all entitled to our own opinions.[/quote]
There is such a thing as objectively good writing.
Or something close enough to it.
Yours doesn’t fit in that category by a long shot. The wording of many of your sentences are far too confusing.
I saw an interview with, if I recall correctly, Italian writer Dacia Maraini. She said that she always meets young aspiring writers who ask her for advice on writing. Her response was that she asks them what they have read. She said that you can’t write until you have read and understand the great literary examples that preceded you.
Too many people these days, and the whole self publishing thing and blogs don’t help, just start writing and believe that by virtue of writing something they can now refer to themselves as writers. They believe that “art” doesn’t have to follow rules and therefore they can’t be wrong or bad. What they fail to understand is that great artists don’t have to follow the rules. This is why this particular author refers to criticism as mere opinions as though they were based on some personal preferences.
It takes a certain amount of ego to expect people to pay to read something you wrote. Your abilities better match your ego and you better prepare your pride and vanity for a fall. The other option is to learn some humility and be humble.
[quote]zecarlo wrote:
I saw an interview with, if I recall correctly, Italian writer Dacia Maraini. She said that she always meets young aspiring writers who ask her for advice on writing. Her response was that she asks them what they have read. She said that you can’t write until you have read and understand the great literary examples that preceded you.
Too many people these days, and the whole self publishing thing and blogs don’t help, just start writing and believe that by virtue of writing something they can now refer to themselves as writers. They believe that “art” doesn’t have to follow rules and therefore they can’t be wrong or bad. What they fail to understand is that great artists don’t have to follow the rules. This is why this particular author refers to criticism as mere opinions as though they were based on some personal preferences.
It takes a certain amount of ego to expect people to pay to read something you wrote. Your abilities better match your ego and you better prepare your pride and vanity for a fall. The other option is to learn some humility and be humble.
[/quote]
I didn’t see that interview, but it is a truism in the writing world that the definition of a hack is one who writes more than he reads.
Unfortunately, another truism is that even people who know that they can’t do anything, don’t know that they can’t write.
[quote]zecarlo wrote:
I saw an interview with, if I recall correctly, Italian writer Dacia Maraini. She said that she always meets young aspiring writers who ask her for advice on writing. Her response was that she asks them what they have read. She said that you can’t write until you have read and understand the great literary examples that preceded you.
Too many people these days, and the whole self publishing thing and blogs don’t help, just start writing and believe that by virtue of writing something they can now refer to themselves as writers. They believe that “art” doesn’t have to follow rules and therefore they can’t be wrong or bad. What they fail to understand is that great artists don’t have to follow the rules. This is why this particular author refers to criticism as mere opinions as though they were based on some personal preferences.
It takes a certain amount of ego to expect people to pay to read something you wrote. Your abilities better match your ego and you better prepare your pride and vanity for a fall. The other option is to learn some humility and be humble.
[/quote]
TL;DR
Kidding.
There are patterns that form basic boundaries – sometimes even “rules” – and you need to learn to express yourself within those constraints. Related: my lack of formal education in music composition is what’s keeping me back from being good at it. I have themes and harmonies and ideas that could work well, but I just don’t have the training to build it into something truly listenable.
I eschewed learning how to properly structure things, thinking that it was structure that inhibits expression. It took several years before I realized how wrong that was.
But it’s all part of the process I suppose.
[quote]Varqanir wrote:
“Have you ever just sat around and pondered some truths which is evident all by themselves and the first and in my opinion most pressing of the truths which I am going to shed some light on is that every single one of us (simple and hardworking Americans) are created equally and their endowed by there creator with inalienable rights like life and freedom and being able to go after things that make you happy and I have come to the realization that I can no longer sit idly by while are rights are lead to the slaughter by its Government…”[/quote]
And this was quite impressive. You should ghostwrite for him.
Your biggest problem is that your conclusions are non-sequiturs from the rest of your writing.
Another problem is that your thinking is dated. “some truths which is evident all by themselves”, quite apart from being ungrammatical, is a somewhat haughty leap of faith for your first sentence. You need to start with what is well-established and lead towards your own crazy interpretations, not the other way round.
A subsidiary problem stemming from the first two is that your writing style is somewhat high-flown and given to outlandish bursts of rhetoric. You tend to misquote your sources- such as the constitution of the United States of America. You also tend to flow in a lazy, cackhanded manner between thoughts rather than articulating them clearly.
I’m not saying you should stop writing, but if I were you I’d read a lot more, especially in and around the subject your are treating. If you write at all for the next year, do it like this:
Keep a notebook in which your jot your random thoughts and ideas. Anything goes in this notebook. Then, every so often, sit down and try and write something longer. Review your work. Sit on something for at least a week before you try and work it into a longer piece, and keep it in your drawer for a month before you read and then publish it. You may very well find you’ve cooled on the idea in the meantime.
Hey guys, I want to sell my T-Nation posts like on Ebay, Amazon and stuff but I’m too lazi to coppypaste who wnats to go through my post hisdory and earn like 4persent???
[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:
Your biggest problem is that your conclusions are non-sequiturs from the rest of your writing.
Another problem is that your thinking is dated. “some truths which is evident all by themselves”, quite apart from being ungrammatical, is a somewhat haughty leap of faith for your first sentence. You need to start with what is well-established and lead towards your own crazy interpretations, not the other way round.
A subsidiary problem stemming from the first two is that your writing style is somewhat high-flown and given to outlandish bursts of rhetoric. You tend to misquote your sources- such as the constitution of the United States of America. You also tend to flow in a lazy, cackhanded manner between thoughts rather than articulating them clearly.
I’m not saying you should stop writing, but if I were you I’d read a lot more, especially in and around the subject your are treating. If you write at all for the next year, do it like this:
Keep a notebook in which your jot your random thoughts and ideas. Anything goes in this notebook. Then, every so often, sit down and try and write something longer. Review your work. Sit on something for at least a week before you try and work it into a longer piece, and keep it in your drawer for a month before you read and then publish it. You may very well find you’ve cooled on the idea in the meantime.[/quote]
I can’t tell whether you’re referring to the sample of his book on Amazon, or the facetious paragraph I wrote above lampooning it.
In any case, the above was not a misquoting of the Constitution, but a translation of a sentence in the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
…into the Clean’s English.
Ah. He didn’t actually write that?
[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:
Ah. He didn’t actually write that?[/quote]
Haha.
No. I did.
It was probably the worst writing I have ever done in my life.
[quote]Varqanir wrote:
[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:
Ah. He didn’t actually write that?[/quote]
Haha.
No. I did.
It was probably the worst writing I have ever done in my life. [/quote]
Take out the word “probably”. It makes you sound wishy-washy.
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
[quote]Varqanir wrote:
[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:
Ah. He didn’t actually write that?[/quote]
Haha.
No. I did.
It was probably the worst writing I have ever done in my life. [/quote]
Take out the word “probably”. It makes you sound wishy-washy. [/quote]
I am of two minds about this comment. On the one hand, I agree with you. I have never written anything so singularly bad as what I wrote above. On the other hand, I don’t want to sound pompous.
But you’re probably right. 
[quote]Varqanir wrote:
I am of two minds about this comment. On the one hand, I agree with you. I have never written anything so singularly bad as what I wrote above. On the other hand, I don’t want to sound pompous.
But you’re probably right. ;)[/quote]
You butchered it rather brilliantly.
Take pride in your work!
[quote]magick wrote:
[quote]Varqanir wrote:
I am of two minds about this comment. On the one hand, I agree with you. I have never written anything so singularly bad as what I wrote above. On the other hand, I don’t want to sound pompous.
But you’re probably right. ;)[/quote]
You butchered it rather brilliantly.
Take pride in your work![/quote]
It takes a very good actor to play a bad actor.
[quote]Varqanir wrote:
[quote]anonym wrote:
[quote]mrclean85 wrote:
I might just use one of your revisions verbatim. [/quote]
lol
And so, just like that, mrclean dons his catsuit and fuck me pumps and begins the walk of shame to orion’s apartment.[/quote]
Ahahaha.
That is deep fucking niche. [/quote]
The world would simply be a better place if more female writers would agree to my perfectly sensible terms.
[quote]Haha.
No. I did.
It was probably the worst writing I have ever done in my life.[/quote]
My bad, I wasn’t paying very much attention. And there’s no way in hell I’m paying to download that thing just to see for myself. Not having read the product description- I’ve got an idea that I’ve already read it anyway because I’ve argued with people on the internet.