Yesterday in class we did a quick evaluation of ourselves as writers. I mentioned the 3-legged stool of writerly success: Skill, Talent, and Passion. The idea was to get you to take stock of yourselves as writers and come up with some plans for how to a) improve upon your flaws and sharpen your skills b) make use of your strengths / talents and c) write out of your passions.
How do you feel, having done that? Inspired or intimidated? Most writers that I know feel about equally inspired and intimidated by the task that lies before us: writing the best story we possibly can.
This morning as I sat down to compose this post to you, I caught the following Facebook post from Alan Heathcock (we're reading his short story collection, VOLT, this semester, and he will be here for a reading in October) that seemed perfect to share with you at this juncture:
Even though I'm not on campus this semester, this time of year naturally pushes my mind toward teaching. If I were teaching, here's what I'd tell my students on the first day of class: There's never a reason to think anyone is smarter than you, but only that someone knows something you haven't yet learned. The most successful people I know are very clear-eyed about what they don't yet know, and are passionate, voracious, uninhibited learners. More than anything else, including that ambiguous slippery thing some folks call "talent", your capacity for success as a writer (or anything else) is most determined by your capacity for learning.
Well said, Al. I couldn't agree more.
So now I want you to take a minute and make a comment below that tells me some of what you wrote yesterday. You don't have to list everything, but try to name one or two things from each question. I will add a comment first so you can see what that looks like.
- What are you flaws, as a writer? How do you think you might improve upon these flaws?
- What are your natural talents? What are your strengths / skills? How might you showcase these skills and talents by what you write?
- What are your dreams as a writer? What are your long-term and short-term goals?
- What are your passions, those subjects that inspire you and trigger you to write? Are there any of these passions that you haven't explored yet in your writing?
I am eager to see where you're at and get working on writing the best little story you can.
See you Friday.
It took me a second to figure out you have to click on the individual post itself for it to give you to opportunity to write in the comments.
ReplyDeleteOkay, here we go.
Flaw: pacing. How I might improve: try a plot-heavy novel as opposed to one that's more character-driven.
Talent: the emotional integrity of a scene. Skill: dialogue, which came out of my theater background. I think I'm showcasing these pretty well, currently.
Dream: to write something of cultural significance. Goal: to write 2 novels this year.
Passions: grizzly bears, hobo spiders, dark matter.
Erica Bogosian.
ReplyDeleteFlaws: disjointed plots, idealized characters. How I might improve: think out entire plot before starting story, focus more on making "ordinary" characters
Talent: natural dialogue, worldbuilding, emotional drama. Skill: diction & linguistics, description. I feel like I'm showcasing them pretty well, although I'm worried I might be losing my touch for emotional drama.
Dream: to write things that challenge people to open their hearts and examine themselves. Goal: finish my novel this year.
Passions: mythology, deep emotional/physical relationships, fighting dystopias. I don't think I've ever written something that doesn't have at least one of these.
Flaws: inconsistency/irregularity, character development. I might improve upon these flaws through practicing discipline and allowing a character or so to be unjustified.
ReplyDeleteNatural talents:'Scene Capture'(an ability to very vividly see the character's environment), imagination, creative plots. Skills: fluency and dialogue. I can showcase these skills through connecting the setting of my story to the plot and paying special attention to dialogue between my characters.
Dreams: Publish my mother's memoir and see my screenplays produced
Long-term goals: start a production company. Short term goal: finish 2 screenplays (1 short & 1 feature)
Passions: Prague, lakes, glass-making, astronomy, may flies, claustrophobia, dendrology
So far,I've only explored lakes and astronomy in writing but I plan to explore claustrophobia in this class and dendrology in the future.
Stay blessed peeps!
Flaws: 1) Believable, conversational dialogue. My dialogue has a tendency of coming out sounding stilted and formal due in a large part due to my aversion to writing sentences which would be grammatically incorrect (even if it would be more fluid when spoken) and my tendency to use diction that the character in question most likely would not. I actually am improving in this—bit by bit. I just have to keep challenging myself to write characters who would speak in a colloquial manner or even try writing with a dialect.
ReplyDelete2) Not writing myself into the characters. I have a lot of trouble writing a character, particularly a main character, who is remarkably unlike myself in voice and perspective. The best I have been able to manage is creating characters that are strongly based off of *other* people I know well. To improve on this, I should keep trying to believably write characters that are vastly different from myself.
Natural Talents: Diction, phrasing, and other elements of verbal execution. Once I have my ideas together, it is easy for me to create the prose which will manifest those ideas. My words and phrasings are usually very beautiful and vivid (though sometimes alienating or not authentic to the speaker's voice). I can showcase this by including scenes and trains of thought and emotion that I can develop verbally in a powerful way.
Skills: Planning, Structure, and Unity. I actually have learned to do a good job envisioning my story far in advance, filling it out bit by bit long before I sit down to put words on a page and even sketch and outline its structure on paper in ways that help me to create a concise (though still sometimes quite long!) and unified work. I can showcase this in just about any work by making sure I have enough time to pre-write it to ensure it comes out beautifully.
Dreams and Goals: My dream is to be able to create stories that will touch the lives of others, be open and honest about the flaws and ugliness in our world, and yet instill a sense of hope and vigour nonetheless. As for goals, I am in an interesting place because I have decided to primarily pursue Music Composition as a career rather than writing literature. However, I still have two goals: 1) to understand and master story writing as a way of informing the music that I compose and better exemplify the stories in the films that I score, and 2) when I can some day write literature as well as pursue composing music, I want to write the stories the kind of story that I described above, even if not professionally.
Passions: In my early writing, I had a passion for writing supernatural realism and just about any other elements that were supernatural or paranormal (think Steven King, not Stephanie Meyer :-P). In my more mature writing, however, my passion has become writing about familial relationships and friend relationships, especially the relationship between a parent and child. I don't really know why—I only realized yesterday that all of my short stories at Pepperdine except for one have been about familial or friend relationships.
Thomas Yee — Christ-Follower
Flaws: While writing stories, I tend to over think certain scene/word, halting the writing process. I always get the feeling that it's not right until I find the perfect phrase or word for the sentence. One way to really improve on this, which I have been working on, is to just ignore that self-editing urge and keep writing. Put down a similar word for now and edit later.
ReplyDeleteTalent: Because I tend to be descriptive, I'm good at painting a picture, or making a scene come to life. I've also noticed that I'm very good at simplifying things and making things make sense. As to how I can showcase my talent, I've always loved integrating metaphors and symbols into my description and story, which, I think, makes it much more interesting with potential for interpretation. I also think that knowing how to simplify things is crucial in reaching the readers as to how much they can understand what you're trying to say.
Dreams: My ultimate dream as a writer is to produce a piece that truly resonates with my beliefs in life, and somehow helped someone out in their life crisis. My short term goal is to write a complementary short story to my work, "A Daughter's Duty," and call it, "A Mother's Duty." Another short term goal is to finish writing my current novel within the next year (I'm more than 1/4 of the way there!).
Passions: Ooooo, I have many passions. Let's see... I'm interested in writing about generation gaps, cultural differences, sexual differences, mother-daughter relationships, multi-verse settings, beautiful/nostalgic emotions, finding meaning in life, empowerment and breaking free from oppressive expectations, etc. I seem to have a lot of themes that I'm passionate about. As to the subject, I'm really open to writing in any medium that will convey my message. :)
Alright, here’s my deal.
ReplyDeleteweaknesses as a writer: getting overwhelmed too easily, over analyzing plot decisions, inconsistency. How I might improve: step out of my comfort-zone of character-driven stories and write more plot-driven stories. I also need to tell myself that I won’t write the perfect story right off the bat!
talents: creating and describing settings and worlds, innate diction, creating realistic characters. Skill: dialogue, creating relationships, evoking emotion. Even though I’m trying to focus on plot-driven stories as opposed to character-based stories, I can showcase my skills by creating an intense attachment to characters as they navigate a fast-paced plot and parlay it in an engaging manner.
dream: to create a story that people of ages can become invested in and find some hope in.
goal: find a steady job after I graduate that can contribute experiences to write about (dream job is to become a travel writer), begin fleshing out recent ideas for large writing projects.
Passions: Tennessee countryside, quirky families, cities, sibling relationships, rivers and woods, hidden identities, unexpected loss, big family secrets.
--Kelsey Robertson
You guys are giving me the chills, I'm so excited to see you writing and improving this semester. . .
ReplyDeleteFlaws:
ReplyDeleteNot planning ahead (I dive in without knowing what exactly I'm doing and try to figure it out along the way...not always a good way to get a cohesive story), heavy preference for internal versus external action, and finding a good opening scene.
How to improve: sucking it up and outlining, placing my characters in situations where they have to react externally, and practicing effective opening paragraphs (it might help to "study" opening scenes I like and figure out why it is that I like them and what makes them engaging).
Talent: I have a pretty good understanding of people's motives and why certain characters would do what they do. Skill: voice. I think that I can use my general understanding of a character's motives and personality to come up with a voice for them that fits.
Dream: I hope to help people see new truths--to have their eyes opened to something they've never thought of before--and to help people understand one another. On a slightly more selfish level, I hope to inspire an ardent fanbase of super geeky people who will dress up as characters and have theme parties and make friends with one another because of my books.
Goal: To outline a novel (preferably 2) and write one.
Passions: quirky geniuses, folklore, misty forests, travel between parallel dimensions, fantastical elements, the supernatural/unexplained, Germany, the Victorian era, archways, bodies of water, language, revolution/fighting against arbitrary power, and Doctor Who
Hello! Happy Thursday:)
ReplyDeleteMy Flaws: I lack discipline to both schedule daily writing and to finish what I start. I also struggle with knowing how to best incorporate setting (sometimes I disregard it completely, which is no good I realize). AND furthermore, I can get abstract and allegorical and overwhelmingly symbolic, because sometimes I forget the simple, good taste of bread (there I go again with the allegory/metaphor again, daggum).
My Abilities: I can write solid dialogue. I also am excellent at writing details, woot! I can craft decent a pretty swell middle school character and my writing seems most creative and strong when I write with a light-hearted, third-person tone.
Dreams: I tend to crave the nonfiction writing scene—journalisms, research projects, spiritual writing (C.S. Lewis kinda thing). I want to write nonfiction for teens—whether in novel form, or in online magazines, or as a journalism feature. I want to research and discover and travel and write about everything I encounter and share it in story-form with the world.
Goals: This semester—publish two articles in an online magazine, outline and solidify my nonfiction teen book idea, OH and write a solid short fiction story in this class. Yay!
Passions: school stories, Iraq, Chinese culture, sisterhood relationships, Asian history, Great Books, feature stories, interviewing people, the theme of light vs. dark, night walks, Moroccan mint tea, public libraries, middle school, homemade things, obituaries, road trips, the elderly, the outcasts, farms farms farms, goats!, complicated villains, female protagonists who don't get the boy in the end, Chocolat (the movie), John Green!
My flaws: I tend to over-sentimentalize. I have a habit of sliding into remote-past narration. It makes the voice of my story seem distant and kills connections with the characters. I am TERRIBLE at dialogue. I perfect each word and phrase and spend too much time on unifying my paragraphs, instead of allowing my thoughts to flow ahead into the future events of my storyline. I also seem to shut down my own inspirations just by over-thinking them.
ReplyDeleteI’ve decided to keep an “imperfections journal” which might help with these last two problems. It will provide a safe place to keep fragments of thoughts.
My skills: My family has always asked me to proofread their work since they trust my sense of diction. When something is worded awkwardly, it jumps out me on the page. Also, I’ve learned (in intermediate creative writing) that I’m skilled at describing the physical geography of my stories. I can create tangible worlds for my characters.
What I can do to improve my flaws: As I mentioned, I’m keeping a journal of little pearls that I can later string together into a story. I am definitely going to free-write frequently, if not every day. I think it will help me to start writing more horizontally rather than vertically. For dialogue, it might help me write out the scene first as just a screenplay, and see if the words come alive themselves. As for my sentimentality…I don’t know if I should shut it off completely. A soft voice can still be strong. But I need to constantly ask myself: “is this real and human? Or is it getting too platonic?”
My dreams: In first grade, I read Little Women and decided I wanted to be just like Jo March. My dream has changed since then, but I still hope to publish something that honors others in my life. I love the idea of that kind of legacy.
My passions: I love playing with my lighting. Someone once told me I write in sepia tone and I think it’s because there’s always some awareness of the lighting and how it affects the tone of the scenes. Also there is always vegetation—flora and fawna in some way or another even if it is just peripheral. And there is always a baby. I need to stop writing about babies.
Hey Guys,
ReplyDeleteHere are my answers.
1. My flaws as a writer are that I have a tendency to avoid the heart of a story; sometimes I get caught up in style over substance and disregard the basic human truths underlying the entire piece. I use crutch words like THAT, JUST, and REALLY. I have a natural inclination towards adding adverbs (though revisions nip this in the bud a lot), and I also am too much of a fan of run-on sentences. I can improve on these flaws by clearly identifying the truth of the story before writing, and also heavy revisions.
2. I feel like my strengths as a writer are developing compelling concepts, identifying authenticity in a character or plot point, realistic dialogue, and grammar/rules. I can showcase them with a heightened awareness, knowing my strengths and weaknesses and then making sure the good outweighs the bad on the final scale.
3. My dream as a writer is to create something of worth, not just culturally but existentially. Based on trial and error in other areas, I feel like God has given me the most talent in writing, and I want to use the gifts He's given me to make the world a better place, however cliched that sounds. Selfishly, I'd like to create something with a little more permanence than my own life. I also want to do what I love and never work another day in an office job, so I'm trying my hardest this year to sell a screenplay or novel and begin a career as a writer.
4. My passions include comedy, Foreign Military "Humanitarian" Intervention, existentialism, Africa, horse racing, chess, basketball, and modern communication. And yes, I could definitely explore these more in my writing.
See you all in class tomorrow!
1.) Flaws: creating confusion in pursuit of succinctness, a lack of wholeness (which is related to) unsatisfying resolution. Limited utilization of dialogue. Improved by: creating a whole world in which these stories exist, and expressing it. Practicing length, creating passages with breathing room for clarification and full expression of ideas.
ReplyDelete2.) Talents: seeing something numinous in the mundane/everyday. Inclusion of/concentration on the internal.
Skills: avoiding the cliché (please please please, I hope), concentration on sound and sentence balance. Slipping into the past perfect.
Showcasing: Balancing my perspective and ideas in such a way as to create pieces with emotional honesty and clarity.
3.) Dreams: to write stories that are full of compassion. To call to attention some of our shared, vague areas of unnamed emotion. I’d love to write pieces this semester that would help build a strong portfolio for graduate programs.
4.) Passions: The ineffectiveness of expression, those unable to express themselves fully, anxieties and phobias, how childhood development/experiences affect adulthood, the American working class, the role, expression, and understanding of spirituality and faith, guilt, psychological innerworkings/underpinnings, genetic inheritance, differences between individuals in perception, our connectedness to mental illness.
1. Flaws: Constructing plot, writing action scenes, Focusing too much on writing and imagining a character's backstory rather than writing the story
ReplyDeleteHow to Improve: Get outside of my comfort zone in terms of subject matter, focus on fully developing the story as well as the character
2. Talents: Diction, Establishing tone
Skills: Developing multi-layered characters, Description
How to showcase: Writing complex and descriptive characters and scenes
3. Dreams: Write poetry for a long time, for my personal enjoyment even if I never seek to publish
Long Term Goals: To publish at least 1 poem
Short Term Goals: To continue writing daily
4. Passions in writing: WW2 History, Southern culture/history, psychological disorders, feminism/sexism, breakdown of relationships, nature
1) Flaws: I don't pay much attention to descriptions, so they're too vague or cliched. I repeat words often.
ReplyDeleteImprovements: I just need to practice more in these areas. Reading more stories that have a lot of descriptions would help me get a feel for it, and reading more in general will help improve my vocabulary so I won't be stuck using the same word over again.
2) Talents: Realistic dialogue and relationships.
Skills: Well paced scenes.
Showcase: Writing character driven stories.
3) Dreams: Create stories that I always wanted to read but never found in the mainstream and hoping that others can see themselves in what I write, which is mostly a Mexican-American point of view.
Long Term Goals: Publish a children's book series and a collection of short stories.
Short Term Goals: Practice daily and set up a habit where I write daily or almost daily.
4) Passions in writing:
-Mexican history/culture
-German history/culture
-The Mexican-American experience
-The Immigrant experience
-Mother/Daughter relationships
-Brother/Sister relationships
-Humor
-Pop culture
-Feminism
-Socialism
-Magical Realism
-Mesoamerican cultures
Hello all, sorry for the late response! Me not being in class speaks to the technical difficulties experienced.
ReplyDeleteFlaws: When it comes to writing I am very split, which causes poor motivation and perseverance regarding one aspect. I love to write music and lyrics, and i also love writing poetry, and (attempting) short stories, but it is hard for me to stick to one and see it through to a well-rounded end. I honestly don't know the exact components that embody a successful short story, so it is very hard for me to find a goal. Regarding stories specifically, I try to make every word relate to an end goal, but after revisions I find that the reader does't gather that. This makes it a difficult, yet fun, process of working out a way to construct a story that is well-rounded and meaningful. Character development can be difficult as well, especially in longer works.
Talents: Occasionally I can conjure an idea that is very original, and from there display it in a creative way that is interesting, using irony or dry humor or word play. Because of my musical background, I can (sometimes) work out sentences that flow well and express a bigger idea, but I wish to make that expect expand through an entire work holistically.
Dreams: My dream as a writer is to be one that is drenched in the creative world. I hope to write meaningful works of poetry, short story, music, and even screenplay. My main dream is to impact people, or simply cause them to view the world in a way they wouldn't have thought, if even for a moment.
Passions: Nature; memories; thought; Big Sur; snow; sadness; questions; bald eagles; moose; crows; the turn of the century; random facts; brothers; reactions; deep meanings; mundane life; and much more that bleeds naturally I assume, but can't recall at the moment.
Again, sorry for the delay; it won't happen again.
Cheers!