... Rus Bowden sends along a couple of links:
So You Want to Be a Writer and South High official on leave over sexy poems.
I think the mechanics of writing can be taught. After that, you're on your own. As for the other piece, well you can cast your vote.
I agree that the mechanics of writing can be, but otherwise you're on your own. Actually, I've opined on more than one previous occasion that the mechanics (craft, tools, techniques) of creative work are ALL that can be taught. But if you don't have something to say, all the craft in the world won't help you much.
ReplyDeleteI still think the best "advice to a writer" I've ever read (and re-read) is Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet." Such a service to the generations.
The question of teaching someone to write is similar to whether you can teach someone to talk. Once you know the words and the rules for their acceptable order, which can cause others to grimace or laugh if wrong; the rest is what to say. And sure, there are general principles to this latter aspect (be yourself, care about your audience, and so forth), but so much of this is individual, and so much still applied to that aspect of the world that is everchanging, that it becomes a lifetime of trial and error.
ReplyDelete~~~
On the principal who wrote erotica. He made his real name essentially unsearchable and wrote under a pseudonym. I wonder how his student found him online. If it was someone being a sleuth or a snitch, then this man needs his job back with full pay and a wholehearted community apology. And if word has gotten around the student body of this high school, it may be appropriate for the parents to receive the benefit of a note, so they can handle this sex education issue at home if they think it is necessary.
(I am floored by the article's phrasing that his poems "describe sexual acts on a woman." What is the world coming to?)
Furthermore, for me, this goes into an aspect of writing that has to be respected by the public, and guarded by the writer: the pen name. The problem is that even if he had not put his real name, unsearchable as it was, on the site--as the owner of that web site, he could have been too easily found out. For more than just this application, we need ways for writers to safeguard anonymity.
Yours,
Rus
I agree, Art, that Rilke's is the best "advice to a writer" book, but I would also recommend Somerset Maugham's The Summing Up. It has very good practical advice for anyone thinking about a career as a professional writer.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Rus that what we're talking about here is a lifetime of trial and error. As for the teacher, I voted in his favor.