Posted by IsoM on March 7, 2002, at 16:35:24
In reply to Beethoven was deaf and so forth, posted by trouble on March 7, 2002, at 13:46:16
Trouble, you need to ignore that writing book & write from your heart. Exercises in how to do whatever are exercises in futility. Some pompous ass decided his/her way is the right way & no others dare trod on their road. The world's full of books & people like that. I know you would never tell someone they had to do something your way only because it's worked for you & therefore works for everyone. People probably thought Beethoven couldn't continue to compose music after he went deaf & Milton or Helen Keller couldn't write.
Perhaps if you strive to be the same as other great writers, fine. But if you're looking to express your own individualitity & how life looks like from your perspective, write away. I believe we're a rather discerning group here who can tell the difference between heart-felt but mediocre work & what you write. I never flatter. I'd rather shut up than lie to someone in a positive way. If I say someone is good, I mean it. AND I hand out praise very meagerly.
Is Chinese cusine the best in the world, or is Indian, or German? Who decided that 50 years ago French was the haute cusine of the world? Some rich, pompous ass & his paramours, no doubt. Who decided Shakespeare, Faulkner, & Tolstoy are the standards to judge others against? Some boring, stuffy professors living vicariously through others' writings, probably.
I find it amazing that anyone would think of you as 'slow'!! I could see them thinking absent-minded, as all-over-the-place but no-place at the same time, as flighty & ungrounded (brilliant ADHD people often seem like this to the mundane), but never slow! When you're talking to others, does your speech come out choppy & hesitant sometimes as you search for the right words, & other times, in a rush so fast, the train of thought can't be followed by others? Mine tends to be like that & I have to consicously slow down when talking to others.
You so kindly told me my writing was good & while I agree it's not too bad, I, too, couldn't write fiction if my life depended on it. But I always got top marks in writing essays & non-fiction. I can also do math very well but only if I'm allowed to do math & nothing else. I have to immerse myself in it. I'm smack-dab in the middle of right & left brained. I'd probably make a great mediator being able to see all sides of an issue, but it's not what I want to do. It's asinine to say but I'd want to be able to do so many, many things that I can't really choose what to do. And I'm 52 - a little old to start deciding now.
Trouble, why not gather your writings & send them off to one publishing company after another after another, ad nauseam. If the continued rejection slips would wear you down ('cause they happen to all writers), how about a friend who would continue to do so for you? You DO have the ability.
poster:IsoM
thread:19430
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020305/msgs/19462.html