Sunday, 19 October 2008
Ideas Underload
I was talking the other day to dad about how Jack was starting to listen to stories and not need pictures to enjoy the tale. So I have been making up stories before bed when we cant think of a book for him to read. Dad mentioned that I should write some of them down. At the time it seemed a wonderful idea, I often have story ideas running through my head but had never thought to write them down. I think I know why, suddenly I am totally underwhelmed at the ideas I have. I'm no writer but I guess that even Shakespeare went through periods of writers block ...... mind you can it be considered writers block if you haven't started writing anything yet :)
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3 comments:
Nah... don't write them down... use your blackberry as a recorder! (if it does that!) Or a *shock horror* a tape recorder! then, if you come up with a good one, type it up at a later date :)
I would actually advocate writing them down; people do find speaking text out loud a useful way of composing, but I never have.
(You may, and it might help you compose. I'm often told that it's useful in the brainstorming stage, particularly.)
But the main reason I don't like it as composition tool and don't recommend it to my students (for more than brainstorming) is that writing and speaking are entirely different methods of engaging with the English language (for all that we are often taught at primary school that "writing is written-down speech" and "put commas where you would take a breath." Grrr.)
But, then, if you have writer's block (and it is writer's block if you haven't written anything; that's the most common form and the most difficult to bypass--getting the first words on the page), then the only way to overcome that is to write.
Sounds fatuous, but it's true. Just write, and write, and write--and you'll throw out 900 words in a 1000, but you'll still have 100 words, and it's more than you started with.
Bear in mind, too, some of it may not be writer's block. Sometimes, ideas just don't work outside your head. They're real and vivid in there, but they simply will not translate to paper. Sometimes you can work them up at a later stage, when they've matured, but sometimes ideas just die on the page, and it's better to leave them as ideas.
My blackberry doesnt do voice recording but I'm looking into getting a little program to make it, i mean it does everything else ... except video i want it to do video as well :)
I agree that i think a lot of my brain ideas dont work as a written idea, i guess i just keep talking and writing, talking and writing xx
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