Writing Problem (now with chart!)

[jordanmichael]

A few monthes ago I posted an entry about a short story I was going to write. I am using this as an example. I haven't written it yet. Here is my problem. It is the way I write. I'll walk around for 2-3 hours with my headphones on each night. During this time I just daydream, write little notes in my head, sort my thoughts out, so on. I spend so little writing time actually writting. I can only write if that little spark inside you goes off and tells you it is time to get this thing written. This leads to accomplishing very little. Does anyone else have this problem? If I force it it hurts me and everyone else, because it is bad. If I let it come naturally it is normally pretty decent, but it comes naturally so few and far between.

[jordanmichael]

sorry this isn't bigger

[rockmeamadeus]

I was once a member of the school of thought that subscribed to the notion of 'just letting it come naturally', and still am, to some degree. But to a point, it's kinda bullshit... lemme esplain.
You have to just sit down and WRITE, just get ideas out... the more you practice actually getting the ideas down onto paper (no matter how bad the ideas may be), then the more skilled you will be at getting the GOOD ideas out when they DO come... and they will come more often. Make sense?
You can subscribe to spontanaeity all you want (and this is coming from a devout Kerouac scholar)... but you HAVE to actually learn how to channel that inspiration if you wanna control it ever. So, just WRITE, formulate those bad ideas and shitty writing... then when the goods come, your mind will know exactly which route to take on getting them OUT.

Nice pie chart. It's pie, by the way. Not pi. Pi is 3.14... and a bunch of other numbers. Pie is the chart. And good, good food. Now go the hell to bed.

[jordanmichael]

I was once a member of the school of thought that subscribed to the notion of 'just letting it come naturally', and still am, to some degree. But to a point, it's kinda bullshit... lemme esplain.
You have to just sit down and WRITE, just get ideas out... the more you practice actually getting the ideas down onto paper (no matter how bad the ideas may be), then the moreskilled you will be at getting the GOOD ideas out when they DO come... and they will come more often. Make sense?
You can subscribe to spontanaeity all you want (and this is coming from a devout Kerouac scholar)... but you HAVE to actually learn how to channel that inspiration if you wanna control it ever. So, just WRITE, formulate those bad ideas and shitty writing... then when the goods come, your mind will know exactly which route to take on getting them OUT.

Nice pie chart. It's pie, by the way. Not pi. Pi is 3.14... and a bunch of other numbers. Pie is the chart. And good, good food. Now go the hell to bed.

Thanks. So, you think more free writing will help this? Everytime I free write I get really critical and stop halfway through because I don't like it. That is why nothing ever gets finished. I get critical and stop. To be honest, I've never read Kerouac. I don't really write much prose. I have a short story in mind, but that's it. I try to write screenplays, but I get critical of it and stop. My record is reaching 40 pages. I mostly write comic scripts. See, everyone here seems big into literature. I am big into comics. I didn't really grow up on books as much as I did on comic books. I can totally just break down the meaning of panel structure, and pacing, and angles, and how to write the script, and lettering, and so on. I've noticed as I got older I started craving more depth. I kinda had this thing bubbling in me that I couldn't express. This spring I read Blankets. It all came out. I wanna write romance comics. So that is what I do, or try to do. I am actually getting the demo art from the artist tomorrow. Hopefully. Thanks again. Not going to bed. I got 18 more pages to go before chapter 8, and at 5 is Lupin III, and at 6 is Hercules. Not Kevin Sorbo, but the cartoon. I like all the mythology in jokes.

[rockmeamadeus]

Hercules is a pretty good cartoon for being Disney, man.

And yeah, free-write and just let it flow. As long as you KNOW what's bad writing and what ISN'T (which I think you probably do), then it will only help. Don't turn off that critical voice in your head... becaust it is important to know when you're writing shit. What is important is the flow of ideas from your mind to the paper.

[jordanmichael]

Hercules is a pretty good cartoon for being Disney, man.

And yeah, free-write and just let it flow. As long as you KNOW what's bad writing and what ISN'T (which I think you probably do), then it will only help. Don't turn off that critical voice in your head... becaust it is important to know when you're writing shit. What is important is the flow of ideas from your mind to the paper.

Hercules was an awesome show. The movie is pretty badass. The last good Disney animated movie, in my opinion.

And thanks again. I'll try not to just repeat "screw Flanders" over and over again.

[rockmeamadeus]

For the record, badass is not one word. Either bad ass or bad-ass, please. Goodnight.

[jordanmichael]

For the record, badass is not one word. Either bad ass or bad-ass, please. Goodnight.

1.

2. Also, for the way I say it, it is "badass". I don't use it as "oh, that person is bad ass', but more as a term to show satisfaction. For example:
*cute girl walks by*
*cute girl walks out of hearing distance*
DAN: Yo, I'd tap that.
JORDAN: Badass.

[rockmeamadeus]

Ah.

[difficult]

Amadeus is pretty much right
Only way to do it... is to do it as much as you can, until you like it.
But I say - less free writing, more focussed writing - both is good, but working towards structure is really useful. Especially if you're thinking towards something like comics, where structure is pretty useful.
If you can't do it on your own, keep trying til you can. Or choose a form where you can work with other people. This is partly why I make films, I guess - some solitary, some collaborative work

[Andrew_TSKS]

i've got something to contribute. and here it is.

when you're working on something, jordan, and you look up and go, "wait, i'm two-thirds of the way through this and it FUCKING SUCKS", congratulations. you've reached what i call "the point of lost objectivity". this means you're close to finished with the first draft of the thing you're writing. this happens to a lot of writers every time they write something. the trick is: FINISH THE FUCKING THING ANYWAY. it isn't really shit... i mean, unless it is, but you've lost the ability to tell, so just put one word after the other and get it done. then, set it aside for a week, or a month, or a year, or however long it's gotta be set aside. when you've ignored it long enough to kinda sorta forget how it goes, beyond a general idea, pick it back up and read it again. 90% of the time you'll be surprised at how good it actually is.

[coldforge]

in high school i had pi memorized to about a hundred digits. that's what i did instead of paying attention in math class.

i didn't get a very good grade.

[jordanmichael]

Thanks everyone! I'm not just seeing that a lot was written, skimmed it, then saying thanks without taking it into consideration, but I actually read every word and mulled it all over. Thanks!

[jordanmichael]

in high school i had pi memorized to about a hundred digits. that's what i did instead of paying attention in math class.

i didn't get a very good grade.

I did this instead of paying attention in math class. Well, math and studio art. I post this before, but it is on topic, so I'll post it again.


That last one was more of a project, but it's on topic... I think...

[Lucy]

you misspelled communism, just fyi

[jordanmichael]

you misspelled communism, just fyi

I know! It's amazing, because I got 100% on that project. I didn't even try to do it seriously. I did a joke project 15 minutes before going to bed the night it was due. This is the up side of getting your teachers to like you.

[Lucy]

haha, sweet! i didn't get that it had literally been a project...what was the assignment exactly? and what grade were you in? geez!
not that i should talk, i had some pretty interesting "projects" in my day...

[jordanmichael]

haha, sweet! i didn't get that it had literally been a project...what was the assignment exactly? and what grade were you in? geez!
not that i should talk, i had some pretty interesting "projects" in my day...

It was last year in sophomore global history. We had to make a CD cover and song titles for the Cold War/Vietnam period. I can't remember a lot of the titles except two.
Papa's Got A Brand New Bodybag
Strawberry Fields For The Time Being Until It Stop Benefitting The General Population Of The Proletariate
Yeah. Me teacher liked me, I slept in class, I talked 1/2 the time about my hatred of Patrick Swayze, and I was 1/3 students that was sent to AP US History. That just goes to show that 90% of high schools is just charming your teachers and figuring how they grade.

[rockmeamadeus]

That just goes to show that 90% of high schools is just charming your teachers and figuring how they grade.

And the other 10%, which you have yet to acquire (but hopefully one day shall!), is proper grammar. One day, Jordan. One day.

[jordanmichael]

That just goes to show that 90% of high schools is just charming your teachers and figuring how they grade.

And the other 10%, which you have yet to acquire (but hopefully one day shall!), is proper grammar. One day, Jordan. One day.

I do have good grammar! Just not here. Check out my blog if you don't believe me. I really do. Honestly. Seriously. I have amazing grammer.

[Andrew_TSKS]

if you have amazing grammar, you use it all the time. if you type the way you do except when you're thinking about it, you have terrible grammar but have figured out how to force yourself to have good grammar when you think it will matter. in conclusion, you have terrible grammar, but you know it, and only take the steps to correct it in some situations, while in others you don't care.

that frustrates the shit out of a lot of us.

[coldforge]

I'm not sure if I'd take such a hard line, Andrew. I think it's well-established that people speak differently from how they write, and by extension of that principle, that they write differently according to the context in which they're writing; formality being a dimension along which that conext can vary. If you spoke to me over AIM I'd probably use less punctation and more speech-like constructions than I do in this forum, and when writing some article or piece of fiction (or indeed some forum post) I certainly also sometimes write more formally, sometimes less, and sometimes use fewer commas and more run-on sentences, sometimes less, as an aesthetic choice. I think to claim that my AIM sentence structures are my baseline personal grammar, and that anything else is simply the product of me "thinking about it", is a bit reductionist.

That's not to say that jordan's lazy grammar (or, more tellingly, his spelling errors) necessarily should be chalked up to "aesthetic choice". It seems clear he's a little lazier in forum than in his blog, and hopefully than in his school papers. But it might be a little harsh to say that he simply "has terrible grammar". I am in any case not certain that it's ever accurate to characterize an individual's "personal grammar", the way they speak/write that is indigenous and most authentic to them.

As to whether or not his habitual laziness is frustrating, well,AeiI actually tend to find it mildly entertaining, though that is of course merely a personal response.

[Greg Nog]

MILDLY entertaining?  

It only frustrate me mostly when the whole world is capitalized.

[jordanmichael]

if you have amazing grammar, you use it all the time. if you type the way you do except when you're thinking about it, you have terrible grammar but have figured out how to force yourself to have good grammar when you think it will matter. in conclusion, you have terrible grammar, but you know it, and only take the steps to correct it in some situations, while in others you don't care.

that frustrates the shit out of a lot of us.

I should change what I meant then. With my writting I have really obsessive grammar.

[G.C.R]

Maybe that guy who wrote the comics code was right, and comics do turn our brains to mush and our spelling and grandma to shit. ( this coming from another who knows more about comics than literature, and who thinks that George Herriman was one of the greatest writers ever, full stop, dollin'.) I know no comic writers or artists, including myself, who can write too good the english, and while i'm not saying that spelling and grammar aren't important, jordans misspellings are often as not amusing rather than annoying. And c'mon, this is a message board where for a lot of the time people post a) drunk, or b) very late at night. Spelling and grammar tend to fall over then.

I bear in mind my heroine Lynda Barry: "you can kiss a man with your tounge without even thinking about your ex" and my dear friend David "comics kick as!"