Your master class in writing - is past!

[Laer Carroll]

Lois Bujold wrote once that she'd heard it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become really good at anything. Could be.

But you are just starting writing. Quel désespoir! Erh, despair. Studying French, don't you know?

But I'd bet you've already attended a master class in writing. Because you are a reader, aren't you? Unknowingly you have soaked up thousands of thousands of rules about writing. All the way from how to pick the right word and make a good sentence, to constructing a trilogy or a popular series. You have also learned when to ignore or deliberately break a rule, and why.

You have not only learned much about the medium of writing, but the messages it can convey. And not only from reading about other people's lives. You have also lived. Think back to the joys and tragedies you have experienced. They may have been small, but most joys and tragedies are. Prime candidates for the content of your stories.

Especially useful, I recently realized, are our bad traits. Try to eradicate them, sure. But cherish them also. Because our job as writers is to cover the lows as well as the heights of human experience. If you need a villain, or a flawed hero, your bad side is where you'll get the most useful material.

So, Ne désespérez pas!

 

[bobnagga]

That's an interesting observation. It sort of fits well with this thing I've always told people.

"The best teacher of english is reading books."

... I'm not quite sure what the best teacher of French is, though.

 

[expatrie]

It's....

... I'm not quite sure what the best teacher of French is, though.

France.
xxx

 

[Laer Carroll]

Quite right, expatrie. The best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it. The time I spent in Buenos Aires, dancing the Argentine tango every night, and often during the day, helped my Spanish quite a bit.

Movies and textual fiction can give you limited immersion. Try a translation of one of your favorite books. Mine right now is Lois Bujold's A Civil Campaign. The French version is titled Ekaterin.

(I got it through Amazon. If you already have an account in the American version, the French (German, UK, etc.) sites use the same login and credit card info, making it easy to order stuff available in France, such as some music, if you can read Francaise a bit.)

 

[Hereford Eye]

I always heard that the best way to learn a language was to buy a dictionary and take her to bed. It worked fairly well for me the one time I attempted it. Ah, well, chalk that up to a a misspent youth.

 

[txshusker]

Lois Bujold wrote once that she'd heard it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become really good at anything. Could be.

Anything?
Wilt Chamberlain had it right, then, but I'm not sure even he put 10,000 hrs into that.

And I thought the best way to learn a language was on Babelfish.

HE, I wonder how much misspent youth you've had. I wish my was as miss-pent.

 

[Hereford Eye]

It was so misspent that I no longer accurately remember pertinent quotes. For example, the moment I posted the one above I knew something was wrong and this afternoon I finally remembered what it was. The quote should have read: "find a dictionary and etc., etc.," I looked at the above when I posted it and said to myself: "Self, that is wrong. That implies the buying and selling of women of which you most certainly do not approve." Self answered: "Hey, you're the idjit that posted it."

 

[N.S. Barrett]

10,000 hours is about 5 years of 40 hour work weeks, no vacation. I think only the most exacting specializations require that much time.

And even if writing fiction is one of those, the writing of one master is hardly fungible with that of another. So, it's hard to put too fine a point on what it means to be "really good". Dickens after a hundred hours is probably closer to this mark than I will be after my 10,000, but he'd still be pretty far off of his personal best.

Another problem is the "at anything" part of "really good at anything". What can you really define as its own separate task? Writing publishable art takes content editing, line editing, character design, craftsmanship of prose, dramatic plot design and dozens of other things. It's possible to be "really good" at some of these while being very poor at others.

But not to despair, there are a lot of these subskills that we indeed learn on a day to day basis. We native English speakers have been using the language all of our lives, and we hear new words every day. We make judgments of character and decide our values as a part of natural development, making us experts on the elements of a sympathetic character. And to a lesser extent, we've probably each been exposed to the requisite 10,000 hours of drama, television and literature.

And considering this, I doubt we all need 10,000 hours to put all these skills into one bundle.

 

[ilcazale]

It was so misspent that I no longer accurately remember pertinent quotes. For example, the moment I posted the one above I knew something was wrong and this afternoon I finally remembered what it was. The quote should have read: "find a dictionary and etc., etc.," I looked at the above when I posted it and said to myself: "Self, that is wrong. That implies the buying and selling of women of which you most certainly do not approve." Self answered: "Hey, you're the idjit that posted it."

Hereford, it's not necessarily buying and selling. You could legitimately whoo a dictionary of the language to bed with you. Plus the gender of the dictionary depends on the person learning the language and their own preferences. Think there was a star trek episode about this once with Hoshi.



As for the rest of the post, yeah it does take a long time to get most things down but he has a point. You've had examples of these things beat into your head since you were five. So most of that 5 years and 40 hours has already happened. I guess it really depends on whether or not you are a visual or hands on learner as to how well the examples help you out.

 

[Hereford Eye]

If mastering writing is similar to mastering a new language, then consider the eternity when I spent 48 weeks, 5 days a week, six hours a day in a classroom attempting to acquire a working knowledge of a foreign language. The school suggested we spend at least 2 hours every night studying. Me being me, I sort of neglected the two hour study period. There was beer to drink and members of the opposite to pursue.
When I graduated from said class, I had a working knowledge of the spoken language and an introduction to the written language. My journeys to places where that particular language is native demonstrated conclusively a working knowledge is insufficient. Thus, after 5*6*48 hours, I lacked a mastery in the language. I retained enough to play with it in my writing a la Jack Williamson but it was playing and I had to check and re-check everything I penned.
I have been writing off and on for forty years. I now have a working knowledge but I lack mastery of the art.

 

[Ramirez]

I've been writing stories since I was 6. I remember really getting into it when I was 9 and ever since I've been writing and writing. I'm sure I've spent 10,000 hours or more but I still don't consider myself very talented at writing. This is why I'm going to school for writing. Hopefully over the next four years I can hone my craft and be more proficient at what I love to do.

 

[Sparrow]

Lois Bujold wrote once that she'd heard it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become really good at anything. Could be.

But you are just starting writing. Quel désespoir! Erh, despair. Studying French, don't you know?

But I'd bet you've already attended a master class in writing. Because you are a reader, aren't you? Unknowingly you have soaked up thousands of thousands of rules about writing. All the way from how to pick the right word and make a good sentence, to constructing a trilogy or a popular series. You have also learned when to ignore or deliberately break a rule, and why.

Perhaps years of dedicated reading make you more attuned to the rules of the road, so to speak, but it will hardly make up for practice, practice, practice. You can watch a juggler perform a thousand times, ten objects in the air at once!.. and still not be able to juggle three eggs without making a mess. I think you learn by doing.

 

[Jon Sprunk]

I believe that a lifetime of reading, while not necessarily translating into writing proficiency, gives the writer a framework against which to compare his/her own art.

 

[Ramirez]

I believe that a lifetime of reading, while not necessarily translating into writing proficiency, gives the writer a framework against which to compare his/her own art.

This and it teaches one the skills of grammar, makes one knowledgable about the many different types of styles, helps one understand plot and what's been commonly used in plot, and also enhances one's vocabulary.

Beyond this, writing is about practice (as those in this thread have previously stated) and a consciousness about the craft. One can read tons of books aimed to improve one's writing (as I've done many times in the past), but I feel that good teachers have more knowledge than one can possibly absorb. I've learned so much from my English and writing teachers over the years and I aim to learn more throughout my life. A writer who dismisses education and feels they can teach themselves is missing a big point. To teach oneself one must be humble enough to be taught by others, for this is the true path to knowledge.

 

[Laer Carroll]

There are a lot of channels you can use for writing practice. Forums like this one is an example.

Try to make your posts short, clear, and to the point. You might want to write long posts in a word processor and put them aside for a short time. This way you may get enough distance from the post to make it better.

What are some other channels for practice?

 

[Ramirez]

Keeping a journal is good practice.

As you said, posting on forums is decent practice but I wouldn't go so far to write out my posts and set them aside.

Writing poetry is excellent practice. Hip hop and rap music are great examples of modern day poetry and a direction I see literature going in the future.

Automatic writing is a favorite of mine. Embracing this surrealist form of art can help a writer realize what's really going on in their heads.

Writing under the influence of one thing or another can help stretch the mind. I can't remember the writer's name, but he taught at a university and encouraged his students to take hallucinogenic drugs and write, or starve themselves and write. You most likely won't keep the work, but you sure as hell will have a lot of ideas and a thoroughly worked brain.

Going to school is the best practice one can do. A good teacher will push you to limits you never knew you had.