I must be having a writer's block - whatever that means, coming from an amateur. The desire is there, not the guile. There are times I think I could lead the whole world to believe I can write, including myself. Yet, beneath the curtain of flowery words, the wall of substance crumbled.
I am taught that the art of writing is not the imitation of life, but rather the actualisation of the language. That differs sharply when the passion was first ignited. Writing was something straight from the heart, no compromise, or so I thought. And I loved the notion of writing being a sketch, a portrait, or an image of life, reflected in words. Still do. Now I muse over each word, more conscious of its meaning, and their arrangement.
Take the words "muse over", I was running the synonyms, "ponder over", "mull over" and "dwell on" in my head. Checking my Longman, "dwell on" seems too detrimental, unpleasant.
It becomes an obsession; otherwise words seem to lead my thought. It becomes a tug-of-war of sorts: Heart against words, words against heart.
4 comments:
Conventional knowledge teaches us that we think before we write and that writing precedes thinking.
In other words, what is in our hearts is put forth in words as we write.
Practical experience tells me otherwise.
There are times when we think after we started writing, and vice versa.
What is most important is the productivity of the entire process as well as the final product.
We need not worry [needlessly] about the rest. =)
As for writing as actualization of a language... it is part and parcel of writing, I suppose.
In my humble opinion, writing composes of both externalization of ideas/thoughts as well as the actualization of the language.
The proper combination of the 2 makes wonderful literary pieces.
I suppose. =)
Hi, Whiskoffee,
Thanks for sharing with me your opinion on writing. So it could be a combination of both, not exclusive to either? I will give this some thought.
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