How to Survive the Written World

A blank page stares at you while you struggle to tame the thoughts erupting in your head like pent up anger. You want so badly for it to be over, for your suffering to extinguish itself instead of throbbing like a stubbed toe. Words circle and clash together in your tired mind, rendering you unable to form sentences.  A voice, however infinitesimal, echoes in the back of your head, urging you to just give up already and that you’ve been staring at your screen for an hour without typing anything.

All writers, experienced or not, want to create a masterpiece. The mere act of writing takes such a courageous mind because the downfall from failure can be devastating. This blog entry is a collage of certain things I’ve struggled with throughout my eighteen (minus the years I could not read or write…) years of writing.

 “Oh, you’re in literature?” scoff the Health Science students. Don’t think that just because I don’t spend my weekends cramming for a chemistry exam that I don’t work hard. Writing enslaves you, claims you as its victim and lets you crash and burn alone when your ideas get mussed up between significance and meaning. It is a process in which you mentally deteriorate yourself, rummaging for inspiration through a brain that already contains enough self-doubt to choke a full-grown giraffe. It is hardly more enjoyable than picking the nits out of a child’s lice-ridden head. You hate yourself when you have nothing to show for your long hours of reflection except for the same white page that has now blinded you.

In order to write effectively, you must first clear your head of the discouragement that’s settled like dust upon wooden shelves. If this is not possible, try writing about it. The best work is always centered about profound emotion or feeling. If you find yourself especially hurt or have just lashed out in anger, instead of running outside in this now freezing cold weather and lighting up a cigarette, you should express those gigantesque emotions through words - written words. What you write down does not even have to make sense. Just write what you feel and you can look at it later to edit it.

“Write… what does that say?” Write drunk, edit sober. The wise words of Ernest Hemingway are engraved on my left shoulder blade in my grandfather’s handwriting.

To take his words literally, one would drink, write, and then revise one’s work when the drunkenness subsides. I have tried this several times and I find the results to be either hilarious or disastrous.

However, being intoxicated all the time is not the cure to your writer’s block (nor is it recommended). Hemingway learned that a person is not always the same all the time. Every individual has at least two sides to them when it comes to creating something. To “write drunk” is a way to liberate the self from haunting inhibitions – best done when one is alone - and unleash the unabashed honesty through words. If you’ve ever felt like you were “in the zone” at some point in your life, this is sort of the same thing.

When you’re writing, you should also breathe. Then you can pick up your pencil or quill or whatever it is you write with and write. Pour your whole goddamn heart onto that page. If you happen to shut down, just save it and know that it will be waiting for you when you return.

 

Natasha de Puyjalon

            Stephen King said that “A short story is a different thing all together - a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger" and it is. It's fleeting, it's mysterious and it leaves you both excited and satisfied. The best thing that you can do for your writing is to leave it up to interpretation. When I write, I don't want to tell you that the door is blue because I am sad- you can conclude this or you can conclude that the door is a symbol for something else entirely or maybe, just maybe...it's just a blue door.
           I don't want to draw you a map with a big red 'X' at the end, making sense of the entire journey, I want you, the reader, to travel a winding road and end up somewhere entirely unexpected. This 'somewhere' will not be mine. It will be elsewhere for everyone who reads it, that is the only intention or plan that goes into anything that I write. Ishmael Reed said that “No one says a novel has to be one thing. It can be anything it wants to be, a vaudeville show, the six o’clock news, the mumblings of wild men saddled by demons.” In short, write anything you want, anyway that you want to but make it real and honest and it will be good.

          Take a cue from Hemingway and sit at your typewriter (or Macbook...since it is 2013) and "bleed" until the world knows the truth about how you see things. Wake up at 3am and write, write drunk, write sad, write angry- never happy. Happy is full of euphemisms and falseties. Write at anytime that you will be completely honest- and do not edit out the truth in order to please anyone, not an editor or a reader that you don't even know. All efforts to do so will be like trying to extinguish a fire by blowing on it- futile- and untimately you will end up burning the whole thing down.

         Do not cower behind fluff or write happy endings, in fact, omit endings all together and leave your reader angry. They will never think more about a piece of literature then when it has not ended the way they want it to. Leave it ambiguous, kill the good guy, let the bad guy win, end the world as we (the readers) know it and they will love to hate it.

         Basically, do not let anyone tell you how or what to write because it will not be good, it will be lying. I will not tell you about rhyme or meter, punctuation or grammar because it is not important. There are no rules to writing, so write in capitals, breaks, run-ons and mispell anything you want if it makes your piece yours and it will be great.

by Hayley-Quinn McBride

Character Stats

When I found out we had to write about an author’s style of writing it didn’t take me long to decide on who I would write about.  I decided it would be best to just write about the author I was the most familiar with and after looking at my book collection I was very obvious.  The names that came up the most were Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Lucky for me I don’t have to pick between the two because they usually write in collaboration with each other and after having read more than 30 of their books (not counting the ones they wrote separately) it would probably be wrong if I didn’t.

Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman are most well known for creating the Dragonlance series which may be one of the longest running (and possibly nerdiest) fantasy series ever written. When I go into a used bookstore I like to play a game and see if I can find a Dragonlance novel in less than ten minutes. I’ve never lost. That may be because there are more Dragonlance novels than I can count although to be fair many are not written by the two authors themselves.

The Dragonlance novels have somehow managed to stand out, not by being unique or ground breaking, but by being the most generic and stereotypical medieval fantasy books ever written.  Some might think this is a bad thing yet there is something special about the tone of the Dragonlance novels that make them the most fun books I have every read. The real question is “what makes them so fun?”

It’s probably because the entire series is based on a Dungeons and Dragons game. The two writers where originally hired to write a D&D module, with the books being only an afterthought.  Again it sounds like a bad thing but it’s not. It’s hard to explain the appeal behind this to someone who doesn’t have an interest in playing D&D yet I remember being in 6^th grade, wanting to try D&D really badly but having no one to play with (because why would an “all grown up” 6^th grader want to play imaginary games...). Finding the Dragonlance books was the closest id get to satisfying that need.

I think that basing the story of a fantasy game did wonders for the story, most of all the characters, some of which may rank among my favorite characters in fiction. Just as any Dungeons and Dragons player becomes deeply attached to their own characters the reader becomes attached to the ones in the book.  I tend to think of any character I write as if they were a character on an RPG character sheet because truth be told, those games have developed some of the best generative processes ever and the attributes of character building transcend just fantasy settings. Thinking of characters in that way is,  in my opinion, one of the most useful creative tools I can think off because it gives you such a strong idea of what your characters capabilities and demeanors are. As an added note, just playing any table top role playing game will in my opinion make you a much better story teller because you become acclimated to telling a story whilst making most of it up on the spot.

Dragonlance may not be the most innovative or literary thing on the planet but it still manages to tell an epic story with unforgettable characters without ever disappointing your expectations. It may just be some stupid fantasy series but it never needed to be more. It doesn’t just adhere to the stereotypes, it defines.

--Kevin Coughlin

Write in photographs

Mark Twain said it best when he said "write what you know." Broad-yes, but imperative nonetheless.  Think about it. Think back to your favourite novel, poem or piece of prose, chances are you fell in love with it because it expressed some misunderstood part of you. It was relatable, it brought you back to a time or a place or a feeling you've cherished, internalized or maybe even repressed.

The reason we attach ourselves to these words that for some unseeingly defined reason have spoken louder to us than others is because they profess an honesty that we can't profess ourselves. And as powerful as this relationship between writer and reader is, it is not intentional. Writers don't necessarily seek out a particular reader-or the good ones don't, they don't intentionally write the most powerful thing YOU'VE ever read. They simply write honestly and about experiences that are bound to happen to more than one human being. The best pieces of writing capture authenticity therefore the best way to write is to live. Sounds pretty simple right?

Ha.

There's just one small problem. How do we capture all of it? And just what exactly are we supposed to capture? If all I can write is what I know and all I know can be condensed in to 19 years of suburban life-hood, how will this possibly compare to the extraordinary adventures of Harry Potter? I'm not a wizard. I don't have a bad ass scar, and I have neither a wizarding protege nor an arachnophobic ginger for a best friend. So what on earth do I write about?
And then I sit back, and I take a breath and I realize that though J.K Rowling does an incredible job at creating a world I'll never be able to live in, I am drawn to the modest, humanistic tendencies of her writings. Like Harry's first kiss with Cho Chang, or the unsaid but always acknowledged tension between Ron and Hermione. These things, I definitely have experienced.

And then I realize that the best pieces of writings I have ever read recreate a moment. One sparingly intense moment. Like a picture.
Here's the ticker. To maintain authenticity, always assure that YOU are in the picture. Or at least some part of you is.

For example, in Tenessee Williams' A Street Car Named Desire, the main character; Blanche returns to her sister's home after a traumatizing experience whereby she finds her lover in bed with another man. Similarly, in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" another one of William's plays, we see Brick struggle with his sexuality as well. We now know that Tenessee Williams was, in fact gay. Though it wasn't always as obvious, he leaked trails of himself in to his works.

Lemony Snickett, in my opinion has written some of this centuries most intelligent novels and he actually makes himself a character in his books. Though this character is detached and not clearly defined, he, on many occasions implies a personal tie to the story.

So take a moment. Freeze it and describe all the little things about that day, how the wind was blowing, who you were talking to, if you had sweat stains on your shirt, if it smelled like pizza pockets, if you were happy or if you were just semi-ok. Write all of it down, get every tiny detail in there even if you think it will be unbelievable. There are many instances in life where I have had to double take or rub my eyes and assure myself that I did indeed just see a man pull down his pants in the middle of San Francisco and try to take a dump. (Excuse the graphic visual.)

Do this over and over and allow yourself to place these pictures in chronological order, soon you'll have a prose of some kind. And it will be honest, because it ACTUALLY happened,  because there is a genuine sentiment that used to be reality. There's no use writing about getting cheated on if you've never experienced betrayal of any kind. Just like there's no use in painting a wall red when you want to paint it white.

Life is a reel full of photographs. So get out your polaroid, and snap away. Then sit down and tell the world exactly what's in that photograph and you'll find someone somewhere far away taping your words to their bedroom wall because you've managed to perfectly depict what they're going through.

Or at the very least, you might be on my bedroom wall!

A Bloggers Voice

Yes I know this is a blog and yes I’m going to be talking about voice in a blog about  blogs but stay with me as I approach this paradox and offer up my findings to you. Lately I’ve been attempting to speak through the typed word but have come to realize that it’s tremendously difficult. The options are to vast, particularly when you haven’t quite grasp your voice. In the endless abyss of possibilities people tend to lose themselves in their misconceptions of blogs, thinking that options mean structureless and freedom means without objective. There are millions of bloggers out there today with their “make it yourself” pages and partially completed post that lack consistency which allows for a sustainable audience. 

Personally I’m not an expert but I do believe that there are certain techniques and guidelines should be followed in order to achieve at least a satisfactory blog page one of which is the voice and writing style of the blogger.

First and for most, find your voice. Yes it sounds easy but trust me its a roller-coaster of indecisive procrastination. Start of with the broad question in order to make slight progress on the road to productivity. First question you ask yourself, do I want to sound like an educated Harvard graduate, “ presented in society through ages of savagery...” or do I want to speak in relation to a school student “and yah, life fucking sucks but there’s nothing you can do about it..” once you’ve accomplished this, you at least have a foot hold, grounding some ideas and possibilities. Now, try thinking about a mini you, relaxing on your keyboard, reading every word that you wright. Do you think you like it? Are you falling asleep? Really take a moment to acknowledge the fact that others will be reading this and if mini you can’t be bothered to pay attention how do you expect others to? By doing this you are not only enhancing your own voice but you are being courteous to others as you appreciate the effort and time they put into reading the blog and reward them with consistency. Without this fluid voice traveling from post to post there lacks a connecting factor that enables the reader to befriend and trust the writer.

This being said, I strongly believe that a great voice comes not from the writers self criticism, but from their consideration for their followers (readers). In blogging your voice defines you, instead of writing a story where there are characters who have there own fashion of speech, blogging is more personal, you are the only character, the content is directly produced by you and no one else. Find your voice, just start to write, there’s nothing stopping you but the possibilities in a blank page.

By: Zoe Bujold

Rhyme Time

By: Mina Mazumder

Many authors and poets use rhymes in their work to create a more pleasant sound, although it isn’t an aspect of writing that is always easy to do. Many writers like myself face the challenge and struggle to properly and effectively integrate rhymes in our writing. Rhymes are mostly used in songs, books and poems to create a pleasant flow for the reader’s ears. It is also a great way for authors to introduce narrative and the imaginary world of a book to toddlers and children at an early stage of their lives (such as nursery rhymes). William Shakespeare commonly uses rhyming couplets to demonstrate the ending of a scene in a play. Rhyming correctly and effectively can take lots of practice for the writer but once we have perfected our rhyming skills, we are able to create many beautiful writing pieces. One of my favorite authors growing up who integrates rhymes in his work is Dr. Seuss, since he creates such creative stories and great rhymes in his work: “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who'll decide where to go.” – Dr. Seuss (Oh, The Places You’ll Go!) 

Below are my three favorite types of rhymes that I love using in my writing and that any other writer can benefit in using on their work: 

End Rhymes are one of the most common types of rhyme (rhyming of the final words of lines in a poem, song, and story). This is probably the easiest rhymes for anyone to use in a poem or any other literary work. I personally really like using this form of rhyme since it is straightforward and effective. Many writers, even beginner writers, use this form of rhyme in their work.

Internal Rhymes are another common type of rhymes but it is the rhyming of two words in a same line of poetry or story. A good example of this form would be a line from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,” I personally love using this form of rhyme since it is quite simple and it allows you to integrate two words that rhymes in one sentence. 

Rich Rhymes are a great type of rhymes since you use two different words that sound exactly the same (such as raise/raze or brake/break). I really love and appreciate this form of rhyme since it is quite fun to use in my writings. Many poets use this form since it can create puns and play on words for the reader.

Rhymes are always a great and interesting way to spice-up our writing while making it fun and interesting for the writer and for the reader. Practicing all the different forms of rhymes and reading literary work that contain various types of rhymes from different authors and poets increases our exposure and knowledge towards rhymes and forms of writing from writers.

Poetic Justice - Staying Inspired

    I think the reason why so many people hate poetry is because they have to write it for english class on subjects they don't care about. But it doesn't have to be like that. You can love poetry and poetry can love you. Every weekend I take some time to write down what I'm thinking about. For some reason it always comes out in the form of poetry. It's uncanny how soothing it is to write down your problems on paper. You feel like some of the pressure gets lifted off your shoulders and put onto the paper.
    I'm never satisfied with my work either. Maybe that's why a lot of people hate it. It's hard to make a perfect poem. But that's not the goal of poetry. You thoughts aren't perfect, so why should your poetry? Just write. Write it all, even if it sounds bad. Even if it doesn't flow. Even if you hate it. I've got page after page of poetry that I've never finished, on topics that I look back at and shake my head at. "What was I thinking?" comes out of my mouth as I reread old poems. But then I find that one stanza. That one combination of lines that rings true even if the rest it complete garbage. It makes it worth it. Then I write more based on that stanza, until I've got a bunch of them that I'm okay with.
    I almost always write to music. Now music isn't obligatory, but I find it helps to discover what rhythmic flow you're searching after. Poems sound better when they've got a certain flow. Fast, slow, whatever. There's plenty of instrumental music out there. I love old hip hop beats. They're repetitive and consistent, easiest to write to. Don't get an instrumental that's super abrasive, I find it really hard to write when the music is overpowering my thoughts. Get something smooth and easy-going. Having some back up music helps me stay focused for the few hours I write a week.
    Staying inspired is hard. It's alright to feel discouraged. I find that reading some poetry online or listening to your favourite music helps keep you inspired (and sane). Drink a tea or something like that, turn off the TV, get away from your family. If you can't stay in the house go to a coffee shop or something like that, or hit up a library. Plan it out beforehand. I've found that if I go out of my way to do something, I stay focused on it a little better. You can skip a week or two if you've got other priorities, that's fine, but keep the memories and emotions you felt in mind. Let it simmer if you can't write it down. But don't forget it.
    Honestly, the best way to experience poetry is to just get to it. Don't be afraid of your writing. You're you're own worst critic. Don't try writing all the time, take a break. Write once a week, but write at least. Sunday's a good day for writing (assuming you've done your homework) because you've got a whole week of experiences and feelings to write about. Look at other poets for inspiration, or listen to your favourite songs. What are they talking about? Love? Family? Hopes and dreams? You don't have to get into a cliche about love, but if that's what you're feeling, go for it.

By Matthew Lopes