I read a pretty great quote a couple of days ago from the short fiction writer Katherine Mansfield “Far better to write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all.” I am guessing twitter isn’t even twaddle?

These days my writing has been pretty sporadic. This is despite the fact that I told myself (not resolved, those never happen) that I would write more frequently. There are certain periods when I feel confident and inspired and can’t wait to get everything down on paper. But more frequently, I doubt my ability to express myself, to be creative– and become very reluctant to write anything, anything at all.

I’m not a follower of the Eat, Pray, Love cult (I only read a portion of the book), however, the book’s author Elizabeth Gilbert has given a fantastic TED talk on how we can dissociate creativity from productivity, and make both possible. She discusses the origin of the word ‘genius’ which I really liked. The concept behind genius is very similar to mythology of the muses, but even more personal. According to the OED the word refers to classical Greco-Roman beliefs where genius was an individual tutelary god or spirit present in each person, providing him or her with a divine nature and governing his or her fortunes. Gilbert’s main point in the talk is that while creativity can’t be forced, when we sit down and work on a given project, sometimes a stroke of genius will flash by and since we’re already working we can take advantage of it. And even if it doesn’t come by– we’ve still accomplished something.

This semester is probably my most challenging in terms of materials and courseload, but I am also talking incredibly interesting courses. Most of my classes now are with less than thirty people, a big difference from the three-hundred and six-hundred seat classes I was taking even up to last semester (not a fan). So while I have hundreds of pages to read and write, the chance to discuss readings in seminars and work on projects gives me a lot more to talk about, to write about- and an opportunity to rid this fear of expressing myself/writing inadequately. In short, henceforth I shall twaddle while my genius will do the writing.

* Image Source – A really interesting NYT article on Randall Munroe, the genius behind xkcd.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered a rather cool Twitter account AdviceToWriters. The eponymous site “Advice to Writers” streams links and quotes about writers and I’ve found some of the resources quite helpful. For example, I discovered this comprehensive collection of articles by Caro Clarke, an editor and writer, describes the development of a novel from the start to publications.

To my great delight I also stumbled on “How to Write with Style”, a 1980 short piece written by Kurt Vonnegut for the International Paper Company. Where the article by George Orwell I posted earlier was concerned with the use of language to obfuscate and deceive in politics, Vonnegut’s article offers simple, sharp and compelling reasons why and how we can improve our writing. In Hamlet, a play which Vonnegut refers to in his article, William Shakespeare says “Brevity is the soul of wit“. I can’t think of an author more succint and witty than Vonnegut himself, and therefore who better to give tips on this subject matter?

*Scans are from Ebony/Spin magazines.

How to Write With Style

Kurt Vonnegut

Newspaper reporters and technical writers are trained to reveal almost nothing about themselves in their writings. This makes them freaks in the world of writers, since almost all of the other ink-stained wretches in that world reveal a lot about themselves to readers. We call these revelations, accidental and intentional, elements of style.

These revelations tell us as readers what sort of person it is with whom we are spending time. Does the writer sound ignorant or informed, stupid or bright, crooked or honest, humorless or playful — ? And on and on.

Why should you examine your writing style with the idea of improving it? Do so as a mark of respect for your readers, whatever you’re writing. If you scribble your thoughts any which way, your readers will surely feel that you care nothing about them. They will mark you down as an egomaniac or a chowderhead — or, worse, they will stop reading you.

The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not. Don’t you yourself like or dislike writers mainly for what they choose to show you or make you think about? Did you ever admire an emptyheaded writer for his or her mastery of the language? No.

So your own winning style must begin with ideas in your head.
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Inside the Citadel of Karim Khan/Arg-e-Karim Khan. The paintings were plastered in the Qajar era when it was converted into a prison, now being restored.

You must have a room, or certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.

-Joseph Campbell (mythologist, writer)

I try not to be overtly meta in this blog, but I think it’s a good idea to reflect on the purpose of what one is doing every couple of years. When I read the works of people who write well, I can’t help but envy them and wonder how they do it. Writing is really a love and hate relationship for me. Sometimes when I put my hands on the keyboard, it’s as though I’ve set a flame beneath a paper with invisible ink– words just appear, fluent and natural. Other times, words tear through my flesh and rip my fingers as they come out. The rest of the time, when I have a million thoughts and fingers too reluctant to write, the words remain like a knot in my throat.

During the writing process I have the singular obsession to achieve perfection. To ensure that every word is properly placed, that every sentence serves a purpose. After all that is done comes the self-consciousness, which strangely enough has become more prominent the more experience I’ve had. I begin to question– Is this well written? Am I getting better? But perfection, as the saying goes, is a moving target. So, while on occasion a piece goes into the recycling bin, I mostly end up revising until I am satisfied. Writing for me is not always a pretty process, but it is one that I find necessary… and it’s nice to look forward to that moment when the challenge has been overcome .

A couple of days ago I was looking at the statistics for visitors to my blog in 2009… London, New York, and Chicago topped a list of 5,233 cities, the majority of which I had never heard of before… Now while I’d like to flatter myself, I’m sure not all of them stuck around, but even twenty years ago you had to be an accomplished writer in order have any number of people actually stumble upon what you wrote. In the blogs that I am subscribed to, people produce content that is timely, thoughtful, and in many ways exceptional; but many are not writers in the traditional sense. Today all you need is access to the internet and passion. While writing has its own intrinsic value, to know that out of the thousands of people that pass by, one person will actually read and enjoy what you’ve written is both humbling and stirring. It boils the desire to write more, and to write better.

I’ve had this site for five years, and over the course of the 76 entries I’ve written, it’s been a great place to share my thoughts. So while I’m never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down… I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how to orient what I write here, and give it more purpose than simply the repository for my occasional musings. I think rather than stifling my creativity, refining the ideas on the blog may put some method to the madness and pave way for even better ideas.

Speaking of creativity, I found an amazing channel on youtube which contains exceptional and creative advertisements from all over the world. This was their most recent one:

I’ve found it quite hard to write for the past little while. Normally I find that when I don’t write for a couple of days, I get bent out of shape and it becomes harder to do so. But this has been rather a surprising development because I wrote regularly during the summer in Iran. Since returning, however, I feel uninspired despite being overwhelmed perhaps with thoughts and ideas. I’ve arrived at the conclusion that for whatever reason I am suffering from a bad case of writer’s block. After reading on the subject, I’ve decided to not force it though. It seems that, herbal remedies and all, the only reasonable antidote to this malaise is to let words and ideas find their way back into the mind naturally. While conducting my little investigation I found this interesting letter by Fyodor Dosteovsky to his brother Mikhail, discussing Dosteovsky’s experiences and toils writing. I figure if the gods themselves struggled, then there is hope for the rest of us yet.

One thing is a pity: he (Pissemsky) writes too fast. He writes much too fast, and much too much. A man should have more ambition, more respect for his talent and his craft, and more love for art. When one’s young, ideas come crowding incredibly into one’s head; but one should not capture each and all of them as it flies, and rush to give it forth. One should rather await the synthesis, and think more; wait till the many single details which make up an idea have gathered them-selves into a nucleus, into a large, imposing picture; then, and not till then, should one write them down. The colossal figures, created by the colossal writers, have often grown out of long, stubborn labour…

But I have vowed to myself that, however hard it may go with me, I’ll pull myself together, and in no circumstances will I work to order. Work done to order would oppress and blight me. I want each of my efforts to be incontrovertibly good. Just look at Pushkin and Gogol. Both wrote very little, yet both have deserved national memorials. Gogol now gets a thousand roubles a printed page, while Pushkin had, as you know well, as much as a ducat a line of verse. Both — but particularly Gogol — bought their fame at. the price of years of dire poverty…
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Recently I’ve spent a lot of time developing the details of this site, but of course, a project like this is constantly ongoing, evolving. You come up with new ideas and work to implant them. Though sometimes everything falls into place as planned, often, the project takes a life of its own and you find yourself in an entirely new and unique domain- no pun intended.

So far, I have completed the structure and organizational backbone of the site, and have designated the direction each of my projects will be taking. But the web’s most basic attribute is its ability to transfer content, and developing that content is often the hardest and trickiest task of all. As anyone who has ever tried to write an essay in the middle of the night will attest, writing coherently and concisely is not as easy as some people make it seem (especially when you’re jittery on coffee :o).
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