Why Am I Called A Real-Life Writer?
New writers could benefit.
I don’t use 5-syllable words when shorter words are more common. I don’t make up new words. I don’t use letters to represent genres, ideas, and processes. I don’t have to code my stuff to enable you to see it. You don’t have a big learning curve with my stuff.
Let me steal a little from my own words.
“A short dissertation on Writing Style.
Please remember I am a writer, a member of a rough crowd. We are usually subject to no discipline and void of recognizable order. We are the New Fugitives, a society of creators and critics, the cowboys your mama didn’t want you to grow up to be.
Our writing style, I must admit, is more like that of your child’s wind-up toy car, that speeds off in any old direction it wants until it bumps into the couch.
This weekend I read an article by someone who said that she subscribed to the newsletter of a certain writer, not because of the information there, but because she liked the way this writer presented it. Her style, her writing voice.
What, then, is my writing style?
Often referred to as the “shiny object style,” it usually is unstructured and unimpeded by adherence to outlines, more free-form, like the toy car, moving, more or less, in the direction it was originally pointed, until it hits the couch, or the owner of the car sees a different shiny object requiring his attention.
This concept as a writing style is probably more conducive to fiction writing than it would be to more serious non-fiction articles.
As Mark Twain put it in his older days, even when his memory had become capricious, his vivid imagination was more than happy to fill in the details.
How does this apply to you?
More than likely some of you reading this would halfway love to be writers.”
I’m an analog cowboy. I am a simple guy in a world that likes to over-complicate things, thinking that should lend credibility.
The child may be the father to the man, but you still would probably not let the child pilot your 747, even if the child had all the greatest ideas in the world. It takes learning, practice, and experience first.
If a person is first starting to be a writer, the idea is to read other writers’ works. But do remember each person has their own ideas about what is the best approach to writing. I found myself confused by the advice in opposing directions earlier.
So I found it is best to study the basics and practice a lot. Don’t sweat the details at first. Just let it flow. The more nuanced perspectives may be great for you, but I would first try to get a solid, working (yes, real-life) base of experience on which to build.
Thanks for reading!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Don’s a keen observer and prolific reporter of truth, common sense, humor, & life. He’s a WRITER and humorist, sometimes serious, sometimes tongue-in-cheek. He lives in Nashville, TN. He publishes every weekday morning. Real-life Writing & Real-life Real Estate.
