WORDS

Creative writing mmmmmmmm

Anyone who knows me well, knows I have difficulty with the written word. We are not talking about the pronunciation, (which is a subject with more horror in a single word- than what there is in an entire Buffy movie) I am talking about that which appears on the white of a single page/computer screen or in a book.

The spelling . . . a nightmare
The grammar . . . . what the ? I still don't get the comma ( , ) Or the ( ! ) I see it everywhere and think of it as making the word louder and more in ya face. . . . .but it's real purpose. Nup! don't really know.

So why bother worrying about this stuff you may ask. Ha . . .now does that get a !, or NOT? . . .  ..  Well as an artist you would be suprised, serprized,  . . . .wait, wait I think I got it . . . . surprised - (Ha! No red line so it must be right)  how much we have to use the written word. 
Artists statements.
Grant proposals.
Gallery proposals.
Exhibition briefs.
Residency proposals. . . . . .  the list goes on and on.

I never really appreciated the need to speak to an audiance, ordianze, ordieance, ordeeance . . .  . audience ( whiewwwwieeeee)  until I had to give talks at Gallery openings, exhibitions and workshops. . . . I have learnt through the baptism of fire and now know that most people don't know I am sh . . . ng myself  . . . . and I just get on with it. So far no one has spat, shot or sh . . .t on me. So all is well. . . .okay . . . fine . .. OK!

I thought reading was a pure joy that I embraced wholeheartedly, as often as possible.

But! . . . . writing was something I avoided. I think it was all those red lines all through my work at school, that put me off. Why the F.... were people so obcesed, obseced, obcezed  . . . obsessive  about how we spell things. It just held back the creative flow and made the flow of words harder. To me their . . . there seamed . . .seemed to be a lot of rules that did not make and sence.  .sense. 

Soooooooooooooo . . .when I recieved,  (ok!, I remember -  I  before c except after e ) . . . received a reject letter ( that must have been viewed by a barren, loveless, bored individual with far too much time on their hands) .. . .  from a residency stating, I should re-do and re-submit my proposal for consideration, as the ideas were worthy of consideration, however the language left a lot to be desired . . . .  I asked?, who has the time to make all those red marks and corrections? . . . . ( what? Yah I know one two many ?'s )  

But, after due consideration and thinking about all the art I could be doing, if I was hanging out at the beach playing with sand . . . . I re-visited the subject. 

I took out the proposal and had to agree it was amazingly dizmall, dicmel, dysmal, dismal.

So. What to do about it? How do you re-write, when you don't really know why it is wrong?

I turned to my trusty computer . . .an amazing tool that I do not even try to fathom . . . .but use whoelheartidly, holeheartidly, wholeheartedly. I FOUND the Queensland writers Centre. WOW! Why does no one tell us of this fantastic tool ( OH! I have used fantastic already? Ok how about COOL tool ? ) 
www.qwc.asn.au   they have a  plythora, plethora of courses disigned, dezigned, designed  to help . .. .  I saw MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS, but did not like the sub text, Exploring the supernatural . I am trying hard to explore this life and have no inclination to try for one that has super in front of it. 

I then saw, TOOL KIT FOR WRITERS . . . yep! I understood the need for kits and I love tools and I BELIEVE YOU SHOULD ALWAYS DO THINGS YOU LOVE.

Now, equipped, with the know how of where to go I needed support. My adorable, long suffering husband was once again included in my latest endevor, endeavor, endeveer, endevear,  endeavour. With the promise of coffee and cake at the gallery book shop prior to the torture and a resteraunt, resteront, resterunt, restaurant
(that cannot be right? Sounds like you want to arrest my aunt) meal of his choice afterwards. We booked, then equipped with pens and paper, we set off.

From the 9th May through to the 30th, we have explored  - character, plot, theme, setting, the power of three, the episodic plot, implicit characterisation and the example of voice.  

We discovered amazing people like IRA GLASS   - who talk about the WRITING process. . . . 

It was awsome, awesome and a . . .an advent  . ..event . . THING, we will do again. Show don't tell is looking promising or Narrative structure . . . I even think I have Cam on board, though I do feel the cake and variety of meals has helped sway his enthusiasm. I enjoyed meeting other people and hearing why they feel the need to write. I embraced being out and about in Southbank and West end of an evening (something that we did for years, on a regular basis, but have neglected of late)

So I still do not know the ins and outs of writing. I do not know grammar, structure, spelling or any of the other necessary techniques needed to write a decent short story . . .but as Ira said . . . just DO IT . . . and ask your friends to correct it later. So FRIENDS, you know who you are and you now have fair warning . . .  some , no, LOTS of red pens will soon be required.

Now I need to try and understand, Third Person Omniscient, Third Person Limited and First Person. . . .I think i am okay with Point of view . . . . . but then maybe there is more than one?


But and this is a b . . .dy BIG  BUT. I still do not know where the comma should be and I still am unable to SPELL.

So, as usual with all the things we embrace in our travels through this life, it has answered a few questions, however, it has opened a can of worms and disclosed rather a few doors that we now feel we may want to open.
NOT a Bad thing at all!!!!!!! ( there, I have used all of my allocate  !  and shall no more use a single one again! oooops)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So now with the advice from JOHN CLEESE I am going to hibernate and sleep