http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=216x5623Oh my.
NashVegas (1000+ posts) Thu Apr-23-09 12:56 PM
Original message
Where Did You Learn To Write Well?
A few years ago, one of our interns at work stumped me with that one. I'd always been a natural writer, it was something I just *did,* starting with my first short story at age nine, and countless journals and poems in the years after.
Is it possible to teach someone with no natural aptitude for writing, to write well?
No, it's not.
Writing is like sex.
One either has it, or doesn't have it.
It's pretty boring, this bonfire, so only a few comments.
The Zbigniew primitive:
nadinbrzezinski (1000+ posts) Thu Apr-23-09 06:24 PM
Response to Original message
3. I haven't, that's why I edit, and edit, and edit
but then again, writing is rewriting
In fact, if you read some of the greats and their comments on writing... they don't write well... they edit well
Actually, the Zbigniew primitive is right.
If franksolich edited well--he alas doesn't edit at all, everything always being a first draft, after which he moves on to something else--like, 10,000 words down to 1,500 words, franksolich could become a good writer.
As Woodrow Wilson said, any idiot can write a half-hour speech, but only a true genius can write a ten-minute speech.
It's a medium-sized bonfire, but it's all primitive yibber-yabbering nonsense.