Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Tuesday's Inspiration - Talent and Practice

Yeasr ago, I wrote poetry, some of it not bad and some not good. I wasn't writing poetry to set myself up as a poet but to hone my use of words. The other day when I was looking through the dozens of books I have on my shelf, I found the book that I read then and practiced some of the techniques. What I learned was about rhythm and developing my writer's voice. I'll use this book to glean some of the things that inspired me back then. The book is The Poet and the Poem by Judson Jerome. In looking over the first bit of the book several things struck me that apply to both writing fiction and poetry.

One is talent. Talent is a must. The forms can be learned so can the grammar and things like that but there must be a spark of talent somewhere to cause the words to have an effect on the writer.

The second is practice. If one is going to write a story one has to write and often re-write. The overnight success is rare and perhaps nonexistent.
A writer needs to write. Practice belongs with persistence.

Here's a quote. "The best prose is chaos threatening to become order."
And so often my stories start out chaotic and gradually become order. What aabout you? Do you enjoy making order out of chaos, searching for the form that best suits what you wantto say?