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  1. #91
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    I am simply writing, it doesn't have to be good it just has to be written, I will work out the kinks once I am done.

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  3. #92
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    Quote Originally Posted by AStone View Post
    I am simply writing, it doesn't have to be good it just has to be written, I will work out the kinks once I am done.
    Yep!

    I had created all these elaborate writing schedules for myself over the years but now that I'm under a deadline I've basically given myself a single instruction: "Show up at the page." I find that once I show up at the page, take my pen in hand*, AND remember that I'm just laying track (or whatever your preferred building metaphor is), the words start to flow.

    *I can't write creatively on the computer. I'm so used to writing on the computer for work (non-creative) that anything I try to do that's creative comes out sounding even more stilted than usual and I end up copying it to paper using a pen so I can put some flow into it. One exception is when I've had a little too much to drink. The alcohol somehow injects flow into the prose through the computer keys. YES the stereotype of the alcoholic writer is TRUE...
    Hello, 2021. Glad to see you. Hope you're bringing us goodness and light this year!

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  5. #93
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    I'd like to think that writers write, but perhaps some of us are just lucky to be compulsive writers. Writing is just what I do. The only thing I've had to watch out for is getting entangled in other people's expectations and/or ambitions. There's a lot of social and interpersonal "pressure" regarding what potential I have, what I should do with my works, and how I could/should be of service to others in this regard. I leave all that alone and just keep writing. When opportunities come to collaborate toward reaching more people or whatever, if I'm game I'm game. But, I don't try to force myself to sustain any level of income, acclaim, distinction, etc. Messing around with those external forces and distraction can take away my time and passion for writing and that would hurt me as a person.

    No one but me cares so much about that possibility so I protect myself, my craft, and my art. Furthermore, I don't have ego about my writings. Folk can get better without thinking lowly or highly of themselves. It's practice borne of passion/compulsion. I don't compete. I strive to communicate and writing happens to be one of my choice mediums. With all due deference, I wonder if people who aspire to be writers might be better suited cultivating a medium that they already have a personal passion for. Many people aspire to be voracious readers or at least like to say they are as such but they rather tend to purchase books they'll never read and just have an appearance of a person who loves books based on content they've immersed themselves in rather than used as blankets.

    I could be ignorant based on my own fortune of being so quick to formulate mental outlines and fill in those points with paragraphs, narratives, etc. I also wonder though if folk could be often over-complicating something that does come to them nearly instinctually with goals instead of enjoying the elegance, beauty, and potential of the journey once the pens or keys start flowing. I wonder if that's similar to people who do enjoy reading but they don't purchase what they would actually read comfortably because they want to appear to be fascinated by topics and books which they actually have no passion to begin or finish reading. For instance, I know people who will read online all day; staring at text and pictures related all day, but they'll cry from the mountain tops about the virtues of not having to read if responding to someone or something online would confirm that they read 3-6 paragraphs on one topic that wasn't self-deprecating or hypercritical of someone else (vice versa for those who posture otherwise).

    I appreciate what you wrote, LBell. It also brought to mind when I used to not have a computer and would write code by hand. Beside it being a rare skill for people in my generation who grew up with TVs and later PCs, I had a hardcore joy rather than anxiety about seeing how well my code worked and what errors I could work on after whatever limited time I had to test things out on the computer(s). Years later, I was so discouraged with the lack of creativity clients desired that I closed my programming firm. I could not find clients who wanted to maximize on my abilities rather than have me recode someone else's successful project with their branding. I still code all the time, but rarely for anyone else. I had to stop being in the money game of it all to keep enough for my personal joy/passion. I wonder if people are killing their joy for writing or rather aspiring to reach a point beyond their functional writing ability that requires practice they're too anxious and/or critical to put in.
    Last edited by Intellexual; 07-31-2013 at 05:31 PM.
    2009: Transitioned
    2020: Mature, Freeformed Locs

  6. #94
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    Quote Originally Posted by QueenLocks View Post
    That moment when you get home from work, and you want to work on your writings, and your DH/SO/FAM is constantly talking to you, wanting All of your Attention.

    It's the worst! Started a blog for my writing finally....Am I the only poetry writer in here?
    BC: 12.4.06

  7. #95
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    In storytelling or writing to communicate effectively, our credibility and relatability (or that of our characters) matters because engaging involves relating and/or being trusted/valid/credible to the audience/listener(s). As blacked authors, we not only have obstacles with people who don't respect our voices. We also have homosocial and intraracial prejudices to contend with. So, as we develop our abilities to tell stories, we also might want to be mindful of all the work which has been done to push us aside and begin to approach our marketing and audience engagement from positions of strength. This can allow us to cultivate our credibility and relatability while enduring the sociopolitical context which could make some of us anxious to sell out, whitewash, or identify with having a voice in the fringe rather than take on the reality that stories we decide to share can be just as and even more compelling than those of folk who feel comfortable "socially" with the acceptance and/or relevance of their stories with their desired audience(s).

    The uncomfortable reality with storytelling and communication is that your listeners and audience(s) are selfish. They want to be able to know and/or trust they personally gain from the telling of the story. It makes sense and seems fine until they develop a hunger for you to feed. They can be the hero, they can be advocated for, the truths you tell empower them rather than criticize them, the truths you tell criticize people they are afraid to or lack the ability to tell in the manner in which you did, etc.

    The next facet is being regarded as wise or a good storyteller outside of the context of the stories and/or lessons you want to share. The compliments you're afforded come with obligations rather than mutual trust and acceptance. The more you're "accepted" the more intolerant your "vocal audience" becomes of you being diverse and fully realized/humanized. In that, even your voice can be commodified and people can take expectations (mentioned earlier) to objectify you and criticize you for not satisfying their selfish escapades into all of your stories. The thing with it not being distinctly about them so it must not (be allowed to) speak (to them).

    So, what you can have is people who are genuinely attracted to you and your style of storytelling but they will seek to control, hurt, and/or manipulate you into feeding their egos rather than empowering them. They no longer care about empowerment moreso than glorification. You've gone from a storyteller to a puppet. Some of us writers fear the commercial and social machinations. Others of us just avoid it consciously while still writing. I don't speak with a lot of writers about these issues because I'm one of the writers who isn't allowed to have a voice (socially) outside of entertaining and/or advocating for others. Also, after folk get done with the come down from the high of empowerment via being recognized as victims, because writing is an action, it's easier to slink away and blame the structure or obstacles than to figure out how we can plan and work to be able rather than control others and force them to cater to our disabilities (with permission, validation, and/or acceptance).

    Because I'm a good storyteller, I never have a problem of finding out how to get people to care. My problem was that I knew that people would always turn on me because I don't "push" for their satisfaction and familiarity breeds contempt. People want to profit from your gifts or they want to destroy you. It's so for writers because we have the power of story. Story is the more attractive sibling of Truth. People fear and reject Truth but Story is doomed to be lost or easily changed without the possibility of an underlying and/or existing Truth.

    As Blacked writers, we're in a social and economic struggle to be able to portray our truths and share our stories authentically without suffering from personal attacks and abuses to gain control of us. From orators and historians to puppets and "entertainers". I feel that many such writers are still focused on convincing White folk that they're human and should be allowed to express that instead of dealing with the fallout of just doing it. Focusing on the hecklers instead of the people who are enjoying and/or engaging with you. That's entertaining to White folk. The privilege of ignorance and the power of intentionally ignoring people while pretending to take them seriously. Or, even the joy of being honest about not validating folk after they went through all the submissive machinations and/or social graces.

    Even the idea of making our characters distinctly blacked is disgusting to me. It has a place but it seems like a competition that still focuses on a historical narrative that feeds into a system we're dominated in, instead of skipping to the end result. It's like a fear of being or having characters more human than socially allowed. Be ahead of our time, in such a backward and perverse society, mind us. It's like artists writing about money, sex, and woe on a repeat loop when they know more and different (not to say better) but they would rather get that fast money now or make sense to numbed sensibilities than allow the compromise to be made by those for which it isn't a compromise at all. Self-determination and authenticity dodged or weaponized instead of expressed as a human rather than a victim or rebel.

    So, white storytellers create worlds that are only White and Blacked folk respond by striving to create worlds that are only Blacked (outside of satirical commentary). What about the rest of the world or are we really going to stay trapped in the segregated bubbles which take away from our humanity rather than help define it? We don't have to spend our lives writing from a white and black world when we can heal the world and speak the humanity which eludes our oppressive system. We don't need permission to be better than that. The internet has democratized our audience so that we don't need to get permission from each audience like it's a primary election.

    I think a story that resonates with one other person is a great story to share. Could social matters be influencing you to limit your range or cater to matters which don't hold your interest?
    Last edited by Intellexual; 08-02-2013 at 09:53 PM.
    2009: Transitioned
    2020: Mature, Freeformed Locs

  8. #96
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    @ LLbellatrix - that's awesome! i am approaching week 10 and its very awesome what i've been able to uncover.

    and for the first time, ever, in my life i finished my story on 7/15 - it's 300+ pages.
    progress!

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