Can you be taught to Write?

Rune · June 10, 2003

What are you opinions on being taught to write? Not in the technical sense, Anyone can learn grammer and spelling, but do you think it is possible to teach someone to really write well?

Is it vital to writing to have a certain love for it in order for it to be really great? Or can any regular person who does not care or even dislikes writing be taught to write a wonderful story or poem?

Opinions!

Nobody of Consequence · June 10, 2003

Good idea for a thead.

I'd have to agree with the premise Stephen King uses in his book "On Writing." A semi-decent writer can learn to become a good writer, but both dunces and geniuses are beyond outside intervention.

I think one thing that is impossible to teach is the art of knowing what to leave out.

Annael · June 10, 2003

A friend of mine loves to write. The only problem is, she doesn't do it well. At all. It's all over dramatic, doesn't make sense. Words are all jumbled here and there. It's the most frustrating thing for her. Her ideas are great, but she just can't seem to get them into writing the way that they should be. She asked me to help her. I told her that I couldn't teach her how to write, what I could teach her is how to edit. She still sends me stuff that she writes and asks me to work on it for her. I think it's cute. She submits her work to fanfic sites with a note saying that I've edited and changed things for her.

I do think that it is vital for a person to love writing to do it well. It's like anything in life. You can do something, but if you love to do it, you will do it better.

Rhapsody · June 10, 2003

I've always been of the opinion that nurture rules over nature. I believe you can be taught to write to a certain extent. As Rune said, grammar and sentence structure and such can be taught, but ideas and style are personal. I think that one who reads a lot absorbs so much through osmosis, especially one who reads from different time periods. For example, the writing of say Shakespeare and Victor Hugo differs greatly from that of JK Rowling or Richard Preston. Coherency can be taught.

Style cannot be taught. I say people like Kafka and James Joyce were born with that innate sense of individual style. Some of the Pen members here have a natural tendency to rhyme their poems of to write in a certain meter or rhythm. I think that's nature. It can't be taught.

Likewise, perspective cannot be taught. The way ones sees things and records them is unique. That has to do with one's sense of morality, his ethics, values, etc.

Originally posted by Rune:

Is it vital to writing to have a certain love for it in order for it to be really great?

I think it is vital to write from the heart. As cheesy as it sounds, its true. You can hardly expect others to believe and feel for you if you do not believe in yourself. The same thing goes for writing. Pieces written half-heartedly hardly get a second glance. Piece written with passion or true adherence--I'm thinking Brave New World, Catcher in the Rye, and Song of Myself--have the potential to be immortalized.

Or can any regular person who does not care or even dislikes writing be taught to write a wonderful story or poem?

Everyone has their moments of inspiration. Even one who does not neccessarily like to write can write something substantial, something personal if they have experienced something that moves them. However, everyone's standard of great writing--literature--differs. What they may think is great may not strike your's or my fancy.

Illianna Wolfsong · June 10, 2003

Hmmm...

For an adult:

I think perhaps a person can be tutored to be able to "see" differently. If you can coach someone to be better observers, I suppose in that sense you can give them the fundamentals needed to "write", but I think the desire to offer that unique personal view must be there on it's own... I rather doubt one can be taught the desire to write.

For a young child:

I do think that you can teach a child both by example and by praise to feel comfortable writing, and to feel that writing is a natural thing and something to aim for.

How about as a secondary question to each of you--

What made you write?

For me it was withdrawl into myself as a child. Writing seemed to the natural evolutionary step after escaping into books.

As a pre-teen, I did have an older friend who used to write and tell me elaborate epic fantasy stories. Perhaps she aided in steering me in this direction (writing, not subject matter)... I am not sure.

Rune · June 10, 2003

What made you write?

Rune runs into the room with a giant red crayon in her hand. She holds it up to Illianna so that she can see. The look on the child’s face appears to be stern and very serious.

“This crayon.” She starts.

“This crayon made me write.” She bites her lip and looks frustrated, waiting for a response.

----------------------

In all seriousness though, I am not sure what first got me started. Ironically the first thing I have ever written outside of a school assignment was for the pen. I remember reading everyone’s work and being really motivated to contribute in some way to the vast literary archives of this keep. I wanted my own paw print on the wall so that future generations would perhaps stumble on my signature and read my posts.

Rune also makes me write. What started out as a neat name..and then turned into a demon, and then turned into a 3 foot tall demon who cannot spell is a mystery. I think it is because I never had a chance to be a child, and Rune allows me to view the world through a child’s eyes. She does not have to worry about sentence structure or knowing what a megaphone (metaphor) is. She simply says what she feels without concern that others will think she is silly for not understanding. It really makes it easy to write most of the time and removes the chore aspect from the entire thing.

Aardvark · June 11, 2003

Regular people with no creativity and a hatred of writing are successful writers

You think machines came up with the scripts for all that garbage TV you yanks shovel our way?

Ayshela · June 11, 2003

LOL

didn't the question have to do with writing well??? TV drivel seems to require a complete inability to write well, actually.

Can someone who dislikes writing write well? Perhaps it would be as well to define what you mean by "well". i think anyone can write interesting, engaging, passionate material - provided they have something to say. Equally, i think everyone has *something* to say, the task is to discover it first for themselves and then to share it with others. i guess, in essence, i believe anyone *can* write well, if they're willing to engage themselves in the process. i don't believe that those who dislike it will put in the necessary effort, on a general basis.

What made me write? As i was growing up there was so much i was not allowed to say to anyone... the laws of "don't tell" ran so deep and so wide that while i could speak very fluently and very well i was terrified to do so. My lifeline through those years was my best friend, who moved several states away, and the increasingly lengthy letters we would exchange. He got my heart and soul in those letters, all that i was not terrified to speak and everything that things meant to me. Through that process i learned to describe what i saw and what i thought so that it could be readily understood. i also learned to see things with an eye to retelling - to see things as i would describe them to someone else, which made me notice more. The more i saw, the more there was to say and the freer i was to say things, the more there was to notice. i began to write because that was the only way i could speak at all. i continued to write because i grew to love it.

Ozymandias · June 11, 2003

Wow. And I mean, wow. It's times like this I find it almost laughable that some amazingly talented and (apparently!) everlastingly kindhearted individuals saw my familiar "face" pop up at this site, this place, this family they've created and not only welcomed me back with open arms, but gave *me* the credit for starting this. Me. The one who just wanted to use a hopefully neat idea to preserve truly awesome imaginations and talent within (let's face it, oldsters) a rather substandard online videogame.

Today's Pen bears some light resemblence to the hopes I had for where we could go, if my pipe dream got off the ground, but when I had to leave our game world and all of my friends in it for awhile, then came back to find The Pen is Mightier than the Sword of, shoot two? Three years ago, now?- I was blown away. I still am.

On almost a monthly basis, or even more frequently than that.

It's humbling and wonderful to be a part of our venture here. For a time, I wrote because I wanted to remember *my* stories. The desire to write stories came from the joy and wisdom that the written words of so many others have given me through most of my life. When life became too much, and the strain seemed too great, then, from out of nowhere, came The Pen.

I write now, because of all the old reasons, and The Pen the website, and The Pen, the people who are part of it. Learning with you, working with you, growing with you, even suffering with you has been indescribable.

I write because I love it, and I know others love to read. I continue because of that, my faith in God (and desire to use the gifts he's given me to the fullest!), and you guys.

It's kind of like Rune said- being here really helps me see through the eyes of a child, and it's actually a much, MUCH less frightening and difficult view and so much more exciting and so ecstatic an experience. Not much like the jaded, fearful, angry, selfish view I've developed in my life otherwise at all.

Is a love of writing necessary to write? No. Is it necessary to able to write well? No. You can be really great without love. But love makes it greater, because I guarantee you, it flows into your work, even if you don't mean it too, and your reader will be able to tell. And that takes you beyond the (dare I say) mere diversionary entertainment (take me somewhat metaphorically, here. Imagination is SO important!) of imagining, to where you have brought even just a little light and happiness into someone else's life- someone you may never meet, or even know exists.

THAT, my friends, is a miracle of the highest order possible.

Can you be taught to write? Yes, otherwise we wouldn't be here. Even when we're not actively trying to teach one another, we learn from this fellow's example, or that fellow's. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me we're not doing what everyone else who has ever learned a thing has done. Go ahead. Try. :>)

Peredhil · June 11, 2003

Peredhil tries a (bad) Mexican movie accent.

Thees love. Where you get thees love? I want thees thing por mi escribios.

Degenero Angelus · June 11, 2003

I never learned to write, it just happened. I dunno if one can be tought, you'd have to ask those better than me. My humble skills come from raw talent.

As to what made me write?

An inability to say what I feel? An innate socialphobia caused from years of ridicule and neglect? I've never been able to express my feeling vocally. I'm a very good speaker, don't misunderstand. But not emotional. Coldly logical and articulating. All my feelings come out in ink, or bytes as the case may be.

Cheers.

Griever · June 12, 2003

I learned to write by a "free writing" technique so to speak and eventually developed my own style. When I was about 12 I used to take an hour a day to just jot down what I was thinking or anything that came to mind, no matter where I was. On the bus, at the park or even at a friends house :lol:

Though I should come to the pen more often, I'm missing out <_<

Distarius_WhiteRobes · June 12, 2003

As far as being able to write goes, I can't really do more than state what's already been said *why did this board have to get all of the geniuses?*

But it seems to me that real writing, the best writing that is, comes from having a good time when you're doing it. You can't produce a great product if your heart isn't in it. I think one of the biggest factors in being able to enjoy a project is a sense of---an enraged imagination. When a mind just craves excitement and there's nothing around to feed it, the person just starts creating their own fun and their own situations in their head. The ones that have been properly taught *grammar wise*, and the ones that are dorky enough *not a bad thing, I am* to sit in front of a word processor or lay down with a notebook and get those ideas flowing and into something that gets other people excited---they're the ones that make the best stuff.

The ones that are forced to *school papers, etc. etc.* are the ones that suffer.

And I do think that writers can easily learn from one another. I know that I do my best work when I'm working with another person. The whole process of "wouldn't it be cooler if" and "wouldn't it be EVEN cooler if" goes much faster and ideas just pop. You learn from those experiences and you take them with you---they lean you toward your next project, which in all likeliness will far surpass the previous independant work. I think co-writing something with somebody is one of the greatest and most pounding ways to help *don't want to use the word teach* a potential writer with their game.

As for what attracted me to writing *as if I haven't talked enough already*, I think it was my desire to make films. I have a very clear vision of what I want to see---unfortunately the means to capture it on film aren't always there *got no green? You ain't on no screen* so writing is the next best thing. The first thing I ever wrote simply because I wanted to was a fanfic of Star Wars: Jedi Knight *the original PC game back in '97* It was roughly 20 pages from start to finish, and in all caps. Without a doubt the worst thing I've ever written---and that was only 3 years ago. And now---well, all of my readers give me rave reviews *all two or three of them *

So I guess the last point I should make is that---some people are made to write; some people aren't. They're the cards He deals out to you, and the ones you must play...He wouldn't deal you a bad hand, would He?

smallscale_mind_games · June 12, 2003

Can you be taught to write? No, you have to do that yourself. But you can be helped. You have to grow, like some kind of insane writing-weed, and people can be your water, your sunshine, your soil, or even the rotten fish heads that are your fertilizer. And eventually you will be all sprawly and creepy-looking.

That made little sense...

What made me write? I don't know, I have to. At first it was just poetry, and things just kind of snowballed from there. Now I'm an awful Pen-monster, just like you!

smallscale_mind_games · June 12, 2003

Oh yeah, and everything Distarius said.

Justin Silverblade · June 12, 2003

A well honoured topic it seems - I'll have to add my two cents. :lol:

What are you opinions on being taught to write? Not in the technical sense, Anyone can learn grammer and spelling, but do you think it is possible to teach someone to really write well?

In many areas, it is in my nature to explore and discuss. To understand the very specifics of the world (as innumerable as they are). However, I don't think I really can with writing. I guess it's because I don't really... want to. I really like some of the answers here. Ozy hit it pretty well on the head I think, but I would mention...

What is writing?

Putting ink to pen.