[Writingworkshop] so guys, i got this thing i really need some feedback on......

[Neale Morison]

I like this offshoot topic: how do you recognize a real writer.
I took a corsepondence corpse and now I are one.
But seriously folks, it reminds of when I did a two year diploma in 
jazz. I was old enough to know better, but I went in with the idea that 
at the very least everybody would be agreed on what jazz was and what 
was really bad and what was really good. Nope. No two people, faculty or 
students, came anywhere near agreement on any of these topics. I did a 
concert at the end of the course and in a break while the big band was 
setting up I hosted a What is Jazz Forum. I just listed a bunch of stuff 
we'd looked at it and pointed a stick at the items and said "Is this 
jazz? How about this one?"
I thought they'd find it amusing, but they were screaming with laughter 
at this idea. The tears were literally rolling down their legs.
I'm interested in this idea that to be a writer you actually have to be 
an egocentric psycopath incapable of taking or understanding criticism. 
Plainly it works for some, and some similar dogged determination and 
profoundly misplaced sense of self-worth results in things being 
published that maybe don't really need to be out there.
But I think these are just a few points on the spectrum. I celebrate 
Josh baby's joy at having arrived so undeniably in the elite, but there 
is still a humble place for the writer with self-doubt, the writer who 
has never been nominated for an Academy Award, even, dare I say it, for 
the unpublished writer. There is even a place for the writer who does 
not write. A small, quiet, out of the way place.



Daniel Peters wrote:
> literally finished sending that last reply and went over to Hacker 
> News to do waste some time and the first article in the queue, this is 
> the link to the comments, you might get a kick out of it.
>
>
> http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=818488
>
> On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 11:52 PM, Daniel Peters 
> <danieltpeters at gmail.com <mailto:danieltpeters at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     the funny part for me is that I saw a History of violence
>     and.....i think it fucking blew.  Bad.  It could be the lead, or
>     it could also be that it struck me as horribly cliched and
>     unoriginal.  I love that you reacted to this piece this way man, I
>     look up to you alot as a writer and my first reaction to this
>     piece was in some sense similar, he sounds like such a self
>     satisfied douchebag.  Sold me on the "please don't waste my
>     fucking time" bit though.
>
>     On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 7:53 PM, Neale Morison
>     <neale at nealemorison.com <mailto:neale at nealemorison.com>> wrote:
>
>         I was momentarily heartened by his suggestion that you have to
>         know that craft of writing to succeed, even with a synopsis,
>         in screenwriting. There was a little moment of thinking that
>         maybe I had some slight advantage there. But then I realized
>         that it isn't true.
>         One of the funniest screenwriting gags I ever saw was the
>         extended Cleaver scenario in The Sopranos. I thought Cleaver
>         pretty mPuch covered the ground.
>
>         Daniel Peters wrote:
>>         http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/09/i_will_not_read.php
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>
>
>         -- 
>         Neale Morison
>         neale at nealemorison.com <mailto:neale at nealemorison.com>
>         http://www.nealemorison.com
>         35 Frazer St, Leichhardt NSW 2040
>         +61 417 661 427
>               
>
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-- 
Neale Morison
neale at nealemorison.com
http://www.nealemorison.com
35 Frazer St, Leichhardt NSW 2040
+61 417 661 427

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