August 23, 2010

  • The More I Learn...

    ... the less I know.

    Funny how that works, isn't it?  

    It's a big world out there, with all kinds of customs, virtues, beliefs, organizations, thought patterns, histories, and learnings. If you study 24 hours a day, you can't take it all in. So what's a person to do? Acknowledge how much more you have to learn and dig back into it. Or at least that's my only solution... 

    There's a quote in my new screenwriting book by Turgenev. It says "It is a strange thing. A composer studies harmony and theory of musical form; a painter doesn't paint a picture without knowing something about colors and design; architecture requires basic schooling. Only when somebody makes the decision to start writing, he believes he doesn't need to learn anything and that anybody who has learned to put words on a paper can be a writer." (The Tools of Screenwriting by David Howard and Edward Mabley. p.xviii).

    It goes on to say...

    "There is so much for any writer to know and learn continuously that one book couldn't cover even the basics. There isn't an area of life, a branch of human knowledge, that couldn't become the object of the writer's interest. But there is one skill that needs to be acquired foremost: the ability to express and shape one's visions."

    For me, it remains about telling the best story I can tell... all the time... and that requires an indepth knowledge of the world around me. How does it think? What are its perceptions? Where does its beliefs come from? When I start to get cocky and think I finally understand then I am exposed to something new and realize that I only know a small fraction of what is required to tell the story. A well told tale can change civilization, or so I've been told!

    My lack of knowledge doesn't interfere with my storytelling. I write on (and on and on and on) and edit later when I have the missing piece. If you wait until you have the entire puzzle solved, you'll never put a word on paper (or on the computer screen). But I seriously study the art and craft of writing because it makes a difference in my writing ability. It's not relying on talent but insisting on craft that drives me.

Comments (7)

  • And you have to do what you have to do...period.

  • I'm sure you possess plenty of knowledge and experience – both within the art of writing and about the world around you. You've been writing for quite a while now, so probably know most of the tricks of the trade – even if no-one taught you them.

  • @piqued - absolutely! :)

  • @rojobe - i suspect that you feel the same way about art- the more you do, study, observe, see, feel, live, etc... the more you know- and yet there is an awareness that you have sooo much more to learn! :) it's not about how much i already know-- but how much there is left! :)

  • True. Very true.

  • Dear Jeri,

    The little "module" for weblogs is on your front page. I just saw it on the left near the bottom. Your "photos" module is "featured" at the top of the center column. I must have missed the weblog module it last time I visited. I finally got to weblogs from the taskbar at the top. I'm still figuring out these "themes". Just yesterday I realized my background isn't "stable" like it was before. Now it moves with the whole page.I'll have to figure out where I can insert the code for background. (give me a blank notepad, and I can create a website.... give me some forced "theme" and I can't figure out what's going on!)

    "Therz too mny rulez und thats why I rite on teh internets."

    You can quote me.

    I seem to read a lot of poetry among some of the sites I browse, and one poem I read the other day contained two instances where the  (blazingly, especially for an old English major like me ) incorrect wording "could of" and "would of" were used . I complimented the "poet" on their usage of metaphor, and mentioned the excellent flow of the words, etc. etc. And I told them that they should correct the possessives.

    "I can't find anything wrong" was the reply I got back. "It works for me." (I sent a link to one of the "common misuse" sites with the page relating the mistake.

    I can still "diagram" a sentence, and put the little "strophe" marks on lines of poetry. Years of learning grammar have never really left me.That said, I love to learn something new every day.

    I had to chuckle reading the above quote about how a painter and composer has to study but a would be writer just thinks that by penning a few words he's got a new career. (my own paraphrasing.)

    The internet is a great "place" but someone puts a few of their cellphone pics online and suddenly they're a "photographer" who doesn't know an fstop from a filter. So many internet "writers" mix their tenses that I cringe every time I see this "practice" in place. (One told me in reply to my comment about this that "my teacher tells me this all the time...") Anyone with an opinion, (and we all know those are as abundant as a certain body part we all possess) can write a blog and become a pundit and journalist.

    But after the smoke clears, and the internet sites are erased, and the bad writers go to bad writer's heaven. (or is that purgatory?) True literature will exist, and be cataloged, as sure as it has been since the first true "writer" put stylus to a pad of clay.

    Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

    (I've been on "hiatus so long, I'm "bleeding" words.)

Comments are closed.

Post a Comment