Re: Re : Here's what you do ...

darren@ns.daknet.com
Sun, 19 Apr 1998 12:46:06 

At 12:37 AM 4/20/98 +0000, you wrote:
>> Am I making sense here?  Is my parallel too far-fetched?  I can't
>> see how learning your own craft could possibly hurt it.  At the
>> worst, we end up with a lot of technically good writing reads cold
>> and hollow...and we have that in abundance.  I still love to read.
>
>Yes, this makes a lot of sense - it's a good analogy. For a long time 
>I got really worried about whether my writing followed the rules 
>enough. That totally drained my plays of personality and made it 
>machine like. Then I went the total opposite direction, rebelled 
>against learning anything about my craft and wrote totally rule-less, 
>directionless, unshaped plays. At the moment, I'm establishing a 
>middle ground somewhere in between. I think it's part of the learning 
>process, negotiating between content and emotion. I still do wish 
>sometimes that I knew nothing about writing - sometimes your 
>instincts are far more accurate than any textbook or writing class. 
>
>I think the best writing is `specifically universal' - i.e. we can 
>all identify with Holden's little observations whether we live in New 
>York or not. There's no real formula - I remember my father telling 
>me about when he learnt to play the guitar. He said `I could play the 
>notes perfectly. I just couldn't play *music*'. This is kind of how I 
>feel about writing - there's those who can play the notes in the 
>right order, and those who can effortlessly construct symphonies.

Hello - I'm new to the list.  My name is Darren, and I'm a novelist who
lives and works on my home reservation in South Dakota.  

Dave Foley, one of the Kids in the Hall, recently gave this advice to
aspiring sketch comedians:  "Learn as much as you can about comedy. But,
then have arrogance and contempt for all the things that you have learned.
And then in time when you've developed your own style, you can come back
around to loving things."

I think this is great advice for just about any aspiring artist.