Monday, April 26, 2010

Writer's on the run...

Ps. 45: 1 My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
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Look at them go. We’re off to a running start at f2k and the writers are eager as ever, some are running the halls, posting work in the cafe, commenting in other rooms; they’re just running rampant through the halls.

Lesson two was a tough one, had a lot of people confused and bewildered with the use of the senses, but from what I read, they seemed to nail the lesson and within word count, give or take a few from other countries who don’t quite understand our American terminology for things.

Yes we have wannabe writers from across the globe! Singapore, Australia, UK, Argentina, Finland, you name it and the writers are there. I think that is what I love most about the f2k course, I get to meet, or read, people from around the world! I feel like I travel there without leaving my home by hearing them tell their tales and talk about the cuisine, or culture.

A lot of times as the weeks progress, these writer’s lose interest because they realize something, writing is hard. They thought that just because they wrote a story in grade school they were destined to be a writer. Some are trying out to see if maybe this is what has been calling them all along. Doctors, lawyers, you’d be surprised who is taking the leap from their job and trying their hand at writing.

Along the way in our six-seven week program however, they realize that writing is work. Our next lesson being point of view, what we writers call POV, will be even more challenging as the lesson before. Some will grasp it, some will shrug and learn it, some will run like wind, in the other direction, back to their day jobs.

No one alluded to the fact that writing was this easy peasy chunky cheesy kind of work, I’ve always stated that it is hard work, not something you can just ‘do’. It takes time and learning new skills will at least send you in the right direction.

When someone says, “What is a paragraph?” I tend to wonder how they ever thought that becoming a writer meant writing words or a story without knowing the simple basic element of a paragraph. It is simple to me because I’m an American, educated in grammar where some countries have more important things to teach about, and English grammar is not one of them.

I want to see all the writers succeed and helping them get there I feel is my civic duty. Okay, so it’s not my civic duty, it is my duty as a writer, to help other writers along the way become all that they can be, even if it means to teach them what a paragraph is and the purpose in a paragraph.

Write right writer’s. Have fun and enjoy the view. Writing is hard work, but work that is well worth the journey taken. 

7 comments:

Ro said...

My F2K is broken this morning! They slammed the door shut in my face and locked it up tight. Hmmm. Haha!

joni said...

A lot of times it's just a matter of cleaning out the cookies and emptying internet files.

Some, just some people, visit the place so much, that their cookies get full. We need to eat them up! lol

Let me know if you still have troubles. Write Helpdesk and maybe bob can get you back in. :)

June said...

Ro -- I hope your F2K gets fixed! :)

Joni -- You packed a lot into this post. It is a challenge for people who English is a second language to participate in a class writing fiction in English.

If I had to write in a foreign language, I would most likely be lost and can't image taking a class in a foreign language. (Of course, I happen to be language impared when it comes to other languages...)

Great thoughts and much to think about.

Take care,
June

joni said...

I would not even attempt writing in another language so I must take my hat of to that person in f2k who is Chinese and learning to write in English, fiction no less.

Thanks for visiting June! :)

Ro said...

Thanks June! It did load, not long after I commented here. The page wouldn't load at all, so help desk wasn't an option. But it's ok now. :)

joni said...

Yay! Ro is back in!!! :)

June is normally a mentor with us, she had to bow out this session. :(

She'll be back next time or I'll tickle her to bits! :)

June said...

You'd better grow long arms, Joni, to tickle me all the way from your home to mine. :)