How Do You Feel About My Stories?

[RikAllen]

I'm not trying to advocate against inspiration and the genesis of ideas. What I am opposed to (and I admit that I rather jumped the gun on this one) is the notion that a lack of planning creates purity.

It's a Pavlovian reaction in me, because I see it in every single medium. Filmmaking, music, comedy, you name it. There's always a group of people that shun learning the intricacies of the craft and planning things out because they think that half-assing everything is somehow a more pure and thus better approach.

I see it in the guitarists who refuse to learn music theory, I see it in the filmmakers who refuse to script dialog, in the writers who think Jack Kerouac's trance writing is the end-all of literature, and in the magicians who totally improvise their performances and suck as a result.

Again, it's a Pavlovian reaction, and I apologize for the hasty judgment. I just hope you understand where I'm coming from.

I not only see where you're coming from, I agree with you.

You're not able to just jump in and write good stories from anywhere, same with comedy, magic and anything else ever. You can learn grammar by writing bad essays and letting people tell you what is wrong or you can study it long and hard before you ever write.

Apology accepted, my comment about being insulted was sarcasm anyway, as often as I've seen you ask people for proof and them not give it to you...I don't blame you for thinking any different about me.

You have to learn the rules of your trade before you're allowed to even think you can break them. A deep understanding of something allows room for trying something else, even if it breaks conventional wisdom in half.

-Rik

Oh, and there are too many bad writers in the world who think they are the next bestselling author. It's okay to tell a kid his bad drawing is fantastic, it's wrong to tell an adult their horrible artwork is even remotely good. And yet family and friends still blind people into thinking they're awesome at what they do.