Adventure Bike Rider

Jim Lovell wrote:


Anything that makes me have a reaction. It doesn't matter if I agree with the author or not as long as the words on the paper stir me in some way. The best writers will make you laugh, cry, feel angry, happy and sad, though maybe not all at the same time. The alternative is reading wallpaper.

As with anything Jim, the way to get better is to practice, you could start by sending in a 1500 word feature on your trip to the Pyrenees. It also helps if you read and study the best writers; I'm currently reading Solar by Ian McEwan; it's a masterpiece. As are most books by Tom Wolfe, Sebastian Faulks and Jonathan Franzen to name a few. I also find the Sunday Sport helps with wordcraft.

Alun wrote:


Not the word begining with w that springs to mind as regards the Sprot .... i'll get me coat...

Alun wrote:



My English teacher at school gave us a list of about 100 "quality" books and told us to read one a week! As it was a long time ago most of the authors were people like Dickens, Conrad, Brontes etc and one a week was perhaps a little err... ambitious (I started War and Peace then and haven't finished it yet ) but it kickstarted a lifelong habit and I've been reading "high end" ever since. Some of the stuff is hard work and some just joyful - I read "Birdsong" a year or so ago and it was unputdownable. "Possession" by A.S.Byatt took over my life for a couple of weeks when I read it 10yrs ago! Writing like that just makes me despair though when I realise the gap between what I can do and what has come from their minds. And don't get me started on poetry (or even its poor country cousin, songwriting). The concepts, conceits and connections in something like "Paradise Lost" are just beyond what I can imagine nevermind attempt and even at a more humble level, if you want to know how to draw emotions in the air study the lyrics of early Joni Mitchell songs.

Maybe it's the circles I move in but getting into print seems to be something a lot of people I know are doing at the moment. One of my wife's cousins has just had his first book published, the tale of a commuter going off the rails (literally) written as an epic poem. Well worth the 1p you can get it for on Amazon The Commuter's Tale. If enough of you buy it I might get a better bottle of booze from him at Xmas

There is one thing that has always stuck in my mind as regards a tip for any writing on any subject ... and it's write a page about it ... then get it down to a paragraph ... then to a sentence... then if possible a word. It's all about getting an amorphous concept into a shape that can be recognised. Will Self uses this process and it works for him for novels , journalism and his psycho-geography ramblings ( which is the bit I like most... )

And write how you normally communicate... which in my case is full of pauses... as my mind wanders off on random tangents

backofbeyond wrote:


Just ordered it - £0.01p is too good to miss (it must be being delivered by a supermodel since its costing £2.80 for delivery).

scouse wrote:



That's it! That's my problem. My concepts always stay amorphous. Now what was I going to say ....

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas, I'm just catching up with the thread now. Been working nights...

just been reading this before i came on the forum, matches perfectly, even if it is from the Guardian.
www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/sep/23/tr...g-tips-expert-advice

Hope it helps!