~Charles Baudelaire
I'm so screwed.
It took a long time for me to get to the point where I call myself a writer. Even so, I don't tend to believe it. I don't know why I feel as though I must have a book published already in order to truly be a writer.
I don't mind other titles. I treat art as a hobby and yet I'm artist. I haven't taken a real dance class in a decade and yet I'm a dancer. I've only sung at church related activities and I'm a singer. Ok, that feels a bit false too, but I have less problem calling myself a singer than a writer. I have a degree in creative writing, for crying out loud. It shouldn't be so hard.
I've been working on it lately. I call myself a writer even though it doesn't feel quite right.
On the other hand, one thing I'm certain of, I will never call myself a poet.
It's not because I'm modest. It's because I suck as a poet. Seriously. It is the one type of writing that I seem to have zero aptitude for.
I find poetry beautiful.
I love:
Langston Hughes
Robert Frost
Emily Dickinson
William Carlos Williams
Gwendolyn Brooks
T. S. Eliot
to name just a handful.
I've spent more time in creative writing classes studying poetry than anything else, from middle school through college, and yet it eludes me.
I think it's because I'm too impatient. Poetry is like oil paint. Takes way too long to dry. I'm an acrylic girl myself.
I'm hoping that patience will suddenly kick in right around middle age (I'm getting there. *gulp*) and I'll miraculously discover a latent talent for poetry. It could happen, right?
In the meantime I'll have to stick to admiring poetry written by people with actual skill.
Here's one of my favorites:
Harlem [Dream Deferred]
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore --
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over --
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
~Langston Hughes.
Gross, yet beautiful.
Do any of you writers suck at an entire branch of creative writing like I do? Maybe you stink at screenwriting? Playwriting? Short stories? Please help to build me up by knocking yourselves down. ;-)
3 comments:
Urgh I wrote something and then realized I couldn't post it as a goggle account entry so I couldn't get it back.
Anyway, we all know I can't plan anything which makes for crap novel writing, does that help? :-)
Poetry--hard to believe it's how I started and that it's been years since I penned anything decent. My fav was the one I gave Carrie for her wedding and now she is the only one with a copy as I had no printer at the time I switched to a new computer. Kind of ironic given the state of things there. I shall have to have Mom liberate it and scan me a copy:-)
Wish I was better at the screenwriting, maybe if I actually tried, I would enjoy it minus the formating issues. I know I enjoyed the course, but I forget most of the basics, for some reason, they just didn't stick I'd have to start from scratch.
I've taken to calling myself a writer now too. I told people I would be blogging about my experiences, that's a job so yeah, enjoy the writer status, why not?
Liked the gross poem too!
Got an open ID error when I tried to put my name in...
I believe there is free screenwriting software out there, so if you ever wanted to try your hand at it again without worrying about format... I used to be able to write a correctly formatted screenplay on Word, no fancy software to do the formatting for me, but the last couple of screenwriting classes that I took were Final Draft software only, so now I've forgotten. Really, all you need to know is that dialogue goes here, description of setting and action goes here, etc.
Post a Comment