The Word Cloud

6 Comments

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  by Wrathnar the Unreasonable 1 year ago

  I think any creative person (writer, artist or musician) has to be willing to bare their soul in order to do anything worthwhile. How ever much you fictionalise things, it still gives away a lot about you. As long as you're unafraid of other people's disapproval, it shouldn't be a problem.
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  by Babblefish 1 year ago

  I would suspect that it is physically impossible to write anything of any value without in some way "selling your soul". It is the nature of all art forms, of every creative endeavour to place a little piece of yourself into what you create. How much you place is up to you.
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  by Gerilyn 1 year ago

  Well, I personally think bareing your soul and selling it are two different things. I probaby bare a bit of my soul- as do most writers- in my stories, but then there are the authors who sell theirs and the one who springsto mind is 'belle de jour' aka 'Confessions of a call girl.' you know the one that got made into a series that Billy Piper starred in. I am not a prude by any means- yet i thought that the Author (who had remained anon for all the books until earlier this year) had sensationalised her experiences as a prostitute to sell her books. A friend lent me them and I thought they'd be fun to read. But then knowing they were actual accounts of what one women got up to after moving to London to be a call girl made them quite uncomfortable rto read. saying that- i still read both books just to make sure that i was fully appaled by her antics!!
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  by MarkR 1 year ago

  Ever heard the advice 'write what you know'? I think to a large extent we all do and in that sense, every page is an exposure of the author. Depending on the source of the inspiration, we can choose to dramatise, exaggerate or under-play to suit ourselves. And we can choose to either own up that it was us all along that had our hearts broken/blubbed with happiness or claim the use of poetic licence. There are a lot of harrowing memoirs/autobiographies out there that have had a huge audience - a much harder sell than through a fictional character.
  
  I think there is a vulnerability in sharing deeply personal thoughts and emotions - even through fiction. I think it can be uncomfortable and the disapproval of others can really hurt but...I don't think the author's choice is entirely a conscious one. There's more of me in my novel's central character than I'd intended or that I'll ever admit publically. It gives it a certain personal authenticity (nb. this is not to say anyone else will want to read it), but most people (even most who know me) wouldn't guess enough to even ask the question.
  
  Even if you can't stop it, it takes courage to put yourself in your stories for subjective assessment. You have courage, you re-posted this blog. Perhaps the more you do it, the more impervious to disapproval you become.
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  by Green polka 1 year ago

  I know you are all right, however it doesn’t make my pending exposure less daunting, sorry. I suppose there is still a part of me that dreads the inevitable criticism, and not for the obvious reasons, an agonisingly slow plot, grammar depicting a 5th grader or weak characters, but rather the judgement. I am a very private writer, letting no one into my little world of fantasy and impossible reality. As a result I have pushed myself to work on something infinitely more personal, and it is the best writing I’ve done, I am sure because it is real, just in a different jacket.
  
  Word Cloud has been great, revealing all the fearless writers of the world, this gives me the courage to be proud of what I’m doing and hopefully the sustenance to actually finish this WIP.
  
  Babblefish: my other past time (and don’t laugh!) is making quilts. (Jaxx poem blogged yesterday was particularly pertinent to me), but I suppose a story is its own type of quilt.
  
  Gerilyn: I must say, I don’t think I could ever be brazen enough to tell ‘my story’, without hiding it behind some awesome, superhero type chick and a plot thick with suspense and intrigue. No way am I that interesting!
  
  ‘Write what you know’, definitely, a fake is obvious a mile away.
  
  Sorry, didn’t mean to blog it twice, my suspect skills got the better of me.
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  by maryluv 1 year ago

  Good writing has integrity. Integrity is bound in honesty. Be true to yourself and your values, then your writing will resonate with others. You don't have to give away too many personal details if you don't wish to. I watched the 'Secret Diary of a Call Girl' on tv, Gerilyn and thought that the first series had the ring of truth about it, but after that it just turned into titillation.