Do you have to lead an exciting life to be a good writer?

Typical! I'm trying to say something intelligent and you guys look only at that woman's ass...I have to change my sig pic!

 

LOL Don't take it bad, Justyna. It's a nice ass. A bit distracting, that's all

 

i think it would help to have experiences. as it has been said, "write what you know". however sometimes just leading a boring life as someone previously mention can become a great read because of the imagination the person wrote in the novel. so either way, it depends on the talent and the practice and the ability to truly capture the reader's attention.

 

Very well said. Well done. I once interviewed a political prisoner who was jailed in solitary confinement for 16 years. The only way he could keep sane was by creating a world inside his head and filling it with characters, good and bad. These characters became so real to him that they kept him company until the day the white door opened and he embraced daylight again. Although this man had been unavoidably damaged, when I saw him his eyes had laugh lines around them. They shut him away for 16 years and the crazy bastard went and created his own world where he was god. So while miserable guards went home to boring mundane lives, he was creating marble palaces with solid gold furniture. Worlds that they weren't privy. That's when I understood his laugh lines. He was laughing because he saw "them" as the prisoners. They weren't privy to his world. Although he will remain nameless for as long as I live, this person was my single greatest influence to become a writer. No, you don't necessarily need a wild life to write. You don't really need anything apart from true love for what you are doing.

 

Amen to that! =) ^

 

i don't think so, if you're educated e.g read a lot of books, you can gain life experience from them, or if you have a wild imagination, or can percieve life around you in an insightful way, then you can be a great writer, i thinks anyway =)

 

WS, dude are you saying you'd dip your cock in this womans ass?

 

I find women who read very sexy:drool:

 

It would be like a bee trying to hump a hippo

 

LOL. Bees and scorpions do have something in common I suppose: a sting

I just realized something. The title of the thread is misleading. You don't have to "lead" nothing, and you don't have to be "led" either.

Look at life around you. read. Feel. Laugh Cry Like Love Hate Worship Envy Do read Fight Argue Apologize Regret
read
Fumble Acknowledge Appreciate
Fondle Grope Caress
read
Smell See Taste read read read
Swim Run Jump Sleep Dream Wake read Dine Drink Assume Learn Teach read
Remember
Forget
Live
read
WRITE

Die

 

Well I don't think you'd HAVE to have a very exciting life...
You could sit at home all day writing books about the things you COULD be doing!

But personally I think it's more fun to live an exciting life and then write about it later on.. either keep a diary or write about it all when you're old.

 

The life of a writer isn't very exciting when you think about it - lots of isolation and hours spent wondering what words to use. Joyce used to spend weeks on word order alone. Plus, A life that's too exciting would inhibit the activity of writing altogether. You need to have a lot of time, especially if you want to make a living at it, which seems almost impossible these days anyway. A recent literary survey I read said that the average writer (and this includes everyone) makes about $3,000 a year. Very very few people make millions. The vast majority of people who write don't see a penny for their efforts. Sad, really. But it shouldn't be all about money. Anyway, live fully, write when you have time.

 

A big welcome to writers forum to -Bev- and ewomack.

It sounds like a good idea, -Bev-. If you have any samples of writing, or would like to experiment with it, feel free to contribute here. We tend to be tough critics, but we also help people become good writers in a very short space of time.

Not necessarilly, ewomack. Although you are correct about Joyce, you musn't forget that there are many different forms of writing. Even if you look in this forum, and read Dirty Dog's writing on climbing deadly mountain peaks, you will realize that a writer's life can be a resourceful treasure chest. For example, I don't think that we could have written a similar article as dd with the same conviction that he did. There have been other major writers like Joyce in the past who did not live sheltered lives either. Dostoyevski was a prime example; Arthur Conan Doyle is another, and let us not forget Hemmingway.

Rather than categorize all writers in a binary list of options, however, we have to realize that writing is an art form. As Sentient has often said in this forum, it helps greatly if you are naturally gifted at the art, otherwise if you love your art then hard work, and perseverence, will eventually give you the boost you seek.

I couldn't agree with you more, Ewomack. You are absolutely right. If someone is going to depend solely on any art as a food provider then it is highly likely that someone will starve. Making a financial success from writing depends on many factors,which don't necessarilly mean that the writer is a particularly good one. The most obvious being, "who" you know, as in every business. It also depends on personality, whether the writer is ambitious, pushy, charming, witty, convincing, has a market-awareness, or even if the publisher just fancies the writer. Somewhere down the list of requirements the quality of the writer's work also plays a role in whether he/she is succesful.

I like what you said: "Live fully, write when you have time."

 

Sith sith sith, wherefore art thou sith oh sith of dig it all meltdour
ah the days back in the day when chuck norris ruled

 

Now if Chuck can be a great writer then there's hope for all of us.

 

Hemingway actually drove his ambulance in WWI in Italy. That was the source of his material for Farewell to Arms. However his journalistic work did have him covering the Normandy invasion and the battle for France (1944, not 1940). One piece of advice Hemingway gave to someone asking him about writing was, "Write what you know."



As for Jack London, let me quote from a biography by Clarice Stasz:

As an adolescent, the boy adopted the name of Jack. He worked at various hard labor jobs, pirated for oysters on San Francisco Bay, served on a fish patrol to capture poachers, sailed the Pacific on a sealing ship, joined Kelly's Army of unemployed working men, hoboed around the country, and returned to attend high school at age 19. In the process, he became acquainted with socialism and was known as the Boy Socialist of Oakland for his street corner oratory. He would run unsuccessfully several times on the socialist ticket as mayor. Always a prolific reader, he consciously chose to become a writer to escape from the horrific prospects of life as a factory worker. He studied other writers and began to submit stories, jokes, and poems to various publications, mostly without success.


Spending the winter of 1897 in the Yukon provided the metaphorical gold for his first stories, which he began publishing in the Overland Monthly in 1899. From that point he was a highly disciplined writer, who would produce over fifty volumes of stories, novels, and political essays. Although The Call of the Wild (1903) brought him lasting fame, many of his short stories deserve to be called classics, as does his critique of capitalism and poverty in The People of the Abyss (1903), and his stark discussion of alcoholism in John Barleycorn (1913). London's long voyage (1907-09) across the Pacific in a small boat provided material for books and stories about Polynesian and Melanesian cultures. He was instrumental in breaking the taboo over leprosy and popularizing Hawaii as a tourist spot. London was among the most publicized figures of his day, and he used this pulpit to endorse his support of socialism, women's suffrage, and eventually, prohibition. He was among the first writers to work with the movie industry, and saw a number of his novels made into films. His novel The Sea-Wolf became the basis for the first full-length American movie.

​

That's not exactly spending most of your time in libraries.
My own short stories here ('Anacapa' and 'Trouble', fiction, and 'Rolling the Dice on Assiniboine', nonfiction) are a mix of mostly imagination in the fictional pieces and fact and reflection in the nonfiction. Although I have never been to Anacapa Island, I have camped on a more or less solitary basis for several days each on nearly Santa Catalina and Santa Cruz Islands. The insatiable, sexy lighthouse keeper is, unfortunately, a product of my imagination.

Write what you know.

 

I think its better to live a life thats as exciting as possible half the time and then packed with mental creativity and contemplation the other half

 

Live a life of change, adventure, risks, and while reading and seeing movies till you're 50 then after that write about what you experienced.

Personally I would want to hear or read the personal unusual stories of a complete illiterate person, than the imaginings of a well-stylized calloused- ass librarian.

 

no

 

I make bet with people at work that this is the Frodo Baggins from that stupid English shit film with fayries.