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After joining the Newsvine Summer Writer's Club, my mind was filled with words, thoughts, ideas, re-forming old ideas and making new ones from the old. Viki's Club again stirred that writing muse that really bites at me now. So, is this a project for me, a challenge, a whim or fancy, something to add to my repetoire or is it more?
When I was young, a stub of pencil and a blue lined notebook were like Christmas gifts for me. We had very little to amuse ourselves as children back then, but if I could sit down at the aluminum and formica table in the kitchen and write a story, I was happy and with-in a world of my own choosing. I spent rainy hours, nights and mornings sitting at that table teaching myself how to write stories, poems and plots. Then I discovered drawing and painting and soon lost time to even write a short poem. I was hooked on the visual world and it took me, and shook me and created the life I soon followed. I have not looked back since I made my choice and followed that path.
I have always combined the two art forms I dabble with, I write thoughts, ideas for paintings, sketch out diagrams with very descriptive notes and I would even sit and try automatic writing once in a while (which is not as easy as it would seem). Words and images are the two things that we use to develop understand, survival techniques, lessons are learned and new thoughts arrise, life goes on and we watch and record. Since all humans do this, I wonder if it is a need for all humans to try and do this, record thoughts, write words, paint pictures and carve sculptures to form images and thoughts for others to see. What makes us do this?
I cannot wait to see and read the other members work, this interchange and sharing is so important for us all. It gives us 'other eyes' that analyze different things than our eyes do. That is so re-freshing and 'eye opening' that the discovery process becomes exilerating. But there is a small aspect to this I would like to bring up, Critical analysis or Critiques from others. Critiscism and critical analysis is not easy. we all know we are our own worst critics, it is our nature to do that I think. As an art teacher, this has been the rockiest road I traveled on, art is personal, so personal that people get emotional about it.
Learning to critique another person's work is very tricky so I wanted to mention this and suggest we think about this issue. Good insight is important for us so we can develop our skills of communication. We want others to enjoy our work so outside critique is important then. So here are some ideas I use when I have to critique another person's work.
1. Try to be objective when writing a critical analysis of the art. Be clear with your thoughts and talk about what is working first. Build the positive first. Show how some parts may not be helping the stronger parts. The idea is to talk about the whole of the work while looking at the pieces.
2. When trying to point out a structural problem give a good example to show the artist or writer what you mean. Example- "Your descriptive words do not seem to make your character a likable fellow, Is that what you are going for?"
3. If you ask a question after your statement you then engage them in dialogue. This is the most important part of the critique, you are creating dialogue, that is where the analysis comes into play, it is not just criticism you are doing, you are creating dialogue.
4. Be less forceful in your thoughts, instead of just saying "this doesn't work right", say something like "What if you tried it this way", this again is engagment and not forceful submission for either party.
5. Both sides are trying to communcate so in order for that to go well we need to think about what is being said, take the time to really do that. Time is an important factor and we do have that here more than a face to face critique. If you want to critique a work don't just read and start picking it apart, take your time, read it, walk away and think, read it again and see if you still feel the same way about it, then write your thoughts. All art is not fast food, it is a gourmet dinner with courses to digest, take your time, have a glass of wine and think about it more. :)
One of the projects I want to do is combine my writing with my photo images. I want to create a specific image for each written piece. See what you got started Viki! LOL
Ghost fish words
go swimming through the trees
they branch out
and about
and I see the writing in the leaves
Cryptic calligraphy
gossamer weaves.
Joining Newsvine has opened up my writing demon again. It is not just a whim or fancy for me, it is another art form to play with, to delve into the world and my mind. I hope to meet many more and new writers here this summer. Happy Summer Of Writing gang.
