The Mind of a Struggling Writer

My cousin posted this picture on Facebook where she drove by my grandparents' house. They passed away  about 20 or so years ago. The picture reminded me of a piece I wrote for a creative writing class I did in high school. My Grandparents’ House It was a place Of fun and joy Where I would run and play When I was a small boy. The smell of cedar And the aroma of honeysuckle. Old abandoned chicken coops Telling stories of games Of hide and seek. Long walks along the railroad tracks. Wet kisses on the cheek And “My how you’ve grown”. But now those halls are empty My grandparents are gone. No more games at the coops. No more playing in the field. But as I stand outside the house, White paint reflecting the summer sun, The wind picks up And the smell of cedar and honeysuckle Fills my nostrils. Tears well in my eyes, And a smile crosses my face.

It's an old sayings that has been drilled into students minds for years. Good writers read all the time. It sounds pretty arbitrary at first, but there is truly a ring of truth to it. There are several great reasons that reading helps in the creative process of being a good writer. First of all, you have to be able to do research on what you are writing. Even if it is a work of fiction, you want to make sure it is believable. If you are writing a historical novel, you should know the politics and culture of the time period to make it more believable. If you are writing a science fiction story on time travel, a basic idea of quantum mechanics is a good idea. And if you are writing a story based in a real location you should know something about the environment and geography about the area. Secondly, reading will make you a better writer by expanding your vocabulary and the way you write. You favorite authors style and sentence structure may influence the way you form your writin...

I love Shakespeare. Some of my favorite courses in college were English and theatre courses that required us to read and see Shakespeare's plays. Hell, I even wrote my graduate paper on three film versions of Hamlet . One thing I always love is when you see a director take one of the plays and reinterpret them. Setting Hamlet in a more modern time and place like Kenneth Branaugh (or the one with Ethan Hawke set in New York City , but that version sucked) brought a whole new perspective to the play. And while we're on the subject of Hamlet , the Lion King . Read the play and then follow the plot of the movie. Mind-blowing. Another thing I love is when non-English speaking directors take a stab at the plays. The famed Japanese director Kurosawa did probably the greatest reinvention of Macbeth when he did Throne of Blood and changed to setting to feudal Japan. The fact that he could take such traditional Japanese theatre troupes and make them fit with a 500 year old English ...

I'm a very big fan of George R.R. Martin. I read A Game of Thrones back in 1998 and have been a loyal reader of his books ever since. The entire series is so well written and has taken the fantasy genre into directions that had not really been done before. His need to make his world have a sense of realism--no fairies or elves in this world, just the occasional dragon--truly drew readers including myself into his world. With the HBO series, he has gained many new fans and readers. Sadly some of his decisions in where the story has gone so far has cost him readers and viewers.  Events that have happened to fan favorites, especially the Stark family, have caused some fans to express anger and outrage. Some fans have stated they won't watch the show anymore, nor read the books. Last night's episode which depicted the tragic Red Wedding is a prime example. I remember year ago reading that scene for the first time. I knew that Walder Frey would try to get some kind of reveng...