01-25-2013, 11:28 PM
What do you think is important in the process of becoming a writer?
An education? What kind of degree? A degree at all? Any books?
the writers’ and artists’ yearbook 2013 is a useful book, I suppose.
I have always thought a degree in English philology would be useful (I may even go back to university this year to study just that) – however, degrees and such in writing obviously help, if only to save time. But there are always exceptions, and possibly many exceptions (music, for example, would be a case where the number of exceptions negate the rule (or the exception becomes the rule, or what ever…)
What kind of experience do you feel is needed to write?
I suspect, as much as you can get.
What kind of writing jobs have you had?
How did you get your first job?
I haven’t had a writing ‘job’ as it were. That is, I have never ‘worked’ as a writer. However, I do occasionally write for philosophical journals, books and magazines. And how? Well, the first thing I wrote for a philosophy book I was actually approached. Someone was writing a book on teaching philosophy and I was asked to write an introduction (possibly for want of alternatives). Anyhow, sometimes it’s not what you know but… [oh dear, sorry]
How did you start out writing?
with a pen and paper [ba-dum]…
Can you remember the poem, story and/or film that helped you fall in love with writing?
I think I was about 12 or 13 maybe younger, I watched a film called ‘the fly’ (not the original, the other one with jeff goldblum) anyhow, I remember the word synthetic was used and for some strange unknow reason I just thought, ‘oh that’s a good word, how can I use it?’ so I wrote my first poem… (oh my, I think I can just about remember the first lines… something like… no no, too embarrassing.)
anyhow, I went out and bought a book of Dylan Thomas poems and came to ‘altarwise by owl-light’, and thought, ‘fuck, I want to do that’ (his poems are like these physical things, these fat, thick, heavy things [much like Bacons paintings are in art]…)
If you have been published, what did it feel like to be published for the first time?
the first time was a poem I wrote, I was about 16 or 17. I was really happy. I mean, really it gives you this little rush. Unfortunately when I actually received the finished book I was in bad shape, so it wasn’t the big moment I had hoped for.
How do you feel an aspiring writer should go about becoming a writer?
Keep writing, get good. I don’t know.
An education? What kind of degree? A degree at all? Any books?
the writers’ and artists’ yearbook 2013 is a useful book, I suppose.
I have always thought a degree in English philology would be useful (I may even go back to university this year to study just that) – however, degrees and such in writing obviously help, if only to save time. But there are always exceptions, and possibly many exceptions (music, for example, would be a case where the number of exceptions negate the rule (or the exception becomes the rule, or what ever…)
What kind of experience do you feel is needed to write?
I suspect, as much as you can get.
What kind of writing jobs have you had?
How did you get your first job?
I haven’t had a writing ‘job’ as it were. That is, I have never ‘worked’ as a writer. However, I do occasionally write for philosophical journals, books and magazines. And how? Well, the first thing I wrote for a philosophy book I was actually approached. Someone was writing a book on teaching philosophy and I was asked to write an introduction (possibly for want of alternatives). Anyhow, sometimes it’s not what you know but… [oh dear, sorry]
How did you start out writing?
with a pen and paper [ba-dum]…
Can you remember the poem, story and/or film that helped you fall in love with writing?
I think I was about 12 or 13 maybe younger, I watched a film called ‘the fly’ (not the original, the other one with jeff goldblum) anyhow, I remember the word synthetic was used and for some strange unknow reason I just thought, ‘oh that’s a good word, how can I use it?’ so I wrote my first poem… (oh my, I think I can just about remember the first lines… something like… no no, too embarrassing.)
anyhow, I went out and bought a book of Dylan Thomas poems and came to ‘altarwise by owl-light’, and thought, ‘fuck, I want to do that’ (his poems are like these physical things, these fat, thick, heavy things [much like Bacons paintings are in art]…)
If you have been published, what did it feel like to be published for the first time?
the first time was a poem I wrote, I was about 16 or 17. I was really happy. I mean, really it gives you this little rush. Unfortunately when I actually received the finished book I was in bad shape, so it wasn’t the big moment I had hoped for.
How do you feel an aspiring writer should go about becoming a writer?
Keep writing, get good. I don’t know.