• sweet_cookie01 said on May 22, 2007....

  i am not a writer or a freelance writer either... sorry skald cant help you in this one. Maybe moon and ed could...

• silverwhisper said on May 22, 2007....

  i took a class on creative writing in college, but it didn't really teach me very much. i've been writing in some fashion ever since elementary/primary school.
  
  ed

• secretlife said on May 22, 2007....

  yes, i took a couple of creative writing classes when i was in college.

  i've always written tho-- in one form or another, since i was a child.

• skald said on May 22, 2007....

  Sweet, Silver and Secret.  Thank you I have always been writing in some form too since I was a child. Dairies, letters and so on. Just love to write.
  
  Ed what you are saying is that you either got it or not. I am sure it is right. They can teach forms and maybe methods but then you must have the contains, your self.
  

• rupert7 said on May 22, 2007....

  I have never taken any courses.I  suppose you would have to if you want to make a living from writing. I write a few bits and pieces,just for fun,not money.All I can say is just write spontaneously from the heart and it will be natural. My post on this site,called "LIISA", is an effort at that. I could not write it very well,it really is a true story, and the emotional stress got to me. And she died over 20 years ago.Good luck and take care.

• silverwhisper said on May 22, 2007....

  skald: essentially, yes. they can teach technique until the end of days, but if there's nothing but technique, then there's nothing. just as when you take voice lessons, the technique exists to help you when your voice isn't quite 100%, right? but you already possess the talent to sing--the technique is there to help you realize the full potential of your singing voice.
  
  ed

• gingersoul said on May 22, 2007....

  Skald...... i have worked as journalist for 12 years in Italy. When i started i didn't have any preparation in that field...i learned along the way......the classic, good old way...i also held several courses for high school students about journalism and editing.....i am a freelance reporter for an online news website and my poetry has been published after winning a contest.

  I have been writing diaries, poems and short novels since i can remember. My school has been the books.....

  You end up preferring autors who talk to your heart and at the end you notice they have a similar writing style....you read them and you are drawn to write like them....its a constant battle against yourself...to write better any time....i foudn many inspirational writers along the way...

  Tecnique is something everybody can learn.....the hunger for writing must come from within.....{{{hugs}}}

   

• MissMimi said on May 22, 2007....

  I've never taken a creative writing class, beyond the usual writing classes in high school. As a matter of fact, attempting to write anything was the furthest thing from my mind. Little did I know that's what I had been doing all along. I've been writing journals, and bits of stories and dreams since I was a young girl. I like to write, but mostly I do it just for my own entertainment. Never really had aspirations of being published.

• skald said on May 22, 2007....

  Rubert7. Thank you yes it is the only way to write. You must mean every word and be sincere
  Silver.  Yes Ed i don't think you go into singing if you don't think you have some talent. The same with serous writers, mind  you I am not. But still I want to give something of me. Ed you got that something.
  Ginger.  Oh I like to hear what you say. I bet you were a very good journalist. Wining contests You are a very talented young woman. I wish I was like you. Every word you say about the technique  and the hunger to write is so right.
  MisMimi. I think you are a natural writer.
  
  {{{{{{Hugs to you all}}}}}}
  

• silverwhisper said on May 22, 2007....

  [blushes]
  
  thank you, skald.
  
  ed

• skald said on May 22, 2007....

  Ed. Don't blush. I say only what I mean. 

• thearmchairbitch said on May 22, 2007....

  I'm not a writer and have never taken any course in creative writing before. I just enjoy writing and started writing stuff only last December when I created my soulcast blog. I'm not as prolific as I wish could be due to constraints of juggling time between work and other mundane things...But here's my two-cents' worth anyway: I believe writing skills may be honed from just ordinary reading...books, magazines and your daily newspaper. 

• tbs230 said on May 22, 2007....

  Why yes. I took a Intro to Creative Writing and a African Culture class on Science Fiction. I'm planning on minoring in Creative Writing. But umm, can I actually write? I don't think so! lol.

• silverwhisper said on May 22, 2007....

  tbs, you most certainly can.
  
  ed

• clocks said on May 22, 2007....

  I enjoy writing,the only courses I have ever taken were in high school.As they all say you just have to write from the heart.There are techniques out there that I think will help my writing style.I guess you could say that there is still alot in this field for me to master. Silver and creative woman i like your style...seems it just comes natural to u.

• copsunited said on May 22, 2007....

  Yes, I also took a few classes but I do think I must have napped.

  I wrote a short story years ago that got published in Argosy Magazine..

  Long since out of print.. Lucky me..

  the one thing I did learn was that : You write about the one thing you know best.

  that is the start. It leaves you with creativity and very little research. If the story

  has merit ( a beginning and logical end) you submit what is called an "outline"

  to a magazine that features short stories or stories that are in line with the

  nature of you story.  The Editors take care of most of the rest of it IF and I repeat IF the outline presents something interesting.

  Usually the outline is accompanied by a chapter or two..or a few thou words to get the general nature and flavor of the piece.

  good Luck..JD       ° ¿ °   Me...

• billbloggit said on May 22, 2007....

  Hi Skald!  Hope this day you are well. I am a published author and I also am trying to  be a freelance writer. I am self taught. One day I decided to take on writing as a personal challange and so here I am. It was a life long goal and it does take a while to learn all the techniques if there are any. Only experience can teach you  that it is not an easy process. It is a good idea to take a course in creative writing or journalism.Had I done that I may have been published sooner. Basically, one has to put their behind in a chair and their hands on a keyboard. Then let your passion unfold.

• brokenandused said on May 22, 2007....

  I think i took a creative writting class in highschool? lol i love to write, it is my escape from this sometimes hellish world. It's my hobby. nothing more, nothing less.

• anonymous said on May 22, 2007....

  No.  I took two English Literature courses.  Can you name ten successfully published writers who graduated from college with a B.A. in English Literature?  I can't.  I write a lot of poetry. It helps to read books on poetry.  It also helps to do recitals in front of a crowd.  I'd like to get something going at the cafe I am going to work at, and have checked out this other one that is supposed to be doing something on Tuesday and Thursday nights.  Still, nothing seems to be happening when I go there.  You need to focus on writing.  Write two hours a day for three years.  Read a lot.  This will help. I find music and art inspirational.

• missunderstood1162 said on May 22, 2007....

  I took it in high school!

• skald said on May 22, 2007....

  Thearmchairbitch. Thank you for your comment. I am going to look at your blog. It's a good thing that you created your blog. Don't worry if you don't have much time to write now. One of our best lady novelists wrote at night after she had put the children to bed and that was in the days when there was much more work to be done than now . She lived in a big country home.
  TBS. No question you can write. you sure have been busy.
  Clocks.  I am certainly going to look at your blog. yes, in school we had composition we could write about what we liked and we got no tution but I always got very good marks for my writings. I did not really want to brag.
  Cops. yes that is what I think too. You write about the thing you  know best. It has to have a beginning, middle and end. No end and it is a failure. Wish I could see  your story. By the way I knew you look like this. Smile. Thanks for you comment what you said is very enlightening for me.
  Billblogqit. First of all congratulations on being a published writer. I hope you make it as a freelance too. I do appreciate that you are self taught. The best ones often are. It takes interest and talent too. That is what I always say to. Just sit your self down and start to write it comes. But if I were to write a book I think I would have to plan it a bit.  I will also look at your blog.
  Broken Same here. Writing is my hobby that is all.
  Anonymous. Poetry I got with the mother milk. We are a country of poetry or at least we were. All my life I have read. We are a nation of readers or at least we were. I am with you there music, art everything inspired me. Most of all life.
  Thank you all for the comments
  

• skald said on May 22, 2007....

  Missunderstood. Sorry  your comment came when I was writing my comment. Thank yo for telling me. i am really intereted in who took creative writing and how people here feel about writing. 

• Expendable said on May 22, 2007....

  I did take a creative writing course in England but mostly it's books or magazines I read at the library.

  I lost my books but I had plenty of paper so I started writing for me. Some of my stories I post, not often. I was in a project with some other writers where we wrote this novel but we've not been able to publish it. *sigh* So I'm still very much an amateur.

• skald said on May 22, 2007....

  Thank you Espendable. I do think it must be difficult to get a book  publiched even though I'v never tried. But good luck. 

• CreativeWoman said on May 22, 2007....

  I have taken several writing courses and have been published. 
  
  CW
  

• skald said on May 22, 2007....

  Creative. Thank you. Congratulations on having been bublished but you are also a good writer. 

• polarheart said on May 22, 2007....

  Hello Skaldikins!!  Just to say that I have not done any creative writing classes other than the ones in school.  When I was younger I loved to write poems, but since becoming a mom much of my creative skills have gone onto the back burner.  Perhaps one day I will be able to explore my creativity again :-)
   
  Your friend ((((hug)))) Polar

• CreativeWoman said on May 22, 2007....

  skald,
  Thank your for the compliment.  I love the way you write too.  I feel like I'm right there with you.
  
  CW
  

• moonriver said on May 22, 2007....

  skald -- i smiled at the term "serious writer" because i think all writers should be serious about their work, whether they plan to publish or not. re term "creative writing" -- i think all writers should look at their craft as a creative process, even if it's only a tech manual or a news story. i look at every person who knows how to say something, and put that something on paper or .doc file, as a writer. skald, the fact that you write diaries and two blogs definitely makes you an experienced writer already. practice makes perfect, and reading others is one form of "practice".
  
  i never took any formal classes on creative writing, apart from standard high school and college english. but i do read many books on writing in the various genre. most of my writing is outside soulcast, and not in the category of what others would call literary. more in the nature of socio-political tracts, journal articles, news feature stories, training modules, etc.
  
  

• rmuxagirl said on May 22, 2007....

  I did take a creative writing course in college.  It was part of my major: English Literature.  I'd like to take more and become a better writer and hopefully get something other than poetry published.

• Zayda said on May 22, 2007....

  I took a few creative writing courses in college, but honestly, I didn't get  as much out of them as I did my other writing classes. But I've been writing since I was in elementary school.
  
  Creative writing classes aren't what make someone a good writer because there are many types of writing. Creative writers don't necessarily make good journalists because the writing is different. And creative writers don't necessarily make good technical writers because, again, the writing is different.
  
  However, effective writers (those with both technique and that something else that makes effective writers) can, with work, adapt their writing from one genre or type of writing to another.
  
  I don't think you should just write about what you know best; if people only wrote about what they knew best, where would all the wonderful science fiction and fantasy literature that we have about worlds that don't exist come from or erotic novels, or many other novels? If you write about only what you can know, then as a fiction writer, you are limiting what you can write about.
  
  What makes someone a good writer is practice; the best way to improve writing and to lean more about writing is to practice the skill/art/craft of writing itself.  Yes, classes can teach you techniques; they can teach you about organization, or paragraph development, or iambic pentameter, or how to chunk information.
  
  But, as Silver noted, if there is only the technique that is good, then you really don't have anything.  For instance, I see technically proficient writing in students' placement essays (essays they write before entering the university to determine what course they will be placed in), but those essays lack "spark" or they have serious flaws in logic, which makes the essay technically proficient but ineffective.
  

• tbs230 said on May 22, 2007....

  Ed, Skald: You two are too kind. My writing is okay, but only after serious direction. I have a long way to go. But hopefully, I'll take away something from knowing so many wonderful writers here.

• Zayda said on May 22, 2007....

  TBS--Most people that are serious about their writing are their own worst critics. I've been writing for years, but not as much creative writing as other types of writing--scholarly, academic, technical, journalistic. I still think that there are many ways I could improve my writing; I suspect I will always think that.
  
  You are a good writer.
  
  

• Nowteam said on May 22, 2007....

  I have taken writing classes mostly having to do with lyric writing for songs and a few classes in creative writing. It depends on what type of writing you would like to focus on. Check out Writer's Digest or Your local college to get ideas on what direction you may want to go in. I took lesson at the Songwriter's Guild of America also....All the best! 

• tbs230 said on May 22, 2007....

  Zayda: You always know what to say to make me smile :) see?
  

• hotaka said on May 23, 2007....

  I always liked writing since I was in elementary school. I won a Burger King lunch in my class once for writing the best story. It was a Python-esque comedy, perhaps a bit advanced for my tender age of 12. The teacher, an Brit immigrant got it and liked it.

  I took creative writing in grade 12 and got an A, but really I just wrote silly nonsense, nothing I would be proud to call my most impressive work. But for some reason the teacher liked me and gave me an A.

  Writing professionally is tough. I have been submitting articles with my photos the last three years and have found some success. But when I think I am giving my best I get the article and photos returned. But two magazine editors really like what I submit so I am getting a small return for all the time and effort I put into my stuff.

  Writing well is tough. many times I wish I could make my writing sound better. Some people here on SC really impress me.

• skald said on May 23, 2007....

  Polar.  So good to see  you. I am sure that your creative skills will come back. For a while when you have a small child your creativity suffers but not for long. I think this happens to all mums. By the way I am going to post a little something for you today.
  Moonriver. Thank you. Seems to me that you are an experienced writer and in more than one field. Good point you made.
  rmuxagirl. Thanks for your comment. I hope you get something published.
  Zayda. Thanks your comment is very informative. You pointed out things to me that I did not consider before. Like writing only about what you know best. It may however be good for a beginner to do that. But of course there has to be some imagination in writings, at least in novels and such wiritnigs.
  Nowteam. Thanks a lot.
  Lucky  There is sure a whole lot of experience that you have. You must be good at it.
  Hotaka. It seems to me that most of us have that in common that we like to write. I always got good marks for my writings in school but we were not taught anything we just wrote. I still do.But I was not going to talk about me.
  You must have been a very proud little boy of 12 when you got your pirze a Burger King for the whole class. What a reward for a boy of 12.
  I do think you are a good writer and I appreciate what you say about writing professionally.  And you are so right writing well is tough.
  

• hotaka said on May 23, 2007....

  Thanks skald. But I was the only one in the class who got the free lunch. Heh, heh.

• copsunited said on May 23, 2007....

  Of course Zayda would disagree with me..stands to reason. She knows more than any professor or writing professional.

  When you start  I repeat START to write..rather that trying to stretch the boundaries write about those things you know best. Write a science fiction about Iceland etc./..that's the point. Write a historical fiction about the same thing.

  Don't assume you can just jump in and write a science fiction historical novel about the upper reaches of the Amazon. get the Picture? The Research would leave you years behind the desire to write.

  Wish others would leave the teaching to the the teachers..

  JD

• silverwhisper said on May 23, 2007....

  skald, what precisely do you want to write? i think you should figure that out first, because you don't really seem to address that at all. have a little self confidence and just write what you want. i think the most helpful thing to be a few people who can offer you feedback on your writing, b/c continually working on it will improve you, just as practicing and exercises build the strength of your voice.
  
  i've heard some very good things about stephen king's book on the subject, although i've never read it myself. has anyone else read it?
  
  hm...this gives me an idea for a blog entry.
  
  ed

• skald said on May 23, 2007....

  Hotaka
  . Free lunch why?
  Cops.Thanks if I write something I will have that in mind. I think that if I ever wrote it would be a historical novel based on my grandma or my life. But really I have not been considering it seriously.
  Silver. This was just a question out of curiosity. I don't know if I ever get around writing something but then I will use my own language which is a much better tool for me than English. Thanks for the good advise Ed. I have also thought about giving a good author my diaries to work on them. There was a period that I thought I could give people some light in to a certain thing but I really don't know any more.
  
  Thank you guys
  

• inspiration2jms said on Jul 22, 2007....

  Silver, I have read Stephen Kings, "On Writing" three times.  It is a wonderful book and one of the reasons I decided to go ahead and step out there as a freelance writer.
  
  I did not take any courses.  I did not go to school for that matter.  But, I have always had a gift of sorts with the written word.  I think it is that people like my style.  My books, whether they are novels or informational/self-help books, are literally conversations with the reader.
  

• skald said on Jul 22, 2007....

  Inspiration.  Neither did I but then I'm no writer.
  

• jawar said on Dec 28, 2007....

  I've taken English classes and have written and published several books and maintain several blogs, but still don't consider myself a serious writer as such. I write because there is a need to communicate with my audience in written form, just as I begun recording and editing my own online videos, yet I would not consider myself a professional video person.
  For more details on self-publishing your own book you'll want to visit the self-publishing site and make money self publishing. On the sites you'll find additional resources, links and videos to help you maximize your potential as a self-published author.

• skald said on Dec 29, 2007....

  Hello Jawar. thanks and welcome to my blog. You are an accomplished writer then. I just write for my  own enjoyment and I write very fast. Just as it comes out of the cow is a saying we have here. lol I will look at those links but if I ever venture to publish it will be in my own native language which is Icelandic. Icelandic is namely my tool. English is my second language as you might see. 

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