A high school English teacher told me she used my post “Creating Crowds” to represent non-clichéd metaphors and similes. This made me as happy as a clam thinking that life was indeed like a box of chocolates.
Actually, once I got over the cheesy jokes and compulsion to check my blog for clichés, I was pretty chuffed. Since my primary goal is to encourage primary school children to write, not teach high school students how to write, this new aspect got me thinking [yes, that's what that noise is].
My view way back when as a media uni student was that one can never teach another how to write. It’s just something within you like a melodic voice or irritable bowel syndrome.
At a “How to be a great author” session at the Sydney Writer’s Centre, the tutor advised to read books of greater authors and steal plagiarise use their techniques. FYI I’m still waiting for my 2007 project entitled “The Twin Towns’ Story” to be picked up by my publishers. With an original opening line with “it was a fine time, it was a bad time” how could it not bode well with the publishers?
This piece of questionable advice further cemented my thoughts that it is difficult to teach people how to write and own their own voice. Makes me reminiscent of Lelaina Pierce‘s definition of irony: “Well, I can’t really define irony. But I know it when I see it.” I wouldn’t be able to teach these high school kids how not to write clichéd pieces, but I do know a piece of crap when I see it. [What's that about positive reinforcement being important to a child's development?] Yeah, Reality Bites, kids…hard.
Most of the 9 y/o kids I meet on my book tours are already confident in their writing, and I haven’t been asked the “how’s” of writing yet. I doubt I will, as I’ve said before, the writer’s ego is found as soon as the talent, which can be as young as six. The “how” questions posed to me are more “how to get published in the easiest and fastest way possible?” and “how do I convince others I am a great writer with minimal effort?” Answer to both: blog. In the Kingdom of Opinions of the Country of Blogging, all are welcome and all are correct. Why do you think *I* blog?
For now, I can “borrow” the Sydney Writer’s Centre’s easy-way-out techniques of letting others, like that kind English teacher bless her poor wretched soul, break ground with teaching others “how to write” – and I’ll just plagiaritically ride on their coattails.
No need to use Dan Brown's techniques, he plagiarises himself, all his books are the same. 1. Enter scene of suave academic male 2. Said suave academic falls in love with taut, trim, sexy scientist lady 3. World is on the brink of destruction 4. Suave academic and sexy scientist save it. 5. Said suave academic and sexy scientist fall in love etc etc. 6. Reader gouges eyes out, slit wrists etc etc.
