The lovely Corrine Jackson, a very talented writer had this awesome idea for a blog series. There are nine of us participating and everyone who reads our blogs can join in the fun. Each Thursday in March we will be blogging on a different topic in the series: How Writers Do It: A Writing Process Series. All you, my totally cool readers, have to do is go to Cory's blog and follow the links to the other blogs and put your own link in the comments. Now you may wonder what you will get for doing this, well along with the sparkliness of participating and getting a blog post up, you also have the chance to WIN books. What could be better than winning books?!? Books are better than food, sleep and, well you get my meaning ;)
So off to today's topic - Writers as Artists.
The writing book I will be using is Sol Stein’s, Stein on Writing. Unfortunately, that book is not in my hands at this moment in time so I can't actually quote from the book, but I can definitely give my thoughts on this topic.
When I first saw this topic I had to think for a long while. My husband majored in Art in college and has some great work. My artistic talents went along the lines of throwing pots and oil painting. We are also both musicians, so the whole artist thing really runs in our blood. All of our kids have raw talent too. However, I had never considered my writing as a form of art. Of course there is a lot of art I look at and don't really consider it art, but that is beside the point.
Are writers artists? I consider artists creative. Are writer's creative? Yes. Artists also create something that evokes emotion. Do writer's evoke emotion? Yes. How many of us, as writers, take something completely abstract, from our imaginations, and create something concrete? We create worlds where no one has been, characters no one has met and we put that into a form others can lose themselves in. When I look at a painting or a sculpture or even listen to a beautiful piece of music, I lose myself. The stresses of every day seem to fade away and I can appreciate what I'm seeing or hearing. When I pick up a good book the same thing happens, I go into a world the writer created and can forget my problems and relax.
I believe writers are artists. We create imagery with our words and we evoke emotion with stories. We do everything a good artist does in a form that will last for a long time. In conclusion, next time you pick up a book and read beautiful prose, want to get up and start punching from the kick-ass action scene, or want to yell at the author for killing your favorite character, think of the art which that good book displays.
Now, go and read these awesome blogs below, post your own thoughts on your blog and don't forget to put your link on Cory's blog for a chance to win! I can't wait to read your thoughts :-)
Cory Jackson
Kate Hart
Jamie Blair
Laura McMeeking
Debra Driza
Stephanie Jenkins
Leila Austin
Sarah Harian
Nice post Jenn. It's funny how other people's secret talents are coming out. I'm jealous that you can throw pots-- I may or may not have dropped out of pottery in college to avoid a C. LOL
ReplyDeleteIt’s interesting that my author says that a novel that “others can lose themselves in” is typical of genre novel and NOT art. I couldn’t disagree more. Like you, I believe that the ability to create the world that people lose themselves in is innate to an artist, whether it’s the landscape of a painting or the world in a novel.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Kate--I'm totally envious of everyone's secret talents! I do draw a pretty mean stick figure though--take that! :)
ReplyDeleteI *love* Stein's book so much, and for some reason, my library no longer carries it! I think you can still order it, though, and I plan to, bc I just really clicked with the way he presented the info. I could tell just from his book that he was someone I would have loved to have met in person. I hope you find your copy soon!
Jenn, I think we might be thinking twins! I'm totally with you on evoking emotion and being about to lose yourself in something. That was one of the surprising things from Cory's post, and, like her, I couldn't have disagreed with the author she chose more! Can't wait to see what you have to say next week!
ReplyDeleteSo, when you said you throw pots, is it bad that I thought of you in your kitchen heaving your pots and pans at the walls? Yeah, probably bad. Anyway, great post!!
ReplyDeleteI like your point. It's interesting how things like music and painting are automatically art to most of us, but not writing, even though good writing very much is art as well.
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