All my posts: https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/view.php?u=zw219551
or search for 'martin cadwell -caldwell' Take note of the position of the minus sign to eliminate caldwell returns or search for 'martin cadwell blog' in your browser.
I am not on YouTube or social media
[ 3 minute read ]
Negating the Influencers
Creative Writing
The people who like your work are the one's who you impress the most. You can continue as you are and they will be your future target - market, or if you want more fame and fortune you can pick any target market and adapt your work to match what they like. Knock-backs are only knock-backs because we haven't decided what to do. We all have a natural bent towards our own style, though.
I have been spending quite a bit of time looking into the technical side of Creative Writing. But, I don't do things in a linear way and I find directed study to be a bit constraining sometimes.
I believe that Creative Writing should be freeing and I write posts on the OU blog site almost daily. A blog post is usually 'free-writing' which means that the writer can suspend a good deal of the rules and technical side of writing. It is good fun and good practice for more serious writing.
Free-writing often throws up interesting scenarios, settings, characters and relationships. I keep the bits I like and combine those chunks to build a more focused approach to creative writing. Any Tutor Marked Assignments (TMA)s, or the upcoming End of Module Assessment (EMA), gets a technically written re-write of stitched together blocks of writing and concepts that I have learned, saved and realised from both free-writing (blog posts essentially) and OU study. Technical includes proper grammar and appropriate phrasing, along with more precisely placed literary devices.
I need to be a bit ahead of The Open University Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA) requirements. To do this I have fun with loose research such as viewing videos on YouTube by voice coaches for singers for example; that way there is lots of music and interesting facts. This, currently, is so I can understand how best to write effective speech. Realistically, it takes about twenty hours to learn something that could be taught in ten minutes, but I am a strong believer in needing to be immersed in a subject in order for the subject to be suffused throughout our lives, much like I don't need to consider where to put a full stop (Am. period) in a sentence; well, I didn't, but I do now ( , ; . : ) they all have their places and they are all crucial for making a sentence sensible.
The difficult part about seeking information in one discipline for use in another is the selection and transformation of the content. However, there is some safety in cross-discipline study. If the information does not fit a paradigm it is discarded. Essentially, new information has to pass a lot of tests before it should be accepted.
The Four Pillars of Artistry (below) is something I have only just come across and I need it to explore to ascertain the efficacy of understanding it. For now, it is just a list. I will see if I can make use of it somehow.
The Four Pillars of Artistry
(according to Beth Roar)
Emotion
Technique
Creativity
Storytelling
From Beth Roar's (voice coach) video on Alison Krauss:
‘Her tone is bright, yet, it's really emotional, and she has such an interesting balance between the two pillars of technique and emotion. It's really interesting with people who lean into the technique pillar, but yet, have that emotional attunement; that emotional drive. It means that the emotion doesn't necessarily come out in a big, extravagant way, but gets moved through that technical precision, and it's transformed into something magical and beautiful. And this is what's happening here. Emotions don't need to be baked to hit you in the gut. They just need to be present and truthful.’
I firmly believe that Beth's comments apply to both singers and creative writers of stories and words, lyricists, and even comedians who write their own jokes.
Beth Roar believes that 'artists' need to understand their own strengths and weaknesses; which of the four pillars of artistry they are stronger in and weakest in and then they need to work on the weak ones. i am still unconvinced on that because I don't know enough about pillars of artistry. It is something I need to look into and find some new voices. That focused approach is very much in line with my study approach in conjunction with what the OU wants me to do.
My concern is that the more I learn about creative writing, the more I am equipped to manipulate others. The easiest way to manipulate is through other people's emotions. That is why I need to be able to understand the technical side of writing, so I can understand and control the impact I may deliberately, or inadvertently, have on others. Effectively, anything I publish, and importantly anything anyone else publishes, I need to be able to un-write, undo or negate.
I am not studying for grades, fame, accolades, or money. I am studying because I need to understand influential writing, good and bad.
Something I have learnt very early on is that there is a mass-manufacturing approach to teaching degrees. Millions of identical train carriages are made to be pulled by controlling and driving engines in the real world. The problem is, if any of those carriages do not comply with the plans, and fall off the track, they are never promoted to be engines in the real world, or returned to the factory to become blueprints or templates for better or improved models to be built.