Brian's Writing World
A Guide to the Noble Art for all Writers.
An Introduction:
This book does not need a date. Produced in the 21st Century its contents will be relevant for all time because of the marvels of the microchip, whereby a simple input may engender a wide result in information-retrieval without the need of writing anything. From the youngest mind fresh and open to learning to the wisest elderly sage the same principle must apply; if such future endeavours are solely achieved by a computer screen then the human brain will become underused in all its unique, wondrous scope. The outlet for the magic will be diminished. Texting and E-mails have removed the need for writing letters, or sending a postcard. The abbreviation of our wonderful English words in texts robs them and demeans them. Using the computer for the spelling of words removes the pleasure and alphabetical skills in thumbing through a good dictionary. (Heaven-forbid the dictionary book such as the 'Oxford' or 'Chambers' should ever become obsolete) So, I hope this little book may thus remain as a safeguard for the lost art of writing.
My published work includes a children's book, a comic ghost-story, an historical novel, an anthology of my poetry, and an E-book 'Lizzie Lickorish'. All illustrated by myself. As a playwright I have written two musicals performed at a local theatre by an AM-DRAM group.
Brian C Gamage
( The author's natural copyright appertains to this work)
Chapter 1. Re-discovering the lost art of Writing.
Winston Churchill stated early in his career that he became aware of the vital relationship between sentences and paragraphs- "as sentences should follow one another in harmonious sequence, so the paragraphs must fit on to one another like the automatic couplings of railway carriages. Chapterisation also began to dawn on me...I already knew that chronology is the key to easy narrative. I already realised that good sense is the foundation of good writing" Churchill was a prolific writer.
'Syntax' is the word used to denote good grammatical sense in every sentence, i.e. the way a sentence is constructed must make sense to the reader.
You can see in his descriptions above how Churchill sees things as an artist, and as such knows how to transmit to others the dramatic impact of everyday events upon his own imagination and to project his own impressions, thoughts, emotions, through writing.
Imagination is another wondrous capacity of the human brain and must never be forsaken as the price for letting computers do all our thinking. Computers as an entity do not possess imagination. Don't get me wrong; the ability for fast information-retrieval online is wholly necessary in today's busy lifestyle. Whilst it was quite a challenge for any student to search out information from reference books in the library it is decidedly quicker, and less aggravation, to use a modern computer screen. An author will now probably compose his work this way, deleting and altering as he goes, for faster completion, although some authors still prefer to write initial compositions long-hand. The latter being very satisfying. Why? Because the magic concocted by the author's imagination then flows through his pen forming words written upon the sheet of paper. The magic cannot flow as easily by the singular depression of plastic keys, one at a time, however quickly.
At a later stage I shall touch upon the wondrous and magical subject of writing poetry. Dylan Thomas had this to say: "The magic in a poem is always accidental....a poet in his labours hopes that suddenly the accident of magic will occur. And the best poem is that whose worked-upon unmagical passages come closest...to those moments of magical accident."
Make no mistake, there is magic in writing and there is magic in the English language. It is a privilege to discover how it will elevate the writer to a new plane, a new dimension, a new intellect.
