哲子戲 Philosophist’s Camp » writing

Writer’s block

hevangel — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:04:43 +0000

Many writers often develop writer’s block after they have been writing for a while. They found their creativity dries up, could not write even a single sentence. I have been writing blog for almost 3 years, recently I found I have a mild symptom of writer’s block. In some day, I just could not think of anything. I still write TV, anime and book reviews. Writing review is relatively easy, the theme is already there and I just have to write down what I think. Putting a topic to write is the difficult part. Well, it is not that I am less creative, rather hold myself to a have higher standard now. I don’t my writing merely repeating what others say. I want to make my own point of view that is original. The problem is that I seems to start repeating myself. What’s the point of saying the same thing of similar issues many times? Maybe I should shift the emphasis of my writing. Instead of always trying to come up with new ideas, I should be content with my old ideas and focus on refining my writing skill. The same idea can be present in many different ways, some are more efficient and elegant than others. I should explore different style of writing other random scribble. I think I have hit a plateau in my writing skill, in order to have progress, I should learn about more advance writing skills. Now, the question is where can I find those materials.

A break from blog

hevangel — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:15:44 +0000

I haven’t write a single blog entry for the past week. It is not that I am getting lazy or getting tried of blogging. It is that I just move in with Pat and I am so busy trying to make myself home in the new place. Packing everything into boxes only the weekend before the moving day is quite rush and I have to get rid of the extra furniture in very low price. If I could have start selling my furniture earlier, I could get a better price. On the last weekend before the move, what I care is someone remove the pieces, so I can return an empty apartment. Getting some extra money from the furniture sell is my secondary concern.

The move on Monday is pretty smooth. This time I hired a Chinese moving company. Two middle age guys came instead of the young guys from English moving companies. I found older guys is more reliable then young guys. Maybe I am getting old and start not to trust people under 30. It only took them 4 hours to move all my stuffs. The rate is much better than English moving companies. It is almost 50% cheaper than my move last time.

After the move, the living room is full of boxes. Charlie, Pat’s dog, hardly has a piece to move. He is confined to a small area in front of the Kitchen. The bedroom is not much better, all my clothes are still store in my suitcase. The only thing I had set up is my desk and my computer. I found that moving is too overwhelming for me to get some quiet time to blog every night. Writing a blog entry only takes 15 minutes of quiet time, to rethink about what had happened during the day that worth writing down. Having with boxes every where, I spent all my 15 minutes unpacking and settling down. Maybe I should relax and listen to Pat. She said moving is not a project you have to finish with a deadline, while it is a process for you to reconcile with your past. Although my place is still full of boxes, my life should get back to normal. If I can life off with two suitcase in India for two months, I can life off with most of stuffs packed inside two dozens of boxes.

Blog about serious things

hevangel — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 06:39:20 +0000

Someone asked me why don’t I blog about serious stuff, such as politics, social issues, lately. I took a look at my recent entries in the past month. Indeed I wrote a lot more about TV, movies, Anime than usual. I guess my work at India really disturb my routine writing schedule. I am so tried after work every day that I don’t want to think about any thing seriously. I still catch up with my daily newspaper and weekly Economist, so I am aware of what’s happening around the world. It is just that I lost interest in making comments on the news. Taiwan election, riots in Tibet, Bear Stern crisis, all of them are interesting topics to blog. The normal me would happy to jump in and make me mark on those big issues. I still leave a comment or two in other people’s blog, which doesn’t require much effortless. However writing a well thought blog entry takes too much brain juice. I lack the discipline to organize my thoughts, so I rather remind silence than write something not up to my standard.

下筆甚艱難

hevangel — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 06:42:38 +0000

原來寫文章是這樣艱難的事。
自從學生年代上作文課以來﹐十多年沒有寫過非報告的文章﹐
而用中文下筆在移民後更少之又少。
執筆忘字不懂拆倉頡碼﹐這些技術上的困難固然免不了。
但最大問題是我發現自己是一個拙於表達的人。
很多時候腦海中有一些零碎的靈感﹐
寫了出來後卻不知道怎樣把它們的連貫起來。
有時就算可以勉強串連起﹐橫看豎看也是不太通順。
也有的時候文章開了頭﹐寫到了一半靈感無以為繼﹐結果只有草草收筆。

女朋友老是說我為人太過科學理性﹐搞不懂文科藝術的事情。
寫散文隨筆不同寫報告﹐寫報告有碗話碗有碟話碟的寫依畫直說﹐
但寫散文則要舒發自己的感情或表達自己的見解﹐
難就難在要用非量化的方法去告訴讀者自己的想法。
很多時候我只懂用好或不好去形容一件事﹐
頂多是加上口語常用的單字形容詞﹐如絕勁正等﹐
這些形容詞其實說了也等於沒有說﹐
讀者根本就不明白為什麼是褒或是貶﹐
不如索性打個分數給幾顆星星算了。

回想起來以前上作文課﹐老師也沒有特別教我們如何去寫文章﹐
教也只是給我們教那些樣板式的公函﹐或者肉肉麻麻的舒情文。
大慨和學其他事一樣﹐想文章寫很好﹐除了多寫多看外﹐沒有其他法門。
自從開始想寫文章後在看報紙雜誌時﹐除了以速讀的把內容看過﹐
有時也會慢下來看看行文佈局用詞﹐研究專欄作家如何去寫一篇出好文章。

早幾天看報紙﹐有篇文章說起查大俠寫社論的逸事﹐
話說查大俠寫下筆前先在腦中想好了文章的大綱﹐
開始動筆就可以一起呵成的成完整篇文章﹐
完了不用如何修編就可以發稿了。
雖說不可以拿查大俠作比較﹐但可是看看我自己寫文章時﹐
除了想好了題目外起頭第一段外﹐其他大綱細節一律欠奉。
坐在電腦前面想到了什麼就寫什麼﹐把腦子像倒垃圾的將所有點子倒了出來後﹐
就慢慢的用鍵盤剪剪貼貼﹐名乎其實的砌一篇文章出來。
用電腦去砌文章這玩意雖說是方便﹐長久下去會可養成文思混亂的壞習慣。
希望每天寫一篇半篇文章﹐慢慢磨練自己寫作的技巧﹐
有天可以一次過順序的完成一整篇文章吧。

article debts

hevangel — Sat, 07 May 2005 12:09:01 +0000

I had so many article debts, and I finally finished 3 articles in one day to repay some of them. Now all I still own is two articles to review a book and an anime. Since I had re-establish my website, I made promise to myself every time when I finish a movie, a TV series, an anime, a book or a CD, I will write some feedback before I start something on new. I figured out if I don’t write my feeling down, my time spent on those things will simply be wasted as I tend to forget them eventually. Although my writing is very slow and the thoughts not very organized, I found that writing reviews are very enjoyable. It forces me to view those stuff from a new aspect.