A tag and a warning

I feel particularly chuffed to have been tagged to do a Writer's Meme by Phish. First of all because he writes magnificiently, in my opinion, and second of all it tells me I'm a writer and that feels strangely nice. I say strangely because being a writer never appealed to me, even though I've been one forever, like it or not. Now it's more pleasing, I think I'm more in touch to what it means to be a writer and more in touch with other writers. Of course, this term refers to all of us bloggers, we're all writers.

I'm supposed to mention the qualities of a good writer or good writing, so let me think.

What amazes me more about books is how close they can get to you. You're sitting there with a book in your hands and you read something that your mind has said so many times before, you yelp to yourself and you have to read it again, not believing anyone in the world could have thought the same thing as you. So a good writer has to have this ability to reach out to people and speak the same language as them. If you ask me, it's not that hard because even if you're the weirdest person on earth, there's bound to be someone else out there that thinks like you. ;)

I also need to understand what the writer is talking about. It can be an excelent writer, with lots of brilliant ideas and a wonderful skill with vocabulary, but if I don't understand the words or where they're heading I will drop the book. Life's too short to read something that doesn't mean anything to you.

Simplicity is often the best policy. Mastering the vocabulary and the structure is great, it really is, but if you reach the same conclusion, using simple words and the purest of sentences...then you are a great writer!

Originality is crucial. How awful is it when you open a book and feel like you've already read all that was written? The stories have all been told, the great writer tells them in a way that seems completely new and original to you. The ending is expected but the twists and turns in the middle make you laugh or gasp. There's humour, sometimes there's complete nonsense, a concept that looks completely out of place and makes you laugh.

Finally, there's something that I was talking to Chrispito about. Why are there writers than you immediately feel connected to and others that you simply can't enjoy? Sometimes it's not about the technical details, nor the ideas in the plot. I wonder if there's a writing chemistry. I wonder if there's a bloggers chemistry. And if it can't really be chemistry because we're not physically in the same place, then it must be something else that unites us in ways that aren't visible to the human eye. This is the 'thing' responsible for making us experience emotion through books, it's the magic of the writer.

Almost forgot I had to tag people! I will be tagging people that haven't been blogging as much as they should ;) Call it a little stimulus. Whether they'll do it or not, it's completely up to them.

- FB

- Scholiast

- Kimananda

- Novel Nymph

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I also want to warn anyone who's interested that November is just round the corner and that means it's the month to write a novel. If you want to know more visit NaNoWriMo's site. I won't be participating but I will be writing nevertheless.