/writing/ Starting with writing

I am going to start writing as a new hobby, and I have a question.

Of course I'll have to learn the "theory" of writing. How to get the attention of the reader, how to describe things well, how to develop characters, develop plot etc. However, am I right in assuming that the first step is actually to just get the habbit of writing?

I have lots of hobbies, and from what I've seen, the smartest step is to get the habbit of it, before you start going deep into theories and stuff.

Would you agree or disagree?

also /writing/ general

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Bamp

Bumpity bump

You don't need any theories or background knowledge. You learn everything on the go intuitively through practice. It's one of those learn by doing things. The best way to teach your brain is to do the thing it is trying to learn, rather than do a representation (a theory) of it.

So just write until patterns emerge out of the chaos. Don't try it the other way where you're trying to impose patterns before they become clear.

the art of dramatic writing lajos ehri
syd field screenplay the foundations of screenwriting

after that write about something personal or something you understand deeply and want to put in writing and fucking wing it

of course you could do this and you would become one of 1000000000 shitty writers

Will those two books help with writing prose and poetry?

they will teach you how to tell a story.

so, I would like to write poetry. best books on learning how to write poetry? by the way, most poetry that i've been reading in the critique threads have seemed pretty free to me - but i might just be messing up on scansion

btw i forgot to mention, does anyone wanna give me their thoughts on a haiku i wrote or is this the wrong thread for this sort of thing?

Id be cool to give you some feedback. I dont know much about haikus but ill do my best

Here it is
I tried to capture the feeling of the pic I attached

an evergreen tree
beneath the strangling cold gaze
of a dull gray sky

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nice. i like your choice of words. "strangling cold gaze" is really nice imagery.

thanks lad, it's the first actual thing i've written and im gonna try and actually get into writing. i just chose to write a haiku because i don't know how forms work in accentual writing. ideally I would like to write poetry but I don't really know how. I'm looking for books to teach me haha

by teaching me how to write poetry i don't mean creatively btw, i could probably try and write a few poems right now, but i'd rather not bumble around in the dark not knowing how form works

Literally just read and write a lot bro. You will write, and it will be bad. Analyze what you don't like about it, and try again. Read a lot, and incorporate the ideas that you like into what you write. It takes time, just like anything else. But you don't need to spend a bunch of time on formal theory, the same way musicians don't need to study wavelengths.

>that's not an evergreen
>the picture is pastoral, not strangling
>haikus with english words barely work because they are neither confined by syllabic restriction, nor can they incorporate the many layers of meaning that kanji can

> i'd rather not bumble around in the dark not knowing how form works

isn't this teached in american schools? I live in Norway, and we all learn how poems work structuraly, rhythmically, rhymes etc. We don't neccesarily learn how to write poems, but knowing all that theoretical stuff sure helps.

>However, am I right in assuming that the first step is actually to just get the habbit of writing?
Yes. Even shitposting will help you learn on the line level. Shitposts are some of the most talented comments I've seen here.

There's still a difference between being able to merely speak well, and being able to really write. For the latter, you can usually learn more by reading than by just beating your head off the table.

Sometimes

he said capture the feeling not describe the picture word for word you stupid autist.

And I was grumpily and unhelpfully stating why I thought his analysis was bad. The picture would be comfy if it wasn't in a smudged monochrome.

I can see your point on Haikus and English. The reason why I decided to write a haiku was because I wanted to capture a specific feeling using non-accentual writing. Do you have any thoughts on the haiku itself? Any feedback? thanks lad

>strangling gaze
Cringe mixed metaphors

how could i improve?

Cool

Read a lot of poetry, especially themed stuff. Read poetry about the seasons, and really examine how reading it feels. My three biggest problems with what you wrote are:

1) it's way too on the nose. There's no subtlety or musicality to it. Extreme words, choppy poorly flowing sounds.
2) It doesn't describe what we're actually looking at at all. "Strangling cold gaze of a dull grey sky"? Come on man, it's a picture of cows. If you go -that- extreme, I expect you to be talking about Stalingrad or something.
3) Too many adjectives, the adjectives don't agree, and not enough interesting words. "Evergreen" and "strangling" are both great words in the right context, but nobody cares about "dull grey skies". And they arn't strangling. They're dull. Dull things don't strangle.

But like anyone else will tell you, keep writing, and read the things that interest you. If you put in the work, you will become good.

To give an example of choppy sounds vs soft ones, here's the first stanza from a poem you should know:

>Whose woods these are I think I know.
>His house is in the village though;
>He will not see me stopping here
>To watch his woods fill up with snow.

Do you see how it really avoids harsh sounds like "str" from "strangling" or "gaze"? (gaze is particularly rough because its a very stretched out one-syllable word)

You can radically change the feel of something by changing the harshness of the sounds of the words you use. When talking about a nature scene, I would basically always use softer words.

Thanks for the advice.