[R-G] What makes a good writer?

[aaron at istop.com]

       As the lightening flashes and the thunder claps and the snow falls, I 
sit perplexed by the strange weather that we are having in Halifax. I also 
sit perplexed with respect to the movie I just saw. You see I have a habit 
of staying up late, watching documentaries or movies and then going on the 
computer and  writing. Sometimes I write poetry other times I write songs. 
My friend says that I am the punkest act in Halifax. I think my friend may 
have a little bit of a biased but I must admit I do like writing punk songs. 
I think I enjoy writing songs and poems more so then articles for the simple 
fact that when I write a poem or a song, I do not feel that it has to be 
approved the grammar  Gestapo. I find there is just too much fuss When in 
comes to grammatical correctness. 
    One time when I was stoned  a few years ago, I came up with an 
interesting quote. It was almost by accident, I was going off on one of my 
political rants to my roommate. I was talking about the superficalness of 
the western world and I said that the Privileged suffer from the 
fetishizatin of the superficial. When I think of this quote, I think about 
how people these days are so often gratified by form rather then content. So 
I make up a word here or there, Maybe have a bit of a run on sentence, as 
long as my word and the sentences you use are understood in the context in 
which you use them, doe it matter weather you spell women with an o or an I? 
What is it that makes a good writer? Is it her or his adherence to 
grammatical correctness? Is it perfect form with the perfect opening,, body 
and conclusion?
     Shattered Glass was the movie I saw tonight. I was suppose to watch it 
with my friend Kathy but she is busy getting beauty sleep. I stopped over my 
friend house and flipped though their movies and found “shattered glass”. 
Shattered glass is based on a true story, about this Talented writer who 
writes for the New Republic. He is a great young writer who writes wonderful 
stories for the New Republic magazine. Stories, is the key word here, you 
see he made up about half the articles he wrote while working for the New 
Republic. Was he a good writer? I thought he was an ingenious writer. The 
way in which he could jump through all the fact checking hoops and still 
come out with a work of fiction rather then a factual piece. To pull the 
wool over so many peoples eyes, you have to be a genius. So am I suggesting 
that only good writers lie? No, what I am saying is that if your ability to 
suck a reader into your story is such that the readers, including the 
editors of your story, fail to see your errors, then I would say you are a 
good writer . I think people would rather read a story that was a well 
written fiction then a factual story .
     I took a creative writing course with my mom about 15 years ago and 
besides that, I have not taken any writing courses. I have thought about 
going to Kings for journalism but after I really thought about it, I 
realized I would not be able to handle the rigidness and structure. I 
believe theory is faceless and nameless and having some kind of blueprint or 
template that one must follow when writing, limits your ability to express 
yourself. I remember back in 2006 when I spoke about the war resisters at 
the anti-war rally, I wrote down what I though I was going to say and read 
it to a friend of mine the night before. He told me it was good but that I 
should not write it down that I have never done that before and should not 
start now.  To paraphrase him, he told be that I have an ability to speak 
the truth from my heart. The next day, I had my sheet but did not use it and 
just spoke what I felt and articulated it in the charismatic way in which I 
usually try to articulate my political ideas. The crowd just ate it up!!!! 
      I see writing in much the same way, sometimes you need to break 
grammar rules to express yourself. Your heart does not understand rigid 
rules, it understands freedom. When I finish a piece of writing and I am 
trying to decide weather or not it should make it’s way into the world of 
the internet, I do not ask myself weather readers are going to appreciate my 
grammatical correctness. I do however, ask myself weather or not those who 
will read the piece are going to feel it, are they going to be motivated and 
inspired by it. I find if you write from the idea of a set of rules, you are 
leaving passion out of your story. The ability to feel and act with passion 
is an important aspect of being human. If I could not feel passion and I 
could not express myself in a way that allows others to feel my passion, 
then I would not want to be living. Now I am not saying that passion needs 
to override your logic: you logic should check you passion and your passion 
comes from  your ability to feel your surroundings. It is the difference 
between methodology and ideology.
     I don’t’ know if I am a good writer and I can’t say I really care if I 
am or not. They say that those who matter don’t mind and those who mind 
don’t matter. With that being said, I still believe in constructive 
criticism. I just hope that I am able to express myself , weather I speak it 
or write it, in a way that people can  feel my passion. Without passion how 
do we think we can turn ideas into reality?
                                                                             
                             Aaron Doncaster