Writing using minimalistic software

[kennyc]

I know but it makes it sound as if poetry is easy and simple compared to a novel when in fact it can be the opposite.

It's not about re-typing....

[gmw]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I know but it makes it sound as if poetry is easy and simple compared to a novel when in fact it can be the opposite.

It's not about re-typing....

The post you responded to literally was (intended to be) about re-typing. Let's face it, it didn't matter which was easier or harder to create initially, back when we used typewriters it really was a matter of either re-typing each draft, or (in my case at least) typing out from long hand. I've still got some typed out copies of my poetry here somewhere, I think.

[kennyc]

Was not. It was dig at writing shorter things than longer things. And it was simply wrong and wrong-headed. Poetry and short stories can and often are much harder than padded long rambling novels. So there!


A poem:


Just stick it


You think you’re so smart
pumpin’ up your poof
you’re nothing but a goof

Lollin’ out you lags
thinking that you’re cool
you’re nothin’ but a fool

You posture and you pose
you twist up your nose
while sassing out your sas

Well we don’t really care
you can go and pound the air
just stick it, stick it, stick it




Kenny A. Chaffin – 9/2/2013

[gmw]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Was not. It was dig at writing shorter things than longer things.[...]

It was an observation that shorter is easier to re-type than longer, which was relevant when using a typewriter and so possible encouragement for a writer to keep it short. If you want to read more into it, well, who am I to stand in the way of a good imagination? I'll just stick it then, will I?

[kennyc]

I'm not reading more into it, you're make up ca-ca to try to cover your behind. It had absolutely nothing to do with re-writing or retyping.

I made an observation about your incorrect statement. Now you are playing the spin game.

Carry on.

[gmw]

Kenny, if I really thought that poetry and shorter stories were always so much easier to create than longer ones then I would say so. If held that belief then I would argue the point with you, you know me well enough by now to know I'm happy to argue in support of my opinions, but I don't hold that opinion. I'm left in the rather bizarre situation of trying to retract something that I never actually meant.

Now I'm happy to accept that it is possible to construe an implied meaning from that post, which may have caused offense - and I do apologise for that. All I have done since is to try and explain was actually intended. I am not so happy to be called a liar. I wrote it, I know what I meant. There has been no "spin" here, only explanation, and I don't see what else I can do to make amends.

[gmw]

It's easy to see why I've learned to become verbose. The offending post was short, just a couple of lines, written out with a smile on my face. I'd hoped to suggest the same sort of wry humour I was feeling as I wrote it. It seems some additional explanation may have been necessary.

I was remembering sitting down to my father's huge old typewriter and trying, in my slow two-fingered typing of the time (I didn't touch-type back then), to type out my latest piece of poetry - and usually having to take several goes to get a reasonably clean copy. I then tried to imagine that same slow-typist version of me sitting down at that same old typewriter with my latest 200,000 word novel. It struck me as quite funny - the faces I might have pulled just looking at how much I had to do. BUT you will notice that my memory and imagination were both considering the typing out of an already written piece - at no time did I consider the relative difficulty of the original creation of what I was typing out.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by gmw

Now that was the way to separate those who were serious about their art. If I was still stuck with a typewriter I think I'd still be writing poetry - or I'd have found a way to write shorter stories.

It seems obviously to me that this post is just what you say it is; a self-deprecating commentary on your own stated tendency toward verbosity and your poor typing skills. How anyone could interpret it as a personal attack on them or any other member or on poets and short story writers in general is beyond me.

Kenny, you know I love you like a brother, but perhaps you should take a deep breath and reread what gmw actually wrote.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I know but it makes it sound as if poetry is easy and simple compared to a novel when in fact it can be the opposite.

It's not about re-typing....

I used to use a manual typewriter, too; and I hated doing revisions in those days, largely because of the sheer amount of time it took for re-typing.

I type slow, and the prospect of retyping a 100,000 word novel (a project that would probably take me 50-60 hours of straight typing) scares the bejeezus out of me. That's not worrying about revisions, that's straight typing time.

A poem or short story didn't create the same element of fear because I knew I wouldn't have to spend the same amount of time typing.

For me, writing (and the difficulty thereof) is not the same as typing. A good poem can take a year or more to write, just like a novel; but that year's going to include a lot less typing on my part.