{"id":3706,"date":"2014-08-24T12:43:10","date_gmt":"2014-08-24T20:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rknibbe.com\/Wordpress\/?p=3706"},"modified":"2014-08-24T16:43:48","modified_gmt":"2014-08-25T00:43:48","slug":"writers-write","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rknibbe.com\/Wordpress\/archives\/3706","title":{"rendered":"Writers Write!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I swear, no practitioners write more about what they do than writers do. Writing about writing: Are they not worried about the infinite loop? If you don’t believe me, march your incredulity over to your local book seller and inquire as to where you may find the section on “books on writing.” Or look here, I’ve done the work for you. I went to Amazon (who, my familial readers should know, did not hire me :-() and searched for “books on writing.” 497,718 hits<\/a>!<\/p>\n

By comparison, a search for “books on running a backhoe” returned six hits. Why is this? As children we’re taught to write in the first or second grade. Nothing challenging, maybe the assignment is: Briefly describe your classmate. This actually happened to me. When it was my turn, one of my classmates described me thusly (verbatim):<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rod Nibbe<\/p>\n

Rod is seven years old. I love
\nRod. He loves me. Rod laghes hard.
\nRod’s mouth is wide open in years
\nfrom now his mouth will stay
\nopen. He makes the world. We all
\nlove Rod.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Timothy Gieschen
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

See how easy it is to write? And, I should add, to write well.\u00a0 No big words. No deep symbolic meanings (although “He makes the world” causes wonder). Good cadence. Prescient even — forty seven years later and yes, Tim, my mouth is still<\/em> open (much to the chagrin of my betters).<\/p>\n

Another good one. Verbatim again. Note the use of foreshadowing in the last sentence. Foreshadowing. <\/em>People, this is a seven year old!<\/p>\n

Rod Nibbe<\/p>\n

Rod has a good Mother
\nand Father. Rod sits in the 1
\nrow. He has blue pants on
\nto day. Whin He laouphs He
\nshaks the whole sclool evre time.
\nHe plays with the girls.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Russell<\/em><\/p>\n

Here, while arguably punctuation is a growth area for Lori, that’s something easily improved with practice. But note the feminine voice in her prose does come through quite clearly.<\/p>\n

Rod Nibbe<\/p>\n

Rod was very nise in
\nthe begining of the yerr
\nhe has a red shert on
\nto day and whit he
\nthinks he is funny but
\nhe is int funny. do you
\nno wat 8+8=[] he likes to
\nlafs a long with timmy W<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lori<\/em><\/p>\n

Another female point of view not entirely inconsistent with Lori’s. Note the complete absence of of adverbs. And remember, Teri’s never read a single book on writing!<\/p>\n

Rod Nibbe<\/p>\n

Rod was good at the
\nbegininning of the year but
\nnow he is bad. He laughs
\nso hard that his head will
\ncome off. But I don’t
\ncare. And Rod said that
\n5+8=11. He has a red and white
\nshirt on today. He likes
\nMrs. Kerwitz and likes
\nTim G. He sits in the
\nfirst row. And he swings
\ncrooket on the swings.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Teri<\/em><\/p>\n

(For the record, I don’t recall making any such claim about five plus eight).<\/p>\n

Here’s another good one. Precocious even. See if you don’t agree that had this been written as dialog it might sound a bit like Tom Sawyer.<\/p>\n

Rod Nibbe<\/p>\n

Rod is my buddy.
\nRod came over to my house to stay
\nover night. We had a blast in the
\nbasemant that night. He was laughing
\nso hard that he made me laugh at
\nthe dinner table. Then my mom
\nsended he to eat some waer els.
\nRod sneesed. We jumpt all over
\nthe couch. Rod came over to my
\nbirthday party. Rod’s mouth is
\nopen so much I could jump in it.
\nRod loves Lynn K. Rod and me are like
\nbrothers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tim W<\/em><\/p>\n

In truth it was Tim’s sister I had the hots for. That’s the real reason I hung out with Tim, and especially the reason I went to his house so often. I feel like crap admitting it. Especially knowing I was like a brother to him. Sheesh.<\/p>\n

Here’s what Lynn K had to say. At least half my classmates wrote that I was in love with Lynn Kaphingst, something I will neither confirm nor deny. Nothing indicative of early talent here, more or less just a fact dump. But she gets her points across quickly, so points for brevity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rod Nibbe<\/p>\n

I can see Rod today.
\nRod is in Love with Paul
\nJohnson and Timothy Wright.
\nRod is in love with me.
\nRod sits in row one.
\nRod is on a baseball
\nteme. He has blue pants.
\nRod has a brane.
\nHe has black hair<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Lynn K<\/em><\/p>\n

A brane! Eat your hearts out Lori and Teri.<\/p>\n

Diane grabs the reader early with elements of terror and suspense. Already showing promising signs of using compound sentence structure.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rod Nibbe<\/p>\n

One day I saw. Rod and he had
\na red shroot and I thought that
\ntheri was a fire on him and he
\nwas at my hose and wen I
\nsaw that he had a red shoot
\nI ran out of the house<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Diane<\/em><\/p>\n

Just because it was my day that didn’t exempt me from doing the assignment. My only excuse is that autobiography is a difficult form to get right. Too much telling<\/em> here and not enough showing<\/em>. Early indications of an Oedipus complex (note capitalization of Mother). Also, nothing here about my supposed love for my classmates. Lynn K especially must’ve been pissed about that.<\/p>\n

Rod Nibbe<\/p>\n

My Mother and father play
\ncards. My father like to read
\ndog book because we are going
\nto get one. his name is going
\nto be corky. We are going to
\nget him in three Weeks.
\nMy Mother and father
\nbuy me alot of presets for my birthday.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rod Nibbe<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I swear, no practitioners write more about what they do than writers do. Writing about writing: Are they not worried about the infinite loop? If you don’t believe me, march your incredulity over to your local book seller and inquire as to where you may find the section on “books on writing.” Or look here, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rknibbe.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rknibbe.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rknibbe.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rknibbe.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rknibbe.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3706"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.rknibbe.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3728,"href":"https:\/\/www.rknibbe.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706\/revisions\/3728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rknibbe.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rknibbe.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rknibbe.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}