Hello All! I’m back from England, but I have been sick! Spent the day in bed yesterday, and had to take the day off from work today! I tried writing my Monday post at the airport, but there was no wireless! So I am going to post all of my blogs today, starting from the one I worte on Monday. If you are reading, just pretend it’s Monday, or Tuesday…lol 🙂
Here is what I would have said Monday:
Well, I have said farewell to England and I am now back in the States. As a matter of fact, I’m in Philly waiting on my plane to get back to home sweet Florida. It’s quite the bittersweet moment. I have had to part with my friends Pam and Marquita, who have become two of my best friends and then England in general. All things that I love. However, I am returning home to my family, my job, my LEDF, my life.
Anyway, it’s Monday and that means it’s time for writing topics. I thought, I would say a bit about a workshop we had at the residency at Wroxton. We talked about the transparent, the translucent and the opaque. If you aren’t familiar with these, they are different styles of writing. Transparent having the clearest language, opaque being the one filled with the most figurative language, and the translucent falling somewhere between the two.
It was an interesting topic that stirred up a pretty heated debate. At first it seemed like the panel of professors were leaning towards the opaque. When a student pointed out that she was only hearing negative things about the transparent, they clarified by saying that there is no better style. All styles are credible.
One student wanted to know how you would go about trying out a new style. Say for example, you wrote in the transparent and wanted to start doing more opaque writing. One of the poetry mentors, Rene Ashley declared, “The real world doesn’t give a shit if you write or not. Don’t worry about it.” Another mentor, Harvey Hicks, said that he wanted to make sure that when the particular student reads or writes that he doesn’t ask the question: “Is this good?” He said, in that way the student wouldn’t be the final artist. Someone else would. His point was stating that the student should stay true to what himself and not what society deems as “good.”
I have had this discussion time and time again with Marquita and Pam. We all feel that you should read and write what you want. Don’t let anyone tell you what’s good. You have to determine that for yourself. Stay true to yourself and your work. To attempt to write a certain way because you think it’s what is acceptable to others, is artificial. What style of writing does your writing fall under? Do you stay true to your form?
