Bart Westgeest

Forfatter: Bart Westgeest

  • Arcadia

    Arcadia

    Painting by Thomas Cole – The Course of Empire The Arcadian or Pastoral State 1836 (Source)

    In writing one can describe a perfect world. For some this might be a pre-industrial society in an ancient rural setting. Like a scene with peasants and shepherds, birds in the sky, green trees and wide open planes with mountains at a rugged coast at the background. I know from landscape painting that such a scene is often referred to as an Arcadia or a Pastoral scene. It is a subject in itself that has inspired thousands. I am not someone who reads a lot so I wonder about the writing world. There must be stories in contemporary literature using this theme for inspiration. Maybe even with a shepherd boy that meets and falls in love with a gypsy girl and lost sheep that will be found again. It is all possible and one can create the most beautiful painting and make it come alive. It’s a great way of expressing thoughts about alternatives to our own society and the life we live. When building a world like that one can write about the details to paint the picture. A tree, colour or situation. By describing simple things they will be transformed into words and thus become part of the new world created. If it can be done in painting it shouldn’t be a utopia in writing.

  • Dreams

    ….osme parts oar also half demolished

    and dot liook too goofd.

    Dreams are an important source of information about things I usually already know about me. But they make me aware of what I go through in a beautiful and fascinating way. When in a dream state I experience the emotions in a rather direct way and visualize them into images that often can be universal symbols that strike a cord with any human. They are simply great stories or fragments of it.
    As I want to write from the heart I want to use these sighs from my inner world when writing.

    In earlier days I would try to memorize the entire dream and write it down on paper as soon as I was out of bed or had time to do so. A few days ago I started the computer after waking up as I wanted to have it written down at the right place immediately. How irritating it was to wait for the computer to finish
    whatever it does. When I finally could write I
    noticed that I had a lot of trouble controlling my fingers, probably because I still wasn’t really awake and occupied by the dream and it’s emotions. They didn’t
    go to the right letters and I had trouble concentrating on doing it
    right. It was a frustrating experience but there was not much I could do. Luckily I can read sentences like “osme parts oar also half demolished
    and dot liook too goofd” and “….bu I can tog to far becuas ei must
    get back at some poitn venthoggh I am… “.

    In order to remember a dream it helps to go through it right after waking up. Following all the scenes in the story will often bring up already half forgotten fragments and will make you memorize it better.
    A few days ago I recorded a dream with my invaluable mobile phone only a few minutes after waking up and after finishing the going-through to find all the fragments. I simply spoke out loudly while rehearsing the dream a final time.

    Yesterday, a few days after the dream was dreamt, I transcribed the recording to my computer as literally as made sense in order to preserve a casual and direct tone in the text.
    I think this practice helps my writing as I get an insight in my personal world in inspirational story fragments written down in a manner of speaking that I can’t really duplicate when sitting down to write anything like it.

    I’ll make it a habit.

  • Free Ebook: Time Management for Creative People

    A free PDF – ebook (1,6 MB) by Mark McGuinness can be downloaded at www.wishfulthinking.co.uk called Time Management for Creative People with the subtitle ‘Manage the Mundane – Create the Extraordinary’

  • On Freewriting

    I can’t think of anything better in my life than entering the full screen word processor with a whole hour ahead of me. My fingers are often itching to get started. It must have something to do with acknowledging myself as my aim during this hour is to write whatever jumps to mind and in that way listen to myself.

    Back in the nineties a friend once told me after I wrote him a letter, that it seemed as if I had some wire connected to my brain as he could not imagine to get such a stream of thoughts written down. I am glad I can.
    My impression was that in this mood I am just talking to myself in an endless stream of thoughts and reoccurring ideas and worries and yet something seems to work well. I think it is mainly because of the writing style, there is nothing constructed but on the contrary, I actually try to type before having thought the thought.

    Yesterday I was advised to continue concentrating on this ‘freewriting‘ as I call it in order to keep writing from the heart. I was thinking of separating time to write on the story I have designed for me but taking it out of my daily writing habit might result in writing too formally and too intellectual. The idea that was put forward was to try to implement working on my story during my freewriting hour.

    I think this is totally right, I hate it when my writings become too formal as most of my former writings in Dutch were. I started writing in English to prevent this so I better keep concentrating on it.

  • Nick Hornby – Fever Pitch

    I profoundly disagree with those who equate ‘literary’ with ‘serious’ – unless ‘serious’ encompasses ‘po-faced’, ‘dull’, ‘indigestible’. Anyone who does anything that seems easy or light or which actually entertains people always tends to get overlooked – apart from by the reading public, the only people who really matter. I reserve the right to write the kinds of books I feel like writing’

    Nick Hornby on his style of writing. (source)

    I saw the movie “Fever Pitch” (UK 1997 – USA version 2005) some time ago that made a strong impression on me as the subject was recognizable and treated in a popular but yet well elaborated way. Nothing posh or literary indeed but an everyday life story with a lot in it.

    The original story is about a passionate fan of the English soccer club Arsenal who is an English teacher and gets acquainted with a female teacher at the same school. A relationship evolves that is very much influenced by the man’s relation to the soccer club. In fact it is often unclear in a clever play of words if he talks about the relation to the woman or to the club. It has a climax that touched me because of the recognizable emotions and situation.

    The thought-evoking theme in the story is whether or not it is acceptable to be passionate and to behave like a “12 year old kid who refuses to grow up” as I remember it being put in the movie. Or about the tension between the freedom of the by nature egocentric individual and the commitment to a loved one. And yes – it is about soccer.

    I was a pleasure to see the English version with good acting and well working conversations in a plain language and with music by such knows bands as The Pretenders, the Smiths and Lisa Stanfield.

    An inspiration for a writer.

    Links:

    The site of the book on the publisher’s site (Penguin)

    Info about the English movie (www.imdb.com)

    Info about the US movie (www.imdb.com)

    The book on Amazon.com

    An interesting BBC/British Council Site using the book as an entrance for English lessons. With a.o. an extract, Characterisation and “after reading questions”.