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’
Forfatter: Bart Westgeest
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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.
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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)
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”.