The Buddhists would say our pain is to make us enlightened. Maybe I will be a singer in my next life and you will be a writer, although you are still young enough to have a chance in this life. So don't give up. As a writer myself, I can give you one tip: You should write as easily, freely and simply as you speak. And you should visualise clearly whom you are addressing. Writing is just speaking on paper. (Conversely, you should speak with all the richness of language and ideas that you would use in writing. Speaking is writing on air.) In fact, from the way you chat to me, I can see that you would write very well in a contemporary style (with no capitals!) I recommend you read anything you can get hold of by Nick Hornby (author of About a Boy, A Long Way Down, High Fidelity, Fever Pitch, How to be Good). He writes in exactly this speaking style. Russia needs good new writers. For God's sake, we can't go on reading Alexandra Marinina, Daria Donskaya and at a slightly better level, Boris Akunin for the rest of our lives! My friend Misha Butov, who was a poet, won the Russian Booker Prize for his book, Freedom. Why shouldn't Mr. V. Lee, who is clearly very sensitive to the world around him, become a writer? I believe you still could. As for my singing, I am 50 and for a professional career, that is simply too old, although I do still sing old ballads to the lute at small gatherings. I have a very rare alto voice but unfortunately never mastered the techniques to make it carry in big halls. You will read the bejewelled newt to the end and understand. It is a self-portrait of me and BBB. My comfort is that I have found my voice in words.
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Date: 2006-09-22 10:53 am (UTC)As a writer myself, I can give you one tip: You should write as easily, freely and simply as you speak. And you should visualise clearly whom you are addressing. Writing is just speaking on paper. (Conversely, you should speak with all the richness of language and ideas that you would use in writing. Speaking is writing on air.)
In fact, from the way you chat to me, I can see that you would write very well in a contemporary style (with no capitals!) I recommend you read anything you can get hold of by Nick Hornby (author of About a Boy, A Long Way Down, High Fidelity, Fever Pitch, How to be Good). He writes in exactly this speaking style.
Russia needs good new writers. For God's sake, we can't go on reading Alexandra Marinina, Daria Donskaya and at a slightly better level, Boris Akunin for the rest of our lives! My friend Misha Butov, who was a poet, won the Russian Booker Prize for his book, Freedom. Why shouldn't Mr. V. Lee, who is clearly very sensitive to the world around him, become a writer? I believe you still could.
As for my singing, I am 50 and for a professional career, that is simply too old, although I do still sing old ballads to the lute at small gatherings. I have a very rare alto voice but unfortunately never mastered the techniques to make it carry in big halls. You will read the bejewelled newt to the end and understand. It is a self-portrait of me and BBB. My comfort is that I have found my voice in words.