common mistakes when writing (1 Viewer)

or both at the same time ?

nothing wrong with borrowing the prose-style of his poems in my opinion. after all, he didn't invent it himself ? hemingway did if I'm not mistaken....
 
do you mean his tough guy/ alcoholic persona or his style of writing ?
I mean both, they usually try to imitate his simple style of writing and his lifestyle at the same time.
The extreme cases even use 50 years old twenty-ton typewriters in the age of computers ("It's not the same FEEL, man!") just to be like him (although Buk himself switched to Mac at the first opportunity).
 
what would you consider the most basic mistakes a beginner would do when writing ?
not having lived first. respects to my man braks but i dont see sounding like someone else as a mistake for a beginner. its just part of the journey. but if you think those early poems, that do sound like someone else, arw timeless pearls, youre probably wrong. i thought gbsup nailed it on that account
 
that's a good way of putting it. A young guy could have lived more than some 70 yrs old man who just did nothing but go with the flow.

although, bukowski got his first story published when he was 24, (he never had a woman at this point)..

if you have a good creativity , you can almost make it seem as if you had lived a great deal.

not believing in your own crap is central.
 
Perfectionism. A beginner will waste a lot of time trying to find just the right words. It's not necessary. Write something and edit it later.
 
definitely the major problem is gathering your own voice, not trying to mimic your favorites, while paying homage to their style, perhaps in a tasteful way that seems natural for you, you can be 1000 poems deep before you feel like you've found your voice. I've been writing and it's all an evolution, something intangible, but you can feel yourself growing in your words.

if you always feel like what you're doing is the best you've got, you're constantly on a path of progression. I can't say whether the errors lie in the fluff of excessive wordiness
or sometimes the lack there of. Thinking of poetry specifically here, but as you begin to take the duller moments of the daily ground, bring them about in a poem to eventually capture it all right, is all you can hope for. To get what you believe is right, is all there is, it's too hard to agree, better try to satisfy yourself, and take each word past the next.


Anyways, I'm going to assume this drunken ramble at dawn doesn't make sense...
 
It made a little lick of sense. You're just lucky you were specifically talking about poetry, otherwise you could lose a person. ;)
 
Richmond had written a poem and Bukowski told him that it was perfect until the last line where he had said something about the stars. :D I can't remember where but I'll look it up. It was very funny.
 
Creating a character you like, but not giving the reader a reason to find him compelling early enough in the story.
 
Don't think about possible readers. Write the way you like it. Bear in mind that your voice is a result of your experiences - you are unique and you shouldn't hide that. There's nothing worse than being a mediocre imitation of someone else.
Write about the subjects you've always wanted to write about, no matter if those subjects are popular or not. At the end of the day, YOU are the one who needs to like your stuff.
 

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