Where did you learn HOW to write?

[Oldschoolguy]

Can J School teach you HOW to write?

I'm in print sales now, but I spent 12 years as a magazine editor and publisher, and I've sold a book to a publisher on my own, as well. I learned to write mostly by being (brutally) edited. I can't imagine learning the craft of writing in J School or in any classroom. In fact, when I think about the writing instruction I got in high school and college, it was mostly stuff I had to forget, before I could really write for publication.

I'm sure this is an incredibly rudimentary question for a lot of you. But I'm curious -- Where did you really learn how to write?

 

[Rumpleforeskin]

Preschool or in my house as a toddler. Can't really remember. I taught myself how to read at 3-years-old by reading the newspaper.

 

[Write-brained]

Can J School teach you HOW to write?

No.

Where did you really learn how to write?

You learn by doing. I'm still learning.

 

[trifectarich]

Can J School teach you HOW to write?

No.

Where did you really learn how to write?

You learn by doing. I'm still learning.

Correct, and correct.

 

[cranberry]

For me, it was a family full of school teachers who provided a nurturing environment. And opiates.

 

[joe]

Preschool or in my house as a toddler. Can't really remember. I taught myself how to read at 3-years-old by reading the newspaper.

Scout, is that you?

 

[mike311gd]

My dad taught me. He used a magnetic board with those big letters and assigned each one to a cleaning product. It was cool.

 

[PeteyPirate]

Second grade. /bobbyknight

 

[spup1122]

My dad taught me. He used a magnetic board with those big letters and assigned each one to a cleaning product. It was cool.

Michelle Tanner? I always had my suspicions. Now they're confirmed.

 

[Trey Beamon]

Second grade. /bobbyknight

I was waiting for that. Nice work, FDP.

 

[forever_town]

I can't remember. I remember that my parents took turns reading to me when I was a baby.

I guess I just took to writing at a very early age.

In terms of writing, I learned more by being brutally edited. I had laid back teachers who let **** slide in math and science classes, but in English classes, I always seemed to draw the high-strung types who would make me rewrite B-minus papers because they somehow knew I was better than what they read.

When I was at my community college rag, the advisor was definitely a Type A screamer. She kept on me until I got better and she kept pushing me to get better until I snapped. I don't miss the screaming, but I miss the interest she took in seeing me become a better journalist and a better person.

I still have yet to find someone who mentored me quite as well, even all these years later.

 

[mike311gd]

My dad taught me. He used a magnetic board with those big letters and assigned each one to a cleaning product. It was cool.

Michelle Tanner? I always had my suspicions. Now they're confirmed.

If anyone was going to catch that one, I knew it'd be you, Spup. Well done. Now go tell Doc to quit hanging his head in shame.

 

[Rumpleforeskin]

Preschool or in my house as a toddler. Can't really remember. I taught myself how to read at 3-years-old by reading the newspaper.

Scout, is that you?

Jeb, Papa told you not to go near Boo Radley's house.

 

[STLIrish]

In grade school, by doing it and doing it and doing it some more. And then again in high school, same thing. And then at the college paper. And then at every job I've had since, with the help of a lot of good teachers/editors/colleagues along the way. Hopefully I can get paid to keep learning how to write for another 40 or so years. That'd be a nice life.

FWIW, most of the very best writers I know didn't go to j-school. They found another way in to this business and learned the reporting tricks on the job. But they know how to tell a story from their gut, and they know how to use the language from their ear. And they work hard at doing it the best they can.

 

[bagelchick]

My writing lots of letters, stories, journaling, etc. I majored in Communications and Literature in college. And I read constantly.

 

[alleyallen]

I was allowed my fervernt and sometimes weird imagination to go wild during a very fortunate English class in seventh grade. We had to spend 10 minutes of every day writing on a topic posted on the chalkboard.

There was creativity in what I wrote, but it was so unpolished, it took years of writing and hard work to improve it. And I still never got where I really wanted to be.

 

[HejiraHenry]

By reading the good stuff, imitating and then eventually finding my own voice.

Then I lost it. I've spent the last 10 years or so trying to get it back.

 

[mustangj17]

I read a lot when I was younger, but found writing easy and fun at a young age. J-School helped me fix up some things I needed, and helped me understand the formats of things, and the ethics of things. But I really with writing you either have it or you don't.

 

[Football_Bat]

By reading lots and lots of newspapers, big and small. I caught on pretty early to the style in which stories should be written -- and how they SHOULDN'T be written. From that point on, it was just a matter of tightening up the prose and honing fact-finding skills.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]