Welcome
The Sound of Writing
Welcome to The Sounds of Writing, the totally awesome and radical literary website featuring the totally kick-ass ensemble of...
Visual Editor
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Co-Writing Editor
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Editor-In-Chief
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Lead Writing Editor
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Publicist
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Please feel free to look around at your leisure. While exploring, you most certainly will encounter several of our literary short-stories that we may or may not but most definitely revised several times; our creative adaptations that we spent several minutes coming up with ideas for and several days (oh god, weeks even) touching up with new ideas and improvements; and a number of other fun and entertaining pieces that we figuratively poured our blood, sweat and tears (mostly just tears) into.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
On Writing and Reading Fiction
Our Philosophies
Throughout the semester, each of us learned a great deal about writing fiction. Many of these new methods we acquired helped to define us as a writers and helped us to craft better work and see fiction writing and literature through an entirely new lens.
We, the creators and writers of this website, learned a whole plethora of new skills and techniques for writing fiction (as well as nonfiction). We were learned about establishing and maintaining a proper voice throughout each piece we wrote so as to give the story a certain cohesive feel; we were taught about showing instead of telling with our detail, spelling out the details for our reader rather than simply telling the reader that it is there; we discovered setting, plot and theme, and how best to weave and interconnect such aspects throughout your story in order to give reason to your characters, give your characters a place to interact and evolve, and evoke meaning with our overall writing so as to hopefully have our readers learn something about the world or themselves.
In addition to these new skills, we also discovered the type of writers that we were; the styles we use when we are crafting a piece of literature. In addition, we crafted our own philosophies for ourselves and our writing that allows for us (at least to attempt) to bang out a great story that hits all the marks and entertains our readers.
We, the creators and writers of this website, learned a whole plethora of new skills and techniques for writing fiction (as well as nonfiction). We were learned about establishing and maintaining a proper voice throughout each piece we wrote so as to give the story a certain cohesive feel; we were taught about showing instead of telling with our detail, spelling out the details for our reader rather than simply telling the reader that it is there; we discovered setting, plot and theme, and how best to weave and interconnect such aspects throughout your story in order to give reason to your characters, give your characters a place to interact and evolve, and evoke meaning with our overall writing so as to hopefully have our readers learn something about the world or themselves.
In addition to these new skills, we also discovered the type of writers that we were; the styles we use when we are crafting a piece of literature. In addition, we crafted our own philosophies for ourselves and our writing that allows for us (at least to attempt) to bang out a great story that hits all the marks and entertains our readers.
"My Philosophy? About writing fiction? And reading it, too? It's hard to put into words. It seems to change all the time. But, I guess, I could narrow it down to some key points and principles. Off the top of my head,
"Don't be afraid to write, just write, and, in fact, be afraid not to write. Become concerned when you've become complacent with not writing. If that happens, I suggest taking a writing class to help break you out of your rut. I can even recommend a great instructor I know personally.
"Write everyday, even when you don't want to, or don't feel like it, or don't know what to write. WRITE!
"Good writers come from good readers, so it only makes sense that great writers come from great readers.
"Don't ever think you're done learning. There's always room for improvement.
"Every sentence doesn't have to be great, but every sentence has to be at least good.
"Don't do it alone. Have someone read your work, right in front of you, out loud.
"Don't give up on yourself. A truly great writer is a truly great student of the word."
— Braxton Avery
"Don't be afraid to write, just write, and, in fact, be afraid not to write. Become concerned when you've become complacent with not writing. If that happens, I suggest taking a writing class to help break you out of your rut. I can even recommend a great instructor I know personally.
"Write everyday, even when you don't want to, or don't feel like it, or don't know what to write. WRITE!
"Good writers come from good readers, so it only makes sense that great writers come from great readers.
"Don't ever think you're done learning. There's always room for improvement.
"Every sentence doesn't have to be great, but every sentence has to be at least good.
"Don't do it alone. Have someone read your work, right in front of you, out loud.
"Don't give up on yourself. A truly great writer is a truly great student of the word."
— Braxton Avery
"Reading and writing fiction isn’t about escaping, it’s about being set free. Only in a world where seemingly anything can happen, can real life be encapsulated in the purest sense. The ‘Real World’ is more of a pretend place than a lot of the books in the fiction genre. There are atrocities so illogical, outlandish, and horrifying that sometimes a book is the only thing keeping the consumer sane — ask Tim O’Brien. Stories don’t have to have happened for them to be real, and stories that are completely falsified can be impeccable mirrors to our own lives. Creating an emotional connection with a character goes beyond the text, but impacts viewers in an empathetic way that’s more in tune with current events that we realize on a first time read.
"Fiction is not make-believe, Fiction is what we want to believe."
— Landon Everett
"Fiction is not make-believe, Fiction is what we want to believe."
— Landon Everett
"My philosophy is pretty simple - sit down and write; get it done. No matter what it takes, you just need to get the words down and the story created. The way I’ve found (for me) is similar to what I’ve read Hemingway’s method was - write drunk; edit sober (not that I’d ever compare myself to Hemingway; no no no, I’m a poor writer at best at this point). Some of the best ideas come when my mind is slightly inebriated and released from stress or tension. I can focus fully on the main story, then come back later and piece it together cohesively.
"When I write, I usually do the most cliche thing I’ve heard of any writer (or 'writer') do - I write about something in my life: something I hate about myself, something I hate about the world, something I love about my friends, etc. I try to be as honest as possible, lay it all out on the table, no hiding it. Besides, it doesn’t have to be about me exactly. It’s fiction - take something real and make it fictional.
"As for how to become a better writer? Read all the damn time. Read books, magazines, comics, online articles. Analyze the books; read about the author; research their style; read their quotes. Read books about how to write, like the series of essay we read by Chuck Palahniuk, or some of the great advice novels by some of the greats like Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut. You have to read in order to write - you can’t have one without the other. I can’t at least."
— Maxwell Kee
"When I write, I usually do the most cliche thing I’ve heard of any writer (or 'writer') do - I write about something in my life: something I hate about myself, something I hate about the world, something I love about my friends, etc. I try to be as honest as possible, lay it all out on the table, no hiding it. Besides, it doesn’t have to be about me exactly. It’s fiction - take something real and make it fictional.
"As for how to become a better writer? Read all the damn time. Read books, magazines, comics, online articles. Analyze the books; read about the author; research their style; read their quotes. Read books about how to write, like the series of essay we read by Chuck Palahniuk, or some of the great advice novels by some of the greats like Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut. You have to read in order to write - you can’t have one without the other. I can’t at least."
— Maxwell Kee
"When I was growing up, writing always came easier for me than verbal speech. With writing, I could be honest without worrying about being judged. Writing was something that came easy to me even though ironically, writing is not an easy task especially when the entire writing process is involved; writing, editing, revising, polishing.
"This semester I learned about different genres of writing such as fairy tales, historical fiction, meta-fiction, and micro-fiction. I have also how to structure my short stories a lot better. Being that I'm more of a novel writer than a short story writer, that part of the writing process never came easily to me. So I'm glad I took this class because it helped me progress as a writer."
— Nicole Fraijo
"This semester I learned about different genres of writing such as fairy tales, historical fiction, meta-fiction, and micro-fiction. I have also how to structure my short stories a lot better. Being that I'm more of a novel writer than a short story writer, that part of the writing process never came easily to me. So I'm glad I took this class because it helped me progress as a writer."
— Nicole Fraijo
"It needs to be written. It's only waiting on you.
"This is something I have lived by my whole life. Writing and reading fiction is everything to me. I was born with a very creative and imaginative mind. I constantly concoct stories and adventures, not to mention hundreds of characters and whole worlds too, all in my own head. It started to drive me crazy and I wanted other people to see and feel what I did. The only was to accomplish this was to write it down. Writing is a tool to let my mind flow and it gives me a chance to bring my imagination to life. Fiction is just the time and life I wish was real. I wanted to step into these world's myself and through writing I could bring others with me and live in a place and time people only dream of.
"In order to survive I have to write. It's my escape, the place for me to be me. I believe I was born to be a writer."
— Rebecca Whitehead
"This is something I have lived by my whole life. Writing and reading fiction is everything to me. I was born with a very creative and imaginative mind. I constantly concoct stories and adventures, not to mention hundreds of characters and whole worlds too, all in my own head. It started to drive me crazy and I wanted other people to see and feel what I did. The only was to accomplish this was to write it down. Writing is a tool to let my mind flow and it gives me a chance to bring my imagination to life. Fiction is just the time and life I wish was real. I wanted to step into these world's myself and through writing I could bring others with me and live in a place and time people only dream of.
"In order to survive I have to write. It's my escape, the place for me to be me. I believe I was born to be a writer."
— Rebecca Whitehead