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Written Criticism vs. Video Criticism

In the past few years, we've seen a shift in popularity from written media criticism to video criticism. It's becoming more and more difficult to just be a writer, as you're now demanded to a do a video or record a podcast alongside it. In this new landscape, have there been people left by the wayside? Is it still possible to become established solely through writing?

  • This is a very important topic. As a writer I feel pressured to create vlogs, as I'm sure most others are too. Whether it's writing, art, gaming, or anything at all, people flock to various youtube channels rather than head to personally made blogs or online galleries. To succeed as a writer the publicity needed seems daunting... Is the anonymous writer a thing of the past? – Slaidey 8 years ago
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  • This is a great proposal. Social media and the development of new technologies forces people to come up with different ways to propagate and "consume" ideas. But we don't have to forget that choosing a "medium" to communicate your ideas depends on who you want to reach, what you want to say, how long you want it to to last, how seriously you want to be taken, and many other things. – T. Palomino 2 years ago
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What does it mean to be an artist?

From a societal point of view, how does an artist serve humanity through his or her works? Many artists simply get rich and famous, but is there more to it than that? What about those lesser known musicians, painters, filmmakers and such that make profound statements through their creations and performances? What makes an artistic performance profound in the first place?

  • Many artists are misunderstood and that is the problem, you 'll only understand an artists if you, yourself are a true artist. Sadly most artists don not get the recognition they deserve until after they have passed away. – petergeoff21 8 years ago
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  • The poem "Portrait of the Poet as Landscape" by A. M. Klein could shed some light on this topic. – JennyCardinal 8 years ago
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  • This is sort of like the question asked in every art history/fine art class, "What is Art". It usually sparks a lot of heated discussion. However, finding out what it means to be an artist today vs perhaps in the renaissance could be an interesting point to start from – hmsnow 8 years ago
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  • I agree with the commentator above, it is a broad question. However, as a visual arts student on the cusp of graduation I would say being an artist in the contemporary art realm means being defined by other artists. Often in class I will hear comparisons being drawn between a learning artists work and a famous artist. We are constantly searching up artists who have already developed a unique subject matter that has defined them as worthy of attention within the art world. I am an artist however I am defined by the artists of the past and present, their techniques and subjects, and their successes and failures. – melpetrinack 8 years ago
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  • fff – sktthemes 8 years ago
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  • This question resembles that old one that says: "What is the meaning of life?" – T. Palomino 2 years ago
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Published

Creating a Writing Habit

How have you built a daily writing habit while holding a job or going to school?

  • I use my partner's gym time as my accountability stick. We drive together to an area with both a coffee shop and a gym, and while he's at the gym (usually 2 hours per day) I sit and write. He's my ride, so I'm forced to stay in a location and write until the time period is up. I don't have the discipline to carve out a time for myself without external accountability (like being physically stranded). – Piper CJ 8 years ago
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  • I've found it helpful to have a writers' group with a small group of friends. Every meet-up we set an achievable goal (research this, write 500 words, make an outline), so we remain motivated and see our progress. – ckmwriter 8 years ago
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  • I've always been taught to start ridiculously small and work up. (Either by minutes or word count.) Sometimes I aim for 15 minutes a day (but one could even do 5 or 10 minutes to start off), first thing in the morning, which forces me to ensure I make time for that 15 minutes. Even with such a small time commitment, you are motivated to add more time to your daily goal, building up to 30-60 minutes. And even if you stick to a small goal, after one year you've ideally written for over 90 hours. – tracyrwdeboer 8 years ago
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  • I just love to write (or rather type) and creating short stories or novellas. It's something I don't even have to try and fit into my life because it is life. I think it started after a couple dreams. I wrote them down then realized I could expand upon them and as such I have created several stories that I am working on to publish someday. – The Pokemon Professor 8 years ago
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  • I use my son's nap times when I am at home, which still affords me a good couple of hours. At work, I use break times. Also, I write for at least one hour in the evening. Sarah Selecky's daily ten minute writing prompts are a fun way to get yourself into the daily writing habit. – LAMead 8 years ago
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Density vs. Girth

Not quite quantity vs. quality but the application of one wholly, with the artful presence of the other throughout or around it in varying degrees within the same body whether physically or conceptually. Studying the sciences for many years, one can see this idea present in small things such as cells, grain structures within metals and the in the integrity of human cognition and other faculties of the mind. To what extent is this observation true in day-to-day life, art, consumer products? How can this observation or thesis be elaborated, modified or falsified?

  • This could have been an interesting proposal for an article if at least a single example was elaborated to illustrate the concepts loosely developed here. – T. Palomino 2 years ago
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"Epistemology of Insiderness"

This is a concept from the book "Autoethnography"…which refers to, I think, the concept of using our own "insiderness"' or that which makes me me and not you, as a template for further study and the hypothesization of generalities…Does this have any validity whatsoever, or is it just a bunch of BS…?

  • Possibly a bit of both, yes? – Munjeera 8 years ago
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  • From the way it is explained here, it does look like a bunch of the latter, certainly. – T. Palomino 2 years ago
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Adverbs: Devils or just demonized?

Discuss the use of adverbs in writing. Stephen King said to use adverbs as $100 bills and most writing adages say to exclude them in most cases. When might you want to use adverbs? Are all adverbs badverbs?

  • In screenwriting, adverbs are discouraged in favour or strong verbs that don't require any beefing up, in order to create a quicker, more streamlined read. I feel this is a tip which writers of almost any medium could adopt, with no detrimental effect to their own writing - after all, who doesn't want a quick, slick read? (Unless the writer's intention is exactly the opposite, in which case they must ignore the above!). This sounds like a fascinating, unusual topic. – J.P. Shiel 8 years ago
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  • From a playwriting perspective, parenthetical adverbs are often found prefacing lines of dialogue to reduce ambiguity in the author's intended tone. [For example. . . Tom: (angrily) Get back here, I'm not done talking to you!] Often, editors and dramaturgs will recommend that you cut down on using adverbs in this way - if not getting rid of them altogether - because they limit the potential for actors and directors to interpret the lines and emotions for themselves, from which they might discover more nuanced complexities lurking within the subtext. I imagine the rules are very different when writing a novel or short story, since those aren't mediated forms. Once a novel is written, it doesn't require anyone (such as actors and directors) to reinterpret it; it's a complete finished product made for a private discourse with its reader. – ProtoCanon 8 years ago
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Monetizing Writing in 2016

Examine the current state of professional writing, journalistic and/or fiction, in the digital age, and the comforts as well as the difficulties that aspiring writers may have making a living off their work. For journalism, you can talk about how modern outlets rely increasingly on easily replaceable writers repeating the news instead of defined personalities and opinions, as well as the reliance on sponsored content for income resulting in a rift between the editors and writers. For fiction, you could talk about how digital and self-publishing has made it more difficult for large publishing houses to bring on new writers and compensate them properly, while at the same time self-publishing for a living carries it's own risks of being unable to easily reach a larger audience.

  • Great topic, one that I've recently written on. Some background information about the effects of social media on advertising revenue for journalism and literature publications would be helpful in grounding the exploration. As well, niching, or the death of the general interest magazine, could be covered as well. – Aaron 8 years ago
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How blogging changes the human language

Blogging can be seen as today's vernacular. But how is it changing the way we write and story tell? How does blogging compare to "proper" writing in the sense of how people understand language today? This piece would require a commentary on whether someone thinks blogging is beneficial or not for storytelling and learning through writing.

  • Talk about different types of blogs. People use blogs to document specific times in their life like a diary (example: NaNoWriMo) whereas others use blogs to display their stories and/or articles. – JennyCardinal 8 years ago
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  • The one thing that comes to mind: published stories are to blogging what Latin used be to vernacular languages. I think that blogging is valuable, because it opens discussions to audiences who were otherwise not part of important conversations. Of course, this is not the case for each and every blog (as JennyCardinal mentioned), but it seems to me that there is a 'universalizing' or 'democratizing' feature to blogging that does not exist in more traditional storytelling venues. In terms of storytelling, blogging certainly transfers ownership from fewer authors to many. Microcosms of society can even form around bloggers, which I always found amazing. Is it beneficial, though? I can't help but think it is, in that language will evolve no matter what, that it takes the form of blogging circumstantial. Even if bloggers adopt their own language to which only a few people are privy to, there is a similar phenomenon in specialized disciplines like medicine and law anyway. – mghio165 8 years ago
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