Trump vs. Twitter. Who Failed What?

by Laura Lai/ Comment

On January 7^th, 2021 the online social media platform Twitter announced that the account of the U.S. President Donald Trump was suspended. It was permanently suspended. The President’s over 88 million followers were also provided a reason for this decision: ‘instigation to violence’ – in reference to the riot on the Capitol in Washington D.C. This decision of the CEO of Twitter divided the public opinion into two: On the one side, those jubilating; and on the other side, those wondering if it is right for a CEO of a private company to close a president account. Or whether or not this action is censorship – both legitimate questions. 

Looking back, it is evident that the conflict between the president and the online platforms in general and Twitter, in particular, is longer – the account closure being the climax of this conflict. The conflict raised relevant issues regarding the professionalism of journalists (1), the objectivity of the journalists (2), and the confusing status of social media (3). Trust in the media decreased in the United States from 68 percent in 1972 (when Gallup first started to monitor it) to 41 percent in September 2019 (4). In May 2019, the White House launched a Tech Bias Reporting Tool – an instrument to allow American citizens to report censorship online. Over 16,000 complaints were registered (5). The question here is whether or not they were all majoritarian Republican censorship complaints, because Jim Hanson (President of Security Studies Group who served in US Army Special Forces) said:

‘… Twitter has selectively targeted conservatives – most recently President Trump this week – and has either taken down their tweets or labeled them as misleading and added a fact check, as was the case with two of the president’s tweets dealing with problems with mail-in voting.’ (6)

And at his turn, he raises two other legitimate questions: ‘Will Twitter now fact-check every tweet by former Vice President Joe Biden and every Democratic elected official in the nation? Will it fact-check every tweet critical of President Trump?’ 

On January 7^th 2021, a group of rioters – said to be supporters of President Trump, although anybody can use such an opportunity to infiltrate and put the blame on one or the other side – engaged in a violent riot on the Capitol in D.C. Following this unfortunate event five people were killed and the account of the president on Twitter was permanently suspended. Can a CEO of a social media platform do that? asked some voices including some European ones. As a political scientist, not as a lawyer, I can think of two reasons.

            First, it is said that in a democracy there are four powers: executive, legislative, judicial, and the press. Therefore, it was a decision from the head of one power to the head of another. Indeed, the relationship between the press and the other powers is unbalanced without having a system of checks and balances. But can the online platform ‘press’ stand as the fourth power in a democracy? Well… it may not stand for ‘press’ but they stand for some powerful giants described in the Executive Order On Preventing Online Censorship of the Trump Administration as exercising a 'dangerous power. They [large, powerful social media companies] cease functioning as passive bulletin boards, and ought to be viewed and treated as content creators.’ This leads to the debatable question of whether social media companies should act as traditional publishers or should continue to benefit from section 230 of the Communication Decency Act that gives online platforms a privilege that traditional publishers do not have:

‘Here’s why that’s a big deal. For decades, social media companies have wanted to have it both ways. They wanted to be able to enjoy liability protections that traditional publishers don’t have while censoring opinions they don’t like and promoting those they do.’ (7)

            Second, the online platforms although considered ‘public square’ by the White House in the executive order, are usually somebody’s property. The properties have ‘house rules’ and if a guest does not respect the ‘house rules’ it agreed to when entering the property, they can be invited out by the owner or the administrator. People use Twitter to share views and to share their activities. Donald Trump was using it to share political ideas; I use it for writing: news about books, writing competitions, and courses. People share what they know and what they think in decent terms. Nobody is a president or a king, everybody is a follower.

            But President Trump was raising a great concern on the ‘house rules’ that changed in the meantime, without the client/followers to be aware of, which gives the online platform an advantage to kick out from the property whomever it wishes:

 'Online platforms are engaging in selective censorship that is harming our national discourse. Tens of thousands of Americans have reported, among other troubling behaviors, online platforms “flagging” content as inappropriate, even though it does not violate any stated terms of service; making unannounced and unexplained changes to company policies that have the effect of disfavoring certain viewpoints; and deleting content and entire accounts with no warning, no rationale, and no recourse.’ (8)

According to the American political system, the Head of the American legislative is the same as the Head of the Executive one, meaning the President of the United States of America. He happens to be a successful businessman who can afford any lawyer he wishes. Still, he says that no recourse is possible. Wow! What chances does a simple citizen have then? Therefore, President Trump’s Twitter account is permanently suspended for ‘instigation to violence’ – meaning that he caused the events on the Capitol. This is what ‘instigation’ means. But what exactly did he say? Did he call for people to demolish the Congress building so that Trump Enterprises to build another one? Maybe it is not the time or the place for a joke…

            Anyway, whatever President Trump said must be worse than what a rapist does – or a group of rapists does – when they rape, tape, and put on social media to destroy that child or that woman physically and psychically. Usually, police intervene, and those responsible are held accountable and go to jail, but we never know if their accounts on social media are ‘permanently suspended.'

            Furthermore, whatever President Trump said must be worse than what any terrorist did. It is said that some used to post videos on social media about the way to make bombs. At some point, during the long ‘War on Terror’ terrorists were posting the way they killed people – most of them American citizens. And after a public massacre, the press discovers that terrorists planned it all on social media. Were their accounts also ‘permanently suspended’? Maybe they were and I do not know about it. It is said that 500 million tweets are posted a day and that it would be impossible to filter all of them. Is it truly anything still left impossible (like a ‘filter’) in this technological era?

One main question is still left unanswered: Was it or was it not censorship? President Trump was accusing Twitter of ‘selective censorship’ and he was arguing that:

‘Free speech is the bedrock of American democracy. Our Founding Fathers protected this sacred right with the First Amendment to the Constitution. The freedom to express and debate ideas is the foundation for all of our rights as a free people…. As President, I have made clear my commitment to free and open debate on the internet. Such debate is just as important online as it is in our universities, our town halls, and our homes. It is essential to sustaining our democracy….Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube wield immense, if not unprecedented, power to shape the interpretation of public events; to censor, delete, or disappear information; and to control what people see or do not see.’

The concept of ‘censorship’ opposes the concept of the ‘freedom of expression’ – no doubts and no comments about it. Freedom of expression is one of the fundamental pillars of democracy – no wonder that it is the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And the term ‘censorship’ is defined by the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’ as follows:

‘Censorship, the changing or the suppression or prohibition of speech or writing that is deemed subversive of the common good.’

The answer to the question is concentrated in ‘deemed subversive’. Even this ‘deemed subversive’ goes both ways somehow because ‘stolen elections’ through fraud (an accusation from the Republican side to the Democrats) can also be seen as ‘subversive’ to democracy. And the Democrats may consider what the president has done as ‘subversive’. Therefore, what exactly did President Donald Trump say? What were his exact words considered to have caused the riot?

 

To sum up, the conflict between U.S. President Donald Trump and online social media platforms is long – maybe as long as his presidency. It opens up several debatable issues and one question opens up another one. The surprising events in the Capitol were followed by the surprising suspension of the account of the President of the United States on Twitter.

All media, in general, failed to inform us what President Trump said that was considered ‘instigation’ to violence. The riot is presented to have been the cause of the account suspension, but, actually, the antecedent variable is what the president said that caused the riot. And those of us, from the rest of the world, we do not know what he said. Logically, it is what he said, that allegedly caused the riot, that had as consequence the account closure and the opening of the debate on whether or not it was censorship and to what extent a CEO can do that. But whatever he said must be worse than the words and acts of rapists or of terrorists whose accounts we do not know if they are deleted from social media.

            Twitter seems to have failed to stay neutral as an unbiased referee that offers its platform for political ideas and concerns (like fraud concerns) to be let known by each of the competitors in a political competition. Instead, it is accused of doing the political moderator, a public opinion shaper, and a political player. I would rather prefer to see online platforms as watchdogs of freedom of expression and of the free circulation of ideas and opinions as long as they are decently formulated without any violent appeal. I am not an expert, but I know that man was on the moon and it is going again. Therefore, I refuse to believe that humankind stumbles upon a filter that cannot be applicable to democrats and republicans alike, to presidents and terrorists alike.

            Whether President Donald Trump failed the presidency or the presidency failed him, history will tell.

I hope my comment will be considered an objective reflection and an unbiased contribution to the current debate on the above two questions. I also hope that my comment will be ‘deemed constructive’ because so was its purpose.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WRITING BREAK BLOG!

                                                            Laura Lai, self-edited picture

January 19th, 2019 was a Saturday. It was just a couple of days before the beginning of the drama writing course. In my room, in the very heart of the historical city of Oxford, on Pembroke Street, I thought to implement all the video tutorials I previously watched on the way one can make a blog by itself. In a few hours, this Writing Break Blog was created.

#ThisDayInPersonnalHistory marks two years since I started blogging essays, comments, reviews, and creative writing. I love the freedom a blog gives to write an unbiased essay and comment, an old film review, and to enjoy writing a creative dialogue or a text; I love the liberty the blog offers to share and to add my objective point of view to a (debate) topic; I love to practice these writing formats for this blog. I love writing.

Happy Second Birthday Writing Break Blog! 

Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (XI)

photo edited by Laura Lai

 by Laura Lai/Uncategorized

On the 20^th of February 2010, ‘The Guardian’ published an article containing valuable advice from consecrated writers of different genres. To construct my creative writing exercise for this ‘Writing Break Blog’ I used some of the advice to build this personalized fictive dialogue from a playwright point of view.

Jeanette Winterson:

1 Turn up for work. Discipline allows creative freedom. No discipline equals no freedom.

It’s the first time when I hear that there might be a direct link between discipline in writing and creative freedom. I, actually, see them separately rather than in a cause-and-effect relationship: It’s not because I’m disciplined – which I am – that I’m creative or that I’m free in my creativity. Some people are creative, and others aren’t. For example, I’ve been said that at a very young age – kindergarten level – I was trying to make up poems. What resulted was entertaining, and that’s the way my parents found out that I was trying to make up poems. It’s an age you don’t know you’re creative, but then theater on TV and ‘Laurel and Hardy’ attracted all my attention. I was either standing and staring or sitting and staring – but staring fascinated. Then I went to school and I learned to read and write and I was going with the other children to the cinema that in the morning (on holidays, for example) was free for pupils. It’s the creativity of the others that you feel attracted by and by watching your spirit feels free. When you grow older, you’re more conscious about the fact that you’re creative and I chose human sciences high school where the focus was on languages, literature, and history without having much to do with sciences that your creativity has no calling for even if computer sciences lead to well-paid jobs. Therefore, I don’t see any direct link between discipline and creative freedom, although it might exist.  

2 Never stop when you are stuck. You may not be able to solve the problem, but turn aside and write something else. Do not stop altogether.

Most of the authors so far advised to do something else when stuck such as listening to some music, biking, baking, taking a walk, taking a bath, etc. I guess writing something else can also work. I do that sometimes. I try what I love the most – dialogue. It usually cheers me up and it’s like a refresher. And if I don’t return to the writer to write, I return to writing thinking about what I’ll write further – so, in a way, I’m back to my writing.

3 Love what you do.

I adore it!

4 Be honest with yourself. If you are no good, accept it. If the work you are doing is no good, accept it.

You’re right! It’s no point lying to yourself in any field: in writing, in a job one’s doing, in marriage, etc. By lying to yourself, you basically postpone finding a solution to a reality that is accompanying you until you’ll confront it and find a solution to it… sooner or later.

5 Don't hold on to poor work. If it was bad when it went in the drawer it will be just as bad when it comes out.

Absolutely! It’s not that by magic a manuscript will become sensational just by sitting in the drawer. Even if it pauses in the drawer, its author must still think about it, make notes about what and where to improve, and eventually take a course on how to improve certain aspects. For my plays, I wanted to improve the dialogue by making the language more artistic and the lines of the characters more persuasive. I found the course Rhetoric – the Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking provided by Harvard. I did this course motivated. It was exactly what I was looking for and at the quality I expected. I loved what I learned and I returned to the manuscripts in the drawer that couldn’t get better by themselves without me doing anything about it.

6 Take no notice of anyone you don't respect.

Yes, Ma’am! On this issue, there is a general agreement among all writers I read from for this series.

7 Take no notice of anyone with a gender agenda. A lot of men still think that women lack imagination of the fiery kind.

I don’t take notice of anyone with a gender agenda! I never did, and I never will. I don't think they are fair. For example, a lot of men still think that by sleeping around and/or frequent change of partners, women are promiscuous. But if this thing involves both/two and the woman is promiscuous, the man is what? A saint?! Obviously, the man is equally promiscuous in this equation. But most women do such things because they have children to feed. What do the men have besides sexual needs? So, who's more promiscuous in this equation? To me, the man.

Others are successful in one field because the wife takes care of absolutely everything else. Who’s more competent? The woman, of course. Others are successful because they have a woman as an assistant - and she's a great one. And so on and so forth. There are also exceptions, but I don’t take notice of anyone with a gender agenda because I’m sure I’m not going to agree with the arguments. However, encouragement, nice words, and help are always welcome.

8 Be ambitious for the work and not for the reward.

I am!

9 Trust your creativity.

I do!

10 Enjoy this work!

So do you!

It is the end of this series and I want to thank both The Guardian for having taken the initiative to bring all these writers together and the writers to have taken the time to share advice and tips from their long professional writing experience.

            There is a general agreement on several issues: on discipline and perseverance in writing; on patience in working over and over the manuscripts; on the importance of reading them out loud to improve rhythm, pace and cut off what is redundant; on the fierce cutting off sentences, paragraphs and even pages; and on the reading – better said not reading – of the comments, unless it is about people who’s opinions we trust and treasure. There is also a general agreement on having the Internet turned off while working and not writing while drunk or on drugs.

            Some writers used the opportunity to stress the importance of auto-correcting settings, clichés, and of the fact that writing is hard work, but it’s also gambling that does not offer any pension plan. In terms of other authors that these writers quoted, I came across Oscar Wilde and Flaubert. The latter advised us to work more and speak less (‘Faire et se taire’).

I began this series in November 2019. At that time I was still enrolled in the online course on rhetoric at Harvard which has a quality reputation and the reputation of an academically demanding university. My motivation was also high to learn from one of the best and I knew I would not have much time left to do article research to write essays and comments for the Writing Break Blog.

            I thought to consider this article for the ‘uncategorized’ section of the blog. I thought to choose one good, long, and relevant (writing) article during my course. I thought to learn from the experience of the other writers while I was learning the way to write more artistic and persuasive lines. I thought to take from it what is relevant for drama writing, because I’m trying something slightly ‘avant-garde’ with the single-issue drama, in the sense that it is complex in itself but less explored. But I enjoy different writing experiences and all advice was useful. Commenting on their ‘free style’ (sometimes I tried to be funny, but I’m not sure I made it) was my way to show to each and every one of them that I gave a thought to every single piece of advice they shared – because I truly appreciate it.

There is more to be summarized because the advice was plenty, but I would better stop here, as one of the writers said ‘[f]inish the day’s writing when you still want to continue.’ And I would finish with another great piece of advice for all of us since we are still at the beginning of the year: ‘Get lucky! Stay lucky!’

Thank you all for your advice. Happy writing everybody! J

Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (X)

 

by Laura Lai/Uncategorized

 

On the 20^th of February 2010, ‘The Guardian’ published an article containing valuable advice from consecrated writers of different genres. To construct my creative writing exercise for this ‘Writing Break Blog’ I used some of the advice to build this personalized fictive dialogue from a playwright point of view.

Rose Tremain:

1 Forget the boring old dictum "write about what you know". Instead, seek out an unknown yet knowable area of experience that's going to enhance your understanding of the world and write about that.

Exploring new areas and researching new topics with which the writer may not be very familiar is a great experience. Still, I wouldn’t overrule the idea of writing about what one knows either. I’m not thinking of politics, but other people specialized in other fields can use their storytelling talent to craft great stories that can enlighten, entertain or contribute to the public debate on that issue, be it political, environmental, or medical given these pandemic times.

2 Nevertheless, remember that in the particularity of your own life lies the seedcorn that will feed your imaginative work. So don't throw it all away on autobiography. (There are quite enough writers' memoirs out there already.)

OK! OK! You caught me! I confess! I confess it all! I have different writing projects in my mind because I enjoy different writing experiences, but none of them concern any autobiography. At least not yet! J

3 Never be satisfied with a first draft. In fact, never be satisfied with your own stuff at all, until you're certain it's as good as your finite powers can enable it to be.

Indeed, the first draft is seldom satisfactory. It also depends on the writing style. Those of us who first write several drafts in our heads before we decide to sit and write the last draft in mind may be close to the final version. Although many – if not all – are perfectionists about writing, there is a moment when we know that that is the most we could do. And we have to leave it to the public and readers’ scrutiny. I took the course on rhetoric at Harvard because I wanted to improve my writing and the lines with more written art. After that, there is nothing I can add more.

4 […] When an idea comes, spend silent time with it. Remember Keats's idea of Negative Capability and Kipling's advice to "drift, wait and obey". Along with your gathering of hard data, allow yourself also to dream your idea into being.

To ‘dream the idea into being’… how beautifully formulated!

5 In the planning stage of a book, don't plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it.

Some writers don’t. Some others do. The genre conventions already set the ending: this protagonist will be rewarded, this will be punished, etc. But it doesn’t set the way. For one of my plays, I had to break the time unity convention in order for the final act to be more enjoyable and for each of the protagonists to get to a certain endpoint that matches the story.

6 Respect the way characters may change once they've got 50 pages of life in them. Revisit your plan at this stage and see whether certain things have to be altered to take account of these changes.

7 If you're writing historical fiction, don't have well-known real characters as your main protagonists. This will only create biographical unease in the readers and send them back to the history books. If you must write about real people, then do something post-modern and playful with them.

In sketches, it works well to use real characters. It can also be fun. Hopefully, the real characters have the sense of humor, too. To me, the vocabulary is important – not to be offensive. For example, on May 12^th, 2019 I posted on this Writing Break Blog a dialogue in which the protagonists were the US President Donald Trump, and the currently former EU President of the Council, Donald Tusk. Inspired by a speech given by the latter I wrote this dialogue to have a laugh about the ‘ridiculosity’ of the situation. I used real characters without using offending vocabulary or bad words and it turned into ‘A Dialogue of Two Donalds’ that can be read here. Some other times, it was the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and the opposition party leader, Jeremy Corbyn that inspired the dialogue you can read here. Because of political decisions many people cannot find jobs, those who have must pay more taxes, etc. There is lots of bitterness around politics and political decisions, so why not laugh a bit about it?!

Political parodies stretch topics to limits. In the ‘Saturday Night Show’ we’ve seen Alec Baldwin interpreting the real character, Donald Trump, for years; equally, Jim Carrey plays greatly Joe Biden. In order to be fun and to have audiences to this show – that might be somebody’s business and must make a profit – elements are exaggerated. But this is what we know, what’s fun, and what we laugh about. 

8 Learn from cinema. Be economic with descriptions. Sort out the telling detail from the lifeless one. Write dialogue that people would actually speak.

Thank you for mentioning the cinema! I already feel better. J

Sarah Waters:

1 Read like mad. But try to do it analytically – which can be hard, because the better and more compelling a novel is, the less conscious you will be of its devices. It's worth trying to figure those devices out, however: they might come in useful in your own work. I find watching films also instructive. Nearly every modern Hollywood blockbuster is hopelessly long and baggy. Trying to visualise the much better films they would have been with a few radical cuts is a great exercise in the art of story-telling. Which leads me on to . . .

I love writing sketches and enjoy reading drama. Therefore, I used to read drama analytically trying to guess the technique behind it. But the guessing (even if done right) doesn't help with the confidence. The writing courses do. After the course on Drama Writing at Oxford, where students learn about writing devices applicable to different mediums, I wrote my first long dialogue like a journey that goes on tens of pages and follows a structure. Indeed, the cinema is just another medium, next to theater, radio, and TV. No, I have never written any script (so far!), but when it comes to writing, and as I know myself enjoying different writing adventures, I never say ‘never.’

2 Cut like crazy. Less is more. I've often read manuscripts – including my own – where I've got to the beginning of, say, chapter two and have thought: "This is where the novel should actually start." A huge amount of information about character and backstory can be conveyed through small detail. The emotional attachment you feel to a scene or a chapter will fade as you move on to other stories. Be business-like about it. In fact . . .

It seems that there is a general agreement on cutting as much as possible. And I also share this view that ‘less is more’ and ‘simple is more elegant.' By ‘be business-like' I understand to be professional because otherwise, my perception of 'business-like' is arrogance, even applicable to those who may run a small neighborhood business (e.g. cafeteria, bakery, etc.) - but it also depends on countries and cultures. I don't understand the arrogance because we, the customers, make them businessmen buying their products. There’re exceptions, too: Melania Trump – I understand she’s in business, but I’ve never perceived her as being arrogant; Bill Gates on whose Microsoft Word I’m writing this blog; and there are others. The same with public servants, especially the supra-national ones (e.g. Brussels). I've never understood their arrogance because it's we, the people, who pay them - most of the time, to do nothing. From my observation, in general, in business, the bigger the business, the less arrogant the owner is. In public service, in general, is the other way around: the higher the public servant, the more arrogant and the less approachable by the people who pay them to occupy that high position. There are always exceptions. Good luck finding them! :-)

Yes, sometimes a writer can start with chapter two or act two. I had this impression once, but if I leave it there it might be for a reason: be it structure, rounding-up my story, etc. In terms of plays and movies, I always get to the end of them and never leave them after the first ten minutes. I’m convinced they go somewhere. It is usually so. And I want to see where the story or the argument goes.

3 Treat writing as a job. Be disciplined. Lots of writers get a bit OCD-ish about this. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words a day. Jean Plaidy managed 5,000 before lunch, then spent the afternoon answering fan mail. My minimum is 1,000 words a day – which is sometimes easy to achieve, and is sometimes, frankly, like shitting a brick, but I will make myself stay at my desk until I've got there, because I know that by doing that I am inching the book forward. Those 1,000 words might well be rubbish – they often are. But then, it is always easier to return to rubbish words at a later date and make them better.

For most of us, writing doesn’t pay anything (or very little) and we have to pay the publishing house, too – no, I still didn’t find a sponsor for my book in German. Only best-seller writers can actually live from their writing, the other writers have a job to pay for their living expenses. That’s why my plans to relocate abroad – to have a job that pays, better living conditions, and a different culture that can be even more inspiring. As for the number of words people write per day and that some people put on Social Media quite constantly… I look at it as a personal thing, a detail of a writer’s writing process, I never understood why we all shall know about it and so frequently.

4 Writing fiction is not "self-expression" or "therapy". Novels are for readers, and writing them means the crafty, patient, selfless construction of effects. I think of my novels as being something like fairground rides: my job is to strap the reader into their car at the start of chapter one, then trundle and whizz them through scenes and surprises, on a carefully planned route, and at a finely engineered pace.

You’re perfectly right! I’ve heard myself maaany people saying that writing is some sort of therapy. Writing can help organize an avalanche of thoughts – I did that after I left the Ph.D. program – that may later serve as material for another story or will stay as a memoir. I never understood where this idea of writing as therapy comes from. And as you well assume, I fully disagree because writers aren't some lunatics who instead of going to a shrink, they write. This is completely wrong! 

Writing is a skill that requires talent dubbed by years of practice, patience, and observation to combine story with plot and dialogue, following a structure and respecting as much as possible the genre conventions. We do that empty-handed, but with words. To draft over and over, to cut and substitute over and over, etc. is more nerve-wracking for writers than therapy. And for those of us who write in a foreign language, this is more challenging, not therapy. And when there are difficulties to sell your books because there are so many talented writers out there, the writer just starts writing another book because it likes to write – what therapy? Why is writing and not car racing therapy? Maybe the driver runs away from some thoughts with so much speed? J

5 Respect your characters, even the minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters' stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist's. At the same time . . .

6 Don't overcrowd the narrative. Characters should be individualised, but functional – like figures in a painting. Think of Hieronymus Bosch's Christ Mocked, in which a patiently suffering Jesus is closely surrounded by four threatening men. Each of the characters is unique, and yet each represents a type; and collectively they form a narrative that is all the more powerful for being so tightly and so economically constructed. On a similar theme . . .

7 Don't overwrite. Avoid the redundant phrases, the distracting adjectives, the unnecessary adverbs. Beginners, especially, seem to think that writing fiction needs a special kind of flowery prose, completely unlike any sort of language one might encounter in day-to-day life (…).

I would frame this series of advice next to ‘cut like mad’ and be professional with your writing and your characters. The single-issue drama puts more accent on the topic than on the characters, but I don’t want to neglect them. I’m giving them as much consideration as the topic’s unfolding allows. I learned practically the difficulties to work with many characters than with just a few, but sometimes the topic requires it. For example, a play on Brexit has as many protagonists as stars are on the European Union’s flag – twelve. That was challenging. It was more interesting from the topic point of view to make them come from different countries and not necessarily from member countries. What I’m trying to say is that the topic and the genre conventions already draw the story in big lines.

8 Pace is crucial. Fine writing isn't enough. Writing students can be great at producing a single page of well-crafted prose; what they sometimes lack is the ability to take the reader on a journey, with all the changes of terrain, speed and mood that a long journey involves. Again, I find that looking at films can help. Most novels will want to move close, linger, move back, move on, in pretty cinematic ways.

Absolutely! The pace is crucial for the overall journey and for dialogue. Reading out loud can be very helpful when cutting what is redundant when checking the rhythm of dialogue and having a good idea about the overall pace of the writing.

9 Don't panic. Midway through writing a novel, I have regularly experienced moments of bowel-curdling terror, as I contemplate the drivel on the screen before me and see beyond it, in quick succession, the derisive reviews, the friends' embarrassment, the failing career, the dwindling income, the repossessed house, the divorce . . . (…) Leaving the desk for a while can help. Talking the problem through can help me recall what I was trying to achieve before I got stuck. Going for a long walk almost always gets me thinking about my manuscript in a slightly new way. And if all else fails, there's prayer. St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers, has often helped me out in a crisis. If you want to spread your net more widely, you could try appealing to Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, too.

What I understand is that writing may be a cause of these problems rather than therapy for them. The therapy when you’re stuck would be to take a break, walk and do other things that may be inspiring to write a better draft or even come up with a better writing idea. It’s the first time I hear about a ‘patron saint of writers’ – I’m glad to hear about it. I’m a believer in God. I’m Christian Orthodox. We also have saints but more classical ones: St. Mary, St. Peter, St. John, etc.

10 Talent trumps all … For the rest of us, however, rules remain important. And, crucially, only by understanding what they're for and how they work can you begin to experiment with breaking them.

The authors of classical literature (and music) that we read and reread (listen and re-listen), over and over, have never heard of marketing campaigns or promotions on Social Media. J They only had talent. Lots! J (To Be Continued) 

Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (IX)

selfie by Laura Lai 

by Laura Lai/Uncategorized

 

On the 20^th of February 2010, ‘The Guardian’ published an article containing valuable advice from consecrated writers of different genres. To construct my creative writing exercise for this ‘Writing Break Blog’ I used some of the advice to build this fictive dialogue from a playwright's point of view.

Zadie Smith:

1 […] When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.

I’m fine with reading the work ‘as a stranger’ because I understand to read it without any affection that you wrote it – and this helps when cutting sentences, paragraphs, and even pages; it helps from the objective point of view when the author needs to be objective. To me, that’s one of the main and fundamental criteria when writing single-issue dramas (with a political and historical dimension).

But do you know what it means to read ‘as an enemy’ would read? Once upon a time, politicians were political opponents with opposite views, debating and sustaining with great arguments their points of view. Nowadays, they are enemies. Therefore, to read as an enemy would, means to read the ‘2020 State of the Union Address,' for example, read by President Donald Trump the way the Head of the House, Nancy Pelosi, did – simply, tearing it up. Many authors read their own (many) drafts this way. As their final works…

2 Don't romanticise your "vocation". You can either write good sentences or you can't. There is no "writer's lifestyle". All that matters is what you leave on the page.

Come on! What’s wrong with ‘romanticizing’ a vocation that concerns painting, writing, playing, and reciting something beautiful? As for the ‘lifestyle’, each writer is a different individual and each has its own lifestyle, but we all have in common a temperamental predisposition to write. The lifestyle can impact what the writer writes about, but not the way it does that. In my case, it was the political science background correlated to the pleasure of writing dialogues that made me choose to write the type of drama I write that focuses more on the topic than on the characters. Indeed, ‘all it matters is what you leave on the page’ and the way you leave it – meaning artistically (literally) formulated. To me, why you want to put it on the page is also important – to record an event for history, to recollect a historical event that may be forgotten, to clarify, and if we can also laugh a bit that’s great because laughing is the best medicine.

3 Avoid your weaknesses. But do this without telling yourself that the things you can't do aren't worth doing. Don't mask self-doubt with contempt.

I don’t see myself writing poetry, for example (although I wrote a few when I was in high school and that were also published). Instead, I love reading it. I have a favorite poet (that happens to belong to the 'Romanticism' literature period). I know poems by heart. But this is something I can’t do –most probably it’s because I cannot express myself so shortly! J I don't take it as a weakness either. However, the point is that even though, I don't write poetry, it doesn’t mean that writing poetry is not worth doing. Oh, yes! It’s worth doing. And there are plenty of poets that did that and are doing that better than I will ever do.

4 Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.

Reading with fresh eyes is the advice I’ve read and heard from my writers. It seems to be a general agreement on that – to which I subscribe, too. My WIP for the drama writing course, at Oxford, was also the first political play that I read it with fresh eyes a couple of times already. After writing for years short dialogues, I felt ready to write tens of pages of an unfolding dialogue around a topic and on a structure, I was still learning. Now, I’m going to read it again, for one of the very last times, because following the course on rhetoric at Harvard (that I have just completed in November) I want to work the lines, and the words and make the way the arguments are expressed more artistically. Although all my writings are dedicated to my parents, this first drama is dedicated to my tutors. Therefore, I’m doing everything possible to dedicate them something good and beautiful, too.

5 Avoid cliques, gangs, groups. The presence of a crowd won't make your writing any better than it is.

I’m not and have never been the person of a ‘clique’, ‘gang’, or ‘group’. That’s the way some of us are as persons. Some superficial people may call it ‘arrogance’. It’s wrong – it’s simply the way some people are and there is nothing wrong with it because it has no bad consequences for society as a whole. An ‘arrogant’ person is a person who’s approached by people considered ‘inferior’ by education, social status, professional rank, or whatever other reasons, and they consider that they aren’t worth replying to, or worse, giving them a hand because that would humiliate them to be seen next to them or with them. This is arrogance. This is disgusting. And this is the way I’m not!

However, since last year I’m on Social Media writing groups – which is fine. I’m glad I took that decision. Some writers are part of reading groups, too. They read there their works, they get feedback, and they’re happy – and I’m happy for them. I think for many groups it might look like torture to read and give feedback on a political play with a historical dimension because many might not have an interest in reading such a play and they would feel ‘obliged’ to do so for a ‘group member.' Depending on the topic approached, maybe also the genre, I consider better feedback from one or two people who know the topic and who might enjoy reading it for feedback. The problem is that most of them never have time.

6 Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.

This is also a general agreement, but I don’t find any problem to have my computer connected to the Internet while writing because I can work without being distracted by it. Then I might need it to check words in English or other data that need to be double-checked.

7 Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

So that they don’t distract me from writing? I write whatever text first in my mind. When I sit and put it on the screen it’s done or almost done in my mind – and I can be interrupted. I know where to resume. This doesn’t mean that I would enjoy frequent interruptions because when you sit and write, you work and it’s not pleasant to be frequently interrupted. Obviously!

8 Don't confuse honours with achievement.

And speaking of words that need to be checked while working and connected to the Internet, the Lexico dictionary defines the word ‘honor’ as ‘high respect, great esteem’ and ‘achievement’ as ‘a thing done successfully with effort, skill or courage.’ Now, that the words are explained accordingly there isn’t any room left for confusion. On the one hand, achievements are definitely for hard-working people, but not all of them are rewarded with honors. On the other hand, a Ph.D. that is plagiarism is an honor one can long benefit from (with the respect and esteem that derives from it) without having put in the effort and the skill to write it.

9 Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.

I prefer writings and movies inspired by a true story that also respects the historical truth and makes a beautiful story around it. For example, the movie Titanic is built on a true story. We don’t know if there was such a precious diamond on it but the story built around it and linked to it might be the creational part that made the story (absolutely!) fantastic. Jack was so talented at drawing that he achieved a beautiful pencil drawing. What a pity that he didn’t make it to America to get also the honors of a great artist! J

Colm Tóibín:

1 Finish everything you start.

Yes... I think I’m about to finish this series.

2 Get on with it.

Yes…

3 Stay in your mental pyjamas all day.

I love this metaphor of the ‘mental pajamas’! It’s the first time I’m hearing it. Now that you mentioned it, you made me think… As long as I did not have a job, I invested all my time in my writing activity. It means that all this time I was in ‘mental pajamas’ all day long. Sometimes I changed. Please, believe me! And if you don’t, you can check my Instagram at Laura_Lai_Writer. This thing with ‘writer’ at the end is also a tip I learned from the others – it seems that it makes it easier for the followers.

4 Stop feeling sorry for yourself.

The person who told you that I feel sorry for myself lied to you. That’s fake news! I’m not surprised that you’ve been laid because, statistically, people lie a lot and several times a day without any problem or any remorse – I’m the exception from these statistics. But you know what? Once I’ve been told that ‘lies are also words.' And because the truth is also words - what's the difference? You can’t reply with either principles, morality, or conscience if the other one has none.

5 No alcohol, sex or drugs while you are working.

If you say so…

6 Work in the morning, a short break for lunch, work in the afternoon and then watch the six o'clock news and then go back to work until bed-time. Before bed, listen to Schubert, preferably some songs.

Indeed, I also like to listen to some classical music while I work or after, it depends. As for the six or seven o’clock news… I’ll skip that. Would you mind? In the country of origin, each of us can foresee the news: car crashes, murders, rapes, strikes, Ph.D. diplomas that are plagiarisms … what else?.. complains about the lack of highways and about the deep holes in those we have, etc. For news, I prefer TV5 Monde because I can French and because it informs me a lot about what’s going on everywhere, in general, and from different points of view: some shows focus on artistic events (e.g. MOE on TV5) in different countries, others tackle the social problems, and others only the political events. Many Arab and African countries are also French-speaking countries and with TV5 Monde I learn more about what is going on around the world. And I keep fresh my French which I studied well and I used to participate in the French language local and national competitions and scored high (e.g. at the local competitions, I've been always been in the top three every year during high school). But there was a time when I was having on TV  CNN, TVE, RAI, PRO7... Fortunately, I still have some movie channels, National Geographic and History left because otherwise, I would unplug the TV the way others turn off their Internet when there are writing.

7 If you have to read, to cheer yourself up read biographies of writers who went insane.

Why? There are plenty of other things to do! If I want to cheer myself up and writing isn’t – as it usually does – then, I take a break and I find another activity that cheers me up: I’ll watch a movie, I’ll read a sketch, I’ll listen to some music, I’ll bake something, etc. I also love taking a walk to a park (I would prefer a beautiful park, but I usually only find a bench along the street) to drink a coffee with milk that it's usually a take-away, just to enjoy the weather, to look at the people, and to think at my writings.

8 On Saturdays, you can watch an old Bergman film, preferably Persona or Autumn Sonata.

I love movies from all my heart! I can’t wait until Saturday to watch one! I was a child who was going with other children to the cinema. I’ve seen more movies in my life than anything else: American, Indian, Russian, etc. – and I never had enough! I’m watching every day. And I love old ones, too. Furthermore, I’m delighted that this Writing Blog is an opportunity for me to review old movies. This cheers me up twice: first, when I watch the movie; and second when I write about it. J

9 No going to London.

The first time I went to London was in 2018 to make some arrangements for my course in 2019. It was October. I’ve been there for ten days and I had great weather. If you’d say not to go to Oxford Street, I agree because it’s very crowded – that would be hard to sit and write. Obviously, it’s not made for this. But when I went to St. James Park and two squirrels climbed on my feet while some pigeons were on my arms and one on my head that was lovely! And I'm glad I could take some pictures with the lovely pigeons on my head and my arms. The squirrels, instead, were too fast. There was a place one could sit and think of whatever one wants to write about, but I took pictures of the pigeons. J What a welcome I’ve got! People were watching delightedly, too. It was an amazing moment!

10 No going anywhere else either.

Do you mean that the writer more than any others is used with the lockdown? With long lockdowns? You’re right! J (To Be Continued)

selfie by Laura Lai -

 On my shoulders and both arms, there were many pigeons. :-)