Has your Pen sharpened your Tongue?

[NoJo]

I remember seeing a face-to-face TV interview on the BBC of Vladmir Nabokov, where he had insisted on being mailed all the interviewer's questions before hand.

He answered each question by reading out from a card. The first question was "why did you insist on previewing all my questions?"

His answer was along the lines of "I write much better than I speak extempore. I'm not here being interviewed by you because of my famous speaking ability." (cunt).

Do you think that your writing has helped you converse better?

 

[rgraham666]

Nope. I would say my conversing has helped me write better.

 

[TheEarl]

I'd say that my occasional diary writings have helped my speech. When I'm very pressed with something, I find it difficult to ask for help or to complain, so it tends to get written down and I feel better. If the topic does come up later though, I often find myself quoting myself, saying things that first came out through the pen.

The Earl

 

[Belegon]

Has my writing helped my conversation? Hmm, not sure.


But the AH has most definitely increased my typing words per minute...

 

[Guest]

Nyet. Writing helps me think better but not extempore in person. Unless I'm with close friends I'm often quiet socially because I get too flustered trying to say the right thing. I hated all classroom situations, could never express myself as well as I desired. When I did grab the moment it was worse because I always failed and felt like a dunce afterwards. I recall speaking aloud too many times and hardly being able to concentrate from one word to another let alone get a good sentence out.

Good question.

Perdita

 

[gauchecritic]

There is a French expression (been trying to recall it for years) which translates something like "That backstairs feeling." That point at which you think up a really good line to a question you were asked earlier but all you could think of at the time was "you are."

I write much more eloquently than I speak (not much need for eloquence round these parts) but I have been known to come up with some gems in conversation.

On the whole though I need thinking time in order to sound ordered.

I have a comparatively massive vocabulary and frustratingly, I also have slight aphasia which two things are wholly incompatible when speaking extempore.

It's not the writing that's given me this eloquence, it's the reading.

 

[LadyJeanne]

Writing things out helps clarify my thoughts, so that leads to more clarity when speaking on the subject. Otherwise, I think reading helps more than writing.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I'm with gauche on this one. Reading is responsible for any improvement in my vocabulary, grammar, and conversation.

 

[impressive]

Writing helps me think better but not extempore in person.

I agree.

I am MUCH better communicating via the written word than the spoken.

 

[Op_Cit]

There is a French expression (been trying to recall it for years) which translates something like "That backstairs feeling." That point at which you think up a really good line to a question you were asked earlier but all you could think of at the time was "you are."

Is it: "esprit d'escalie" ?

Not sure of that spelling but what I heard translated as "the wit of the stairs". I only remember this because I am a master of it.

 

[gauchecritic]

Is it: "esprit d'escalie" ?

Not sure of that spelling but what I heard translated as "the wit of the stairs". I only remember this because I am a master of it.

exactly that. Thankyou. and the translation too. Thankyou

 

[Liar]

In a way, yes. Taking an interrest in words and language, through writing and reading alike, have given me a better and wider vocabulary. Which I have used as one part in improving my conversation.

Learning how to use it right is an entirely different cookie. That's done best through listening to people, and stealing their tricks. The speaker's equivalence to a writer who reads, I guess.

#L

 

[BlackShanglan]

Normally the writing doesn't help, but every now and then I "channel" one of my characters at just the right moment. My job occasionally involves having people lie blatantly and to one's face; the last time someone did, I realized in the aftermath that the poor sod got the sharp side of Sebastian's tongue. (Character in MS in progress). It has its advantages; I haven't seen the shadow of him since.

Shanglan

 

[Liar]

Normally the writing doesn't help, but every now and then I "channel" one of my characters at just the right moment. My job occasionally involves having people lie blatantly and to one's face; the last time someone did, I realized in the aftermath that the poor sod got the sharp side of Sebastian's tongue. (Character in MS in progress). It has its advantages; I haven't seen the shadow of him since.

Shanglan

Hehe. I do channel some of my former stage personas now and then. They are oftem much cooler than me.

 

[Guest]

re. character channeling

I would so love to meet up with a certain couple of characters from stories I've read here. Some for the sex, some for the humour. However, I'd freak out if one of my characters started speaking through me.

Perdita

 

[BlackShanglan]

Re: re. character channeling

I would so love to meet up with a certain couple of characters from stories I've read here. Some for the sex, some for the humour. However, I'd freak out if one of my characters started speaking through me.

Yes, there are a number I would love to meet. Personally, I quite enjoyed Sebastian dropping in, but then I rather love him. (I know it's awful to say that, but he is a decadent poet.) I think that in all of the characters that I really empathize with, there is something of myself. It's like Wilde's comment on multiplying personalities in "Dorian Gray."

Best choice to date: channelling the ninja when faced with a room of unruly 9th graders. She's not threatening or flash. She's just very, very focused.

Shanglan

 

[brightlyiburn]

Since I was really little, I've had a real talent for writing and speaking. I can't remember a time when I couldn't form a proper sentence, on paper or out loud.
My theory is that this is due to the Aspergers.

It's kind of a curse in many ways, though. I've got Verbs, Adjectives, and Nouns down pat, but when it comes to any other grammar term, I have no clue. Like I know I use conjunctions, but don't ask me to tell you what they actually are, cause I can't.

 

[NoJo]

I had a friend was was a writer, and then he had a stroke, which affected his ability to speak. He was from a tough Glasgow docker's background, but was one of these self-educated intellectuals who took great pride in his mastery of language.

After he stroke, he told me once (in his really thick Glaswegian accent)
"I've gat nae probllem with 'polymorphism' or 'individualistic'. It's the 'and's and 'but's i dinna fockin understand."

(Poor fucker's daid noo).

 

[yui]

I have always had the ability to put on a public face and be all bright and shiny when needed. In fact, in my family, it was demanded. The public face has little to do with the me inside, and it is actually more difficult for me to achieve the same level of gregariousness in correspondence (verses writing fiction) because I am more "private me" when I write.

I honestly don't know which ability (speaking v. writing) has most impacted the other.

 

[Boota]

Nope. I would say my conversing has helped me write better.

Same here. I tend to write very conversationally, especially when i write in first person.

When it comes to public speaking I've always done really well and I feel perfectly comfortable winging a speech. I've never done professional stand-up comedy, but one night I performed for twenty minutes off the top of my head for a line of people waiting to get into a concert. I started talking to my singer while we were waiting and the next thing I know there is a crowd surrounding us and I'm just riffing on everything. Afterwards I couldn't remember one thing I said, but while I was talking I was killing!

 

[herecomestherain]

'Tis a good question. I always had jobs that demanded a very confident public front. I think I used to be better at speaking than I am now. I'm almost sure that two small precious people have impacted on my ability to string a coherent sentence together. Writing (especially in the quiet hours of the late night has kept me almost sane...)

I do wonder if I've become used to and to some extent reliant on the extra time available through writing to collect my thoughts on a matter, go back, edit, punctuate, delete and generally tidy up what I want to "say".

I think I've become more adept at written conversations and banter, where you still have the immediacy of "real" conversation but have the visual cues of the written word in front of you in lieu of the body language that usually accompanies face to face speech.

Occasionally a line or two or a thought I've explored and written will appear in conversation and conversations almost always feed my written musings. Once I have the intent to write, my head becomes like a radar or a net, catching snippets of information and seeing connections everywhere.
This sometimes leads to exploding brain syndrome.

 

[carsonshepherd]

When I write I use words like "extemporaneous" and "deus ex machina" that make most people stare at me with blank eyes.

 

[Liar]

It's kind of a curse in many ways, though. I've got Verbs, Adjectives, and Nouns down pat, but when it comes to any other grammar term, I have no clue. Like I know I use conjunctions, but don't ask me to tell you what they actually are, cause I can't.

Niether can I, and I'm trying to get a master's in rhethoric linguistics. I wonder if I can pull that off.

 

[brightlyiburn]

Niether can I, and I'm trying to get a master's in rhethoric linguistics. I wonder if I can pull that off.

God bless ya.

That's why I'm an art student. I can't do it naturally, so it doesn't piss me off when people try to teach me a structured way to do it.

 

[Blackie Malone]

bump