How to write

How to Write
by Tim Kavi


well it has finally happened (for better or for worse ;-) ), readers of my writing have sent emails asking: 'how to write (like Tim Kavi)'? Although I am extremely honored by such inquiries, and I appreciate such respect (albeit I hope to earn it more), the latter prospect of 'writing like Tim Kavi' is a frightening prospect. Actors get asked the same question and many artists about their art, and the answer is often the same: do your art from who you are !

Really though I suppose such inquiries basically amount to questions of : 'what method do you (as the artist) use'? (Excuse an aside, but I recall one class I had at the University of Washington in the English department called Method, Imagination, and Inquiry. This is separate from the various writing classes that taught other specific writing methods and the toolboxes such instruction provides aspiring writers). Anyway, in that class (ENG 205), taught by Dr. Leroy Searle , various methods of reasoning were explored, including: deductive, inductive, abductive, and heuristic, among others. I seem to recall a rather detailed discussion of Francis Bacon's Novum Organum (1620), and the validity of induction as applied to literary works.

A basic definition of Inductive Reasoning: In logic, the formulation of a conclusion after the observation of an adequate number of particular instances; in rhetoric, the development of an idea or concept that moves from the particular to the general.

It is a simplication, but artistic expression to me does follow from the particular subjectivities of the artist outwards to the generalized perceptions of the readers, observers, or co-participants in the audience experience. That is, it is a move from subject to object, that communicates subject to subject.

This further emphasizes: do your art from who you are ! ;-)

Anyway, as a gross oversimplification my answer to the letter(s) I received about 'How to Write' were as follows:


you asked me about how to write (like me)

the answers are simple but hard to do

1)make time to write

2)write from the heart with passion about something
that is speaking to you

3)if writing fiction let the characters come alive

4) write

5) Handle rejection and keep on going

6) repeat 1-6 as needed

heheheheheh sounds like a recipe? most important is 4!!!

tim kavi



end of entry LOL