purely fiction
So let's be very honest with each other for a second here. Or rather, let me be very honest and you not judge me you scumbag! I don't write as much as I have in the past. I'm not just speaking of LJ here, I mean this in the broader context of me being a writer(my mom can vouch for that) and apparently getting a degree in it in the remarkably near future. I can recall a time, which at this point feels a piece of fiction all its own, when I was an angsty and "deep" moap-about writerly type, journal and all. Writing was something I did somewhat more frequently than eating and sleeping but only slightly less than breathing. In high school I would generate new poetry on an hourly basis. It was all crap I'm almost certain, but the point is I spent a great deal of time doing it. Now though I don't think I spend an hour a month just writing. Fuck, the last complete piece of fiction I pumped out was for a sophmore writing class. Thinking back to that piece it was an odd bit to leave off on. My writing was just starting to congeal into its own unique style. It was actually a work I'm very proud of and was received with wide acclaim from my peers. So why then didn't I take this as a jumping off point and start to really delve into this style I was developing? I haven't the slightest idea.
Recently however, and i mean in the last couple weeks, Ive been thinking a lot about that piece and some of the pieces that I did prior that were similar. Many of you are likely unaware of what the typical interaction is between ANY two writing majors when they discover their mutual degree, or at least anytime I've been privy to the moment. The immediate question that leaps from everyone's lips is "what kinda stuff do you write." Really this is a pretty typical response across the board now that I think about it. I can't recall a conversation where I told someone about my degree without them asking what I write. Now here's the problem, and I'm going to risk sounding a tad pretentious here, but I don't really know a name for what I write. "Fiction" is a simple answer but it doesnt really carry any flavor, its the tofu of responses in this circumstance. I used to say "magical realism" but thats not really true either. That's just the closest fit Ive been able to come up with.
Here's the whole point: it is widely the opinion of the Emerson writing community, and its professors and the lot, that the best way to improve your writing, aside from just writing, is to read things like what you would like to write. But I don't know anyone else who writes like I would like to write...or sort of write already. My style of writing is what I would title, were I to be pretentios enough to create a title for my style of writing...and I am..."High Impact Fiction."
I take a lot of cues in my current writing from my freshman writing professor. She stressed at one point that writing, when done extraordinarily well, should employ every word to deliberate and significant effect. Which is something I took to heart, perhaps not precisely in the way she intended, and perhaps to a certain extreme, but its a form I have come to enjoy very much. I try to avoid any unneccesary clutter of words. The goal is to let the reader move fluidly from one thought to the next digesting pure content without impediment.
I also like my content itself to be rather jarring. I enjoy challenging and offending my audience whenever possible. If I can disgust them outright, even better. The real goal though is to assault the senses to the point of comedy.
And in general Ive always been a big fan of taking downright unlikeable characters and creating empathy for them.
So in the end I like to think my fiction is similar to being beat about the face with a styrofoam bat in a sketchy truck-stop bathroom by a complete stranger.
anyone know any good authors who fit that description?
Recently however, and i mean in the last couple weeks, Ive been thinking a lot about that piece and some of the pieces that I did prior that were similar. Many of you are likely unaware of what the typical interaction is between ANY two writing majors when they discover their mutual degree, or at least anytime I've been privy to the moment. The immediate question that leaps from everyone's lips is "what kinda stuff do you write." Really this is a pretty typical response across the board now that I think about it. I can't recall a conversation where I told someone about my degree without them asking what I write. Now here's the problem, and I'm going to risk sounding a tad pretentious here, but I don't really know a name for what I write. "Fiction" is a simple answer but it doesnt really carry any flavor, its the tofu of responses in this circumstance. I used to say "magical realism" but thats not really true either. That's just the closest fit Ive been able to come up with.
Here's the whole point: it is widely the opinion of the Emerson writing community, and its professors and the lot, that the best way to improve your writing, aside from just writing, is to read things like what you would like to write. But I don't know anyone else who writes like I would like to write...or sort of write already. My style of writing is what I would title, were I to be pretentios enough to create a title for my style of writing...and I am..."High Impact Fiction."
I take a lot of cues in my current writing from my freshman writing professor. She stressed at one point that writing, when done extraordinarily well, should employ every word to deliberate and significant effect. Which is something I took to heart, perhaps not precisely in the way she intended, and perhaps to a certain extreme, but its a form I have come to enjoy very much. I try to avoid any unneccesary clutter of words. The goal is to let the reader move fluidly from one thought to the next digesting pure content without impediment.
I also like my content itself to be rather jarring. I enjoy challenging and offending my audience whenever possible. If I can disgust them outright, even better. The real goal though is to assault the senses to the point of comedy.
And in general Ive always been a big fan of taking downright unlikeable characters and creating empathy for them.
So in the end I like to think my fiction is similar to being beat about the face with a styrofoam bat in a sketchy truck-stop bathroom by a complete stranger.
anyone know any good authors who fit that description?