Writer's cube
Mar. 12th, 2008 08:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteSome writers say "Write what you know." Sage advice, maybe, but kind of obvious. I think it's pretty impossible to write a story (or essay, poem, whatever) without a SINGLE bit of something that "you know." I mean, there's always going to be some opinion or some bit of emotion you've felt in whatever you write.
We've had directed writing in my advanced narrative writing class (ENGL 408) the past few weeks; last week I spaced because I didn't really understand the topic (even though it ended up being really easy, and I developed an idea... I just never went anywhere with it), and this week, I was completely blocked for an idea for the first part of our workshop-- just something 3-5 pages, with the potential to become more. I did START writing something (late), but I got to the third page and was disgusted. With it, with myself. The last time I'd done something like that (a few weeks prior, when all my feelings were all I could think about, so writing was the way I channeled them, and tried to deal), I remember being surprised when one of my group members talked about the protagonist as "she." It shocked me, and served as a moment of disconnect, because it occurred to me: yeah, why would they know this is a true story? Why would they know that the protagonist is ME? And isn't that kind of creepy if you tell them? Then they don't look at it as narrative anymore.
I told myself then that I wouldn't do any more of that --try and write what I was feeling, but in some fancy prose narrative format. I've written enough about it here, and I want to try moving on.
I attempted to use some of my MANY (I have soooo many) writer's tool kits and inspiration books and the like, but everything I looked at just gave me this "Blech" feeling. So now I don't know what to do, and the writing is late, and again, I'd have nothing to work with tonight if I didn't do something. Something is at least better than nothing, but my brain is on empty, stalling.
Here are my options, as I see them:
(1) Write what I know. Write something that I'm feeling or have felt, and fuck it with the weird sense of disconnect or any other bizarre feelings. Some of the world's most compelling stories are true because we can connect with them. (The question then becomes, what, of my agonizing experiences, whether recent or otherwise, is worthy of being fictionalized? RDRR!)
(2) Write something fanfiction-esque, where in my head, it's not me or anyone else I know, but characters (or archetypes, maybe?) that I feel familiar with. Change a few facts, and don't depend on outside information (like 'fic does), but make it work. (I actually did this with another story in the same class, and it came out like a cross between a mystery/thriller and a piece of WDKY. People liked it!)
(3) Write something from a prompt, just mashing shit together until it resembles a story.
Ug, ug, Mer mash story bit! You become story now! Ug, ug.
...Help.
We've had directed writing in my advanced narrative writing class (ENGL 408) the past few weeks; last week I spaced because I didn't really understand the topic (even though it ended up being really easy, and I developed an idea... I just never went anywhere with it), and this week, I was completely blocked for an idea for the first part of our workshop-- just something 3-5 pages, with the potential to become more. I did START writing something (late), but I got to the third page and was disgusted. With it, with myself. The last time I'd done something like that (a few weeks prior, when all my feelings were all I could think about, so writing was the way I channeled them, and tried to deal), I remember being surprised when one of my group members talked about the protagonist as "she." It shocked me, and served as a moment of disconnect, because it occurred to me: yeah, why would they know this is a true story? Why would they know that the protagonist is ME? And isn't that kind of creepy if you tell them? Then they don't look at it as narrative anymore.
I told myself then that I wouldn't do any more of that --try and write what I was feeling, but in some fancy prose narrative format. I've written enough about it here, and I want to try moving on.
I attempted to use some of my MANY (I have soooo many) writer's tool kits and inspiration books and the like, but everything I looked at just gave me this "Blech" feeling. So now I don't know what to do, and the writing is late, and again, I'd have nothing to work with tonight if I didn't do something. Something is at least better than nothing, but my brain is on empty, stalling.
Here are my options, as I see them:
(1) Write what I know. Write something that I'm feeling or have felt, and fuck it with the weird sense of disconnect or any other bizarre feelings. Some of the world's most compelling stories are true because we can connect with them. (The question then becomes, what, of my agonizing experiences, whether recent or otherwise, is worthy of being fictionalized? RDRR!)
(2) Write something fanfiction-esque, where in my head, it's not me or anyone else I know, but characters (or archetypes, maybe?) that I feel familiar with. Change a few facts, and don't depend on outside information (like 'fic does), but make it work. (I actually did this with another story in the same class, and it came out like a cross between a mystery/thriller and a piece of WDKY. People liked it!)
(3) Write something from a prompt, just mashing shit together until it resembles a story.
Ug, ug, Mer mash story bit! You become story now! Ug, ug.
...Help.
