Thursday, December 22, 2005
skywriting
This past semester I devoted myself to writing serious fiction for the first time in my life. I took Fiction Writing with Dr. Judy Troy, and I got a lot more than I bargained for. You learn a lot about yourself when you really try to write a story that you will show to someone else.
One of the most annoying things about what I've been writing is my dependence on the weather as a narrative device. We all understand how deeply the weather affects our lives, so it's a great tool to call upon when we need to describe a situation precisely. Good writers use this subtly in a way that I admire and desire to emulate. But for me, so far...
It's easy to explain a situation by explaining what the sky is doing. But to actually explain what the characters are doing--to have someone start crying rather than have it start raining; to describe someone's anger rather than pointing to the hot August sun--that's something I haven't mastered.
I don't know how to describe an emotional response without feeling like it sounds contrived. So I write around the characters, lofting the narrative into intangible clichés. This robs the story of its specific climax, so there's no resolution.
And I'm worried that I do this when I write because I do this with my life.
One of the most annoying things about what I've been writing is my dependence on the weather as a narrative device. We all understand how deeply the weather affects our lives, so it's a great tool to call upon when we need to describe a situation precisely. Good writers use this subtly in a way that I admire and desire to emulate. But for me, so far...
It's easy to explain a situation by explaining what the sky is doing. But to actually explain what the characters are doing--to have someone start crying rather than have it start raining; to describe someone's anger rather than pointing to the hot August sun--that's something I haven't mastered.
I don't know how to describe an emotional response without feeling like it sounds contrived. So I write around the characters, lofting the narrative into intangible clichés. This robs the story of its specific climax, so there's no resolution.
And I'm worried that I do this when I write because I do this with my life.
