Fighting the Itch
It's the middle of June and I'm not writing...on purpose.
Now, why would I do that? Throughout college I complained constantly about my inability to find time to write my own work. Between writing mountains of papers and reading more books than I thought a brain had space for, there just wasn't room. I've graduated since (near two months ago now) and I'm still not writing. Why?
I'm worried about my direction. While at school I learned a lot about writing prose. I learned about style, theme, dialogue, and various other nut-and-bolt bits of writing. I learned about developing a writing community, and helping others improve their work as they taught me how to improve mine. I also learned that "genre" fiction doesn't really have a place in college; even in the undergraduate programs it's the black sheep.
My friends at The Writer's Guild were interested in writing various different genres, but rarely literary fiction. However, the books we read, the stories we analyzed, and the critical theory essays we studied in class all focused on literary fiction, and were largely written by literary fiction authors. It's not that genre was ever specifically disparaged in class (at least, not my classes); it just wasn't discussed. Occasionally, genre might come up in passing or be the center of a particular class (*ahem* Intro to Science Fiction *ahem*), but it was still segregated from all of the "real literature."
Additionally, the undergraduate program focused almost entirely on short stories. I understand the reasoning behind this: it's much easier to teach students the basics if you teach them short form first, rather than trying to weed out all of the errors in each entire student manuscripts. However, we didn't learn much, if anything, about writing novels. We learned about reading them, but writing was out of the question.
As a result, my perspective on writing has become a little...skewed.
I love genre fiction. I love reading and writing fantasy, horror, and science fiction. I prefer long, complex narratives that take hundreds of pages to unfold. However, when faced with the page I feel the need to conform to a particular writing style and form. I feel like I have to write like O'Connor, Carver, or Moore. I feel like I have to match the styles Fitzgerald, Roth, McCarthy, or Morrison.
But I don't write what they write. I write genre fiction. I write novels...or at least I will.
Right now I'm fighting the itch in order to cleanse my palate. I'm catching up with the genre reading I've been missing out on, and realigning my priorities. I'm also getting a good headwind so that, once I do start writing again, I won't be plagued by the self-doubt that's been nagging me since I started school.
Come July, I am going to scratch like crazy.
Now, why would I do that? Throughout college I complained constantly about my inability to find time to write my own work. Between writing mountains of papers and reading more books than I thought a brain had space for, there just wasn't room. I've graduated since (near two months ago now) and I'm still not writing. Why?
I'm worried about my direction. While at school I learned a lot about writing prose. I learned about style, theme, dialogue, and various other nut-and-bolt bits of writing. I learned about developing a writing community, and helping others improve their work as they taught me how to improve mine. I also learned that "genre" fiction doesn't really have a place in college; even in the undergraduate programs it's the black sheep.
My friends at The Writer's Guild were interested in writing various different genres, but rarely literary fiction. However, the books we read, the stories we analyzed, and the critical theory essays we studied in class all focused on literary fiction, and were largely written by literary fiction authors. It's not that genre was ever specifically disparaged in class (at least, not my classes); it just wasn't discussed. Occasionally, genre might come up in passing or be the center of a particular class (*ahem* Intro to Science Fiction *ahem*), but it was still segregated from all of the "real literature."
Additionally, the undergraduate program focused almost entirely on short stories. I understand the reasoning behind this: it's much easier to teach students the basics if you teach them short form first, rather than trying to weed out all of the errors in each entire student manuscripts. However, we didn't learn much, if anything, about writing novels. We learned about reading them, but writing was out of the question.
As a result, my perspective on writing has become a little...skewed.
I love genre fiction. I love reading and writing fantasy, horror, and science fiction. I prefer long, complex narratives that take hundreds of pages to unfold. However, when faced with the page I feel the need to conform to a particular writing style and form. I feel like I have to write like O'Connor, Carver, or Moore. I feel like I have to match the styles Fitzgerald, Roth, McCarthy, or Morrison.
But I don't write what they write. I write genre fiction. I write novels...or at least I will.
Right now I'm fighting the itch in order to cleanse my palate. I'm catching up with the genre reading I've been missing out on, and realigning my priorities. I'm also getting a good headwind so that, once I do start writing again, I won't be plagued by the self-doubt that's been nagging me since I started school.
Come July, I am going to scratch like crazy.
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