Thursday, December 28, 2006
ON FICTION
It's been more than 20 years since I have played around with writing fiction. I wasn't very good at it then but I always enjoyed trying it. For some reason, I have had a strange desire to take a stab at it again so I have posted a couple of things here on my blog and am working on some others too. For some reason, I am sort of taken by poems or lyrics right now.
There's a risk in writing fiction, though, and I feel that I must clear the air on it now. Particularly when you haven't written fiction for a long, long time, it can take people by surprise. They then spend their time trying to figure out who or what you're "really" writing about or why you're choosing to do it now. Please don't try to read things into anything I write.
Typically, when I write fiction, even if it is in the first person, it has been inspired only by a thought I had or perhaps by something or someone that I have seen as an outsider and then tried to play out in my mind what their story is. The fictional pieces I write are just that -- fiction. They are not based in reality so, if you read them, please don't try to read anything into them. I'm paranoid enough as it is -- I don't need to be worrying that you're wondering if I am writing about you or about that other person or about myself.
Now, that said, I have written before that I am what I call a "word stringer." Oh, how I admire folks who can truly "compose" with words! That is so much nicer than what I do in just stringing words together.
I remember back in high school and college lit classes when we'd study famous works that held a lot of symbolism. Everyone else in the class always seemed to "get it" but I was usually in the dark, begging for the Cliff Notes. Even after the symbolism was explained to me, I'd spend my time wondering how we could really know that the symbolism we thought was there was really intended by the author.
Anyway, if you read any of the fiction I post here, please don't try to read people, places, events, things or any symbols into it. They really aren't there. I am just exploring words ... stringing them together if you will ... to see what emotions or thoughts I evoke in myself or perhaps in a reader or two.
There's a risk in writing fiction, though, and I feel that I must clear the air on it now. Particularly when you haven't written fiction for a long, long time, it can take people by surprise. They then spend their time trying to figure out who or what you're "really" writing about or why you're choosing to do it now. Please don't try to read things into anything I write.
Typically, when I write fiction, even if it is in the first person, it has been inspired only by a thought I had or perhaps by something or someone that I have seen as an outsider and then tried to play out in my mind what their story is. The fictional pieces I write are just that -- fiction. They are not based in reality so, if you read them, please don't try to read anything into them. I'm paranoid enough as it is -- I don't need to be worrying that you're wondering if I am writing about you or about that other person or about myself.
Now, that said, I have written before that I am what I call a "word stringer." Oh, how I admire folks who can truly "compose" with words! That is so much nicer than what I do in just stringing words together.
I remember back in high school and college lit classes when we'd study famous works that held a lot of symbolism. Everyone else in the class always seemed to "get it" but I was usually in the dark, begging for the Cliff Notes. Even after the symbolism was explained to me, I'd spend my time wondering how we could really know that the symbolism we thought was there was really intended by the author.
Anyway, if you read any of the fiction I post here, please don't try to read people, places, events, things or any symbols into it. They really aren't there. I am just exploring words ... stringing them together if you will ... to see what emotions or thoughts I evoke in myself or perhaps in a reader or two.
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