Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Writing Fiction vs. Writing about Fiction
Similar to my thoughts on Poetry, I really enjoyed writing fiction. I thought writing would be a bit more difficult than it actually was. The hardest part for me is getting started. I used "under what circumstances" to get my creative juices flowing. I went ahead and answered all the questions. I wanted to see which question would spark something. At first, nothing sparked my interest. Then I wondered... I could combine all the questions into one unified story. It would be magnificent! I was able to contribute some comedic elements and very random things as well. I found it much easier writing the fiction than writing about it because I could just write what came to my crazy mind. Writing about fiction takes patience, background/research, and analysis. When writing fiction creatively, you don't have to worry about all of that. Sure you can consider the research and analysis aspect and also the form but you don't necessarily have to. I really enjoyed this project. I had a lot of fun with it!
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Hi Cyndi!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that this assignment was very similar to the poetry assignment and specifically I relate to your expectations of the writing. Sharing the trepidation of getting started, I liked the “Under what circumstances” prompt as well. I think having a direction to begin brainstorming is imperative and teachers should help gain their students attention through interesting prompts. I think it is cool that you used comedy as a key element of your writing and I think it shows your creativeness by the fact that you combined all the questions. It is interesting that you mentioned how it takes much more time to write about fiction but I am re-thinking what I wrote about and I feel like everything I write, I want to rewrite whether its writing about fiction or writing fiction. In my blog, I said that it became like muscle memory and it was easier for me to write the essay about fiction rather than the fiction solely because that is what I have been trained to do in school. So personally, the fun came with the new experience of creating fiction rather than writing about it. Enjoyed your blog!
Hi Cyndi!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that writing fiction is easier than writing about fiction. I also spent some time just sitting around and thinking “Hmm…what can I write about?”. Well, eventually I began to get a few ideas, so I jotted them down. After awhile, I began to type up the ideas I had written down, and I let things flow along from that point. The only thing I was sure of was that I wanted to write a story that was a little on the silly side . As someone who actually got the chance to read the list of ideas you came up with, I have to say that they were great! Your ideas were all very different and many were fantastic! Even though I haven’t read the updated version of your story, based on the ideas you had, I’m sure it came out great. So I guess that this proves that a little brainstorming helps set the wheels of creativity in motion.
Hey friend! I think it’s about time I finally commented on your blog. ;)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about how it was fun to get my creative juices flowing, both in terms of writing my own poetry and fiction. I always have a hard time getting the beginning just right, but for some reason, that day in class, I was on a roll. However, when I came back to what I had written, I found it difficult to try to go back and expand it for this assignment. I enjoyed doing the “Under What Circumstances…?” prompt, but I couldn’t think of how to keep going with it, and the other prompts were really sparking anything in me. I decided to go with “X in Y Land,” but then without more guidelines than the implied nature of the assignment, I also found it hard to write more. I haven’t had a chance to read everyone’s fiction, so now I have to go back and do that. I love that you said you included humor---a very important part of any story, indeed.
Cyndi!
ReplyDeleteThis assignment was so fun! First off, I just wanted to say that I absolutely loved what you decided to do with your narrative. When we were in the peer editing group and I had the chance to read the responses to the questions (I still can't believe you answered them all) I was so excited to see what you would come up with because all of your answers seemed so interesting. Like Alex, I too believe that humor is crucial to a story and that you definitely were able to incorporate it into your narrative. In my blog I wrote about how much fun this assignment was and how I preferred writing fiction over writing about fiction. Not to say that analysis is not important, because it certainly is, I just think that as English majors in our last semester (Congrats Spring 2009 Graduating Class!) we all are so burnt out on analysis essays. Writing fiction is great because it allows for creativity without structure. We’ve all analyzed Shakespeare, Hemmingway and Joyce and although I adore Joyce, if I have to write one more essay explicating “The Lovesong of Alfred J. Prufrock,” one more time I might go crazy. As future educators, I think it is extremely important to remember our own frustrations about writing so that we can offer our students a better experience that we may have had. For example, I don’t know, maybe introducing a little VARIETY into the writing assignments? Hah. Overall, this was one of my favorites, and after reading what everyone in class is posting, it seems that everyone enjoyed the break and enjoyed being able to get creative.
Hey Cyndi!
ReplyDeleteThe hardest part for me too was finding a starting point. I had some ideas to choose from, they just weren't very good! I also tried to answer the various "Under What Circumstances..." questions and that's how I came up with my short story. You are definitely correct when you say that it was easier to write fiction because you can write whatever happens to come to your mind without need for inhibition or second-thought. On the other hand, like you said it takes patience, research, and analysis to write a solid explication or analysis and that is definitely getting old and frustrating. While I am not the best creative writer, it was so nice to take a break from our "normal" analysis essays. It was a good time for a break from all of that!
Cyndi,
ReplyDeleteI actually felt different about writing fiction that you did. I thought it would be really easy because when I think of creative writing, I imagine that there are no rules and that we are free to write whatever we please. But once I started, I really wanted to have a direct message or theme and make my story really effective. I guess I was thinking a little too much. I should have done what you did and wrote whatever came to mind! This is supposed to be fun right? I found that writing ABOUT fiction comes more naturally to me because the puzzle pieces are all there for me to put together. All I need is to take my investigative skills and maybe some critical theory and throw them all in the mix to do a reading of the story. So I felt completely opposite! I think your interest in creative writing will really capture students’ attention in the future and make them interested in learning about literature and seeing it an enjoyable.
Denica