2001-05-01 - 7:49 p.m.
#51: No Need for Writing Analysis
Note to self (kinda): Happy Mothers Day, whereever you are, ma. Probably in Canada right now, at this point. I wonder if it's even technically Mothers Day over there yet? I'm kinda iffy about the time difference thing, whever I want to convert to American time, I usually add 7 hours to Auckland time and subtract by one day for the date. I guess it's JUST Mothers Day right now.... I could ring her, but I don't know her number in Canada.... And even if I did I probably won't because of, uh, y'know. Stuff. Plus, I'm experimenting with growing a beard and a moustache. I just thought I'd say that. Facial hair isn't the big "in" thing nowadays (unless you're an evil megalomaniacal villain hellbent on taking over the world) but this is probably one of the few times I can just let the stubble on my face grow until it covers a decent portion of my face. Normally my mother would be in hysterics if I missed even one shaving day. It feels kinda neat, but I'm not sure if it's really me. I'd hate to have to take care of it in a major way.... Ah well, it'll be off by the time mother comes back, anywho.
I wonder if my writing style is okay. I mean in technical terms (grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary) I think I can handle writing for myself, but when writing large, long term stuff, I wonder if it's really all right? I mean, my diary more or less reflects the way I write on subjects: I usually pick one or two topics, and then let my brain just blurt out whatever it can think on it and then put it into longhand form. Like I'm doing right now. It's basically an extension of the report writing I utilised in University, and essay writing further back in high school. You're given a topic, and then you have 2 pages to write about it. Oh sure there are different points, facts and nuggest of random knowledge you throw into there; but the overiding feel of the final document is of the topic you were given to write for it. Quite frankly, this worries me.
I mean, if I were to take up writing seriously, as either some kind of hobby or a "calling", I don't really want to believe that I'll have trouble writing because of years of honing my writing talent in this sort of direction. Take fantasy writing for example. Writing a story full of rogues, princesses, monsters and high adventures in an often overused medieval timepiece landscape. Now obviously the conclusion of any story is with the good players victorious and the evil slain, but it's often the GETTING there that's the fun section to read. However, given my sense of writing, how can I accomplish making the whole exciting when all I'd be interested in is getting to the goal? I could throw in more sidetracks and more adventures to pad it all out and make the whole thing seem longer, but would they be described as "fun" or "meaningless"? How can I tie the whole thing together without using obvious threads like "quest items"? And so forth and so forth. And that's simply for one genre. When is writing enough REALLY enough, and when do I need to write more? Damn, if only I knew the kind of rhythm that makes for good fiction.... I don't want to enter a "professional writing school", those places seem to be unanimously reviiled amongst serious authors everywhere.... I should read more books and discover the secret, I guess. ^_^
More fruitless rambling on my part up there. Just trying to pin down what's wrong with my writing style that makes it a bit on the boring side.... Kinda useless if I don't identify what's good, now isn't it? And even more useless if I don't use my ability to write to do anything. I'm thinking of blowing off the cobwebs from an old fanfic I was in the middle of writing (yeah, yeah, groan all you want. And groan some more when you find out it's slightly SI) and try to resummon the ideas I had going for it before I decided to abandon it. I'm slightly depressed by the fact that each "piece" will have a topic of its own (planning a multi-tier fic) which may seem a little bit.... well, boring like I said before. Since each piece will feel like a seperate epsode from the last, will I be able to maintain some kind of continuity between them? And how like do I make each of them? And should they all be the approximately same size to preserve the sense of continuity? But, as stated before, it's all idle speculation until I actually get some work down on it. -_-;;; Or not. I dunno. I feel kinda queasy at the thought of restarting a fanfic for some reason. Ah well, think upon it some more and maybe it'll blow over like all the other crazes I've been on.
