Afterthoughts
Dec. 2nd, 2010 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teaberryblueI love to talk about writing.
Last year and this year, I've found that the most interesting thing about LJ Idol are the "meta" discussions that crop up around writing, reading, commenting, critiquing, and all related subjects. Which is why I've been writing these home game entries about...said subjects!
I've said this before, but LJ Idol (and LJ in general) is about getting to know people better. There is a lot you can learn from someone's writing, but sometimes it's hard to tell if you're learning something about them, or just reading something into what they're saying, especially if they're writing fiction. You only have this very limited window into someone's life and way of thinking, and while, to me, it's totally valid to read meaning into a work an author didn't intend when you are reading for yourself, it's not necessarily the best way to go about making friends.
Sometimes, I get to the end of a piece before I realize it's fiction. This is usually, to me, a compliment to the author's ability, that they wrote something so believable that I think it is reflective of their own life. But sometimes, I get to the end of a piece before I realize it's non-fiction. I don't think that this is complimentary OR non-complimentary: it just is, and whether it has to do with the writing style, a detached tone, whatever: it happens. But I do think it is interesting, when I discover that something I've read is actually true when I was reading it through the lens of a fictive piece, and I often don't even know it unless it's mentioned in the comments.
Every act of writing is also an act of learning about writing, especially when you are writing in an interactive medium such as a blog or LiveJournal, where people can write back to you. And every act of writing in an interactive medium is also an act of learning about people.
One of my favorite things to see in posts where someone is experimenting with writing, or writing a piece of fiction, is not necessarily the piece itself. I love to read people's process notes, or author's notes, or other ruminations on the act of writing the piece.
It's a much-hated question for authors and artists alike, that is asked nearly every time the floor is opened to questions at a panel discussion or a lecture or master class:
"Where do you get your ideas?"
Those of us who write know that every idea comes from a different place. One might be from a dream. One might be from an interaction we had on the street. Another might be from reading someone else's story. Sometimes, they just pop into our heads fully-formed. The question that is exciting, that prompts the story that is exciting is not:
"Where do you get your ideas?"
but
"Where did you get this idea?"
Where did you get this idea?
How did you decide to express it in this way: in fiction, in narrative essay, in poetry?
How did you choose the particular voice with which to express it: a humorous one, a lyrical one, an ominous one?
What were the steps you took along the way, that got you from the idea to the act (apologies to TS Eliot)?
I have said myself, and seen other people say, that when we read fiction, it's hard to get to know the person behind it in the same way we do when we read nonfiction. But even with nonfiction, there is always a space to reveal something about yourself as a writer.
Author's notes can be incredibly fun to write, and can let you drop your narrative voice, free yourself from the restrictions you've put upon yourself while writing the meat of the piece, and provide a handy little peek into your own thoughts and your own identity as a writer. They can say things about you that even a tearful memoir can't say; they can provide insight into that tearful memoir that is deeply personal in a different way from baring your emotional soul. They can deepen the complexity of what might seem to be a simple and casual piece of writing; they can add a note of gravity to a humorous story or essay.
I also love when I see authors reply with comments that reveal a little more of their thinking than what they originally set out to tell. It's neat when someone comments on a particular detail of a story, and the writer takes a moment to reveal a little more about that detail, where it came from, how they decided to include it. I like it because it seems more interesting than a simple "thank you!" but it also helps me get to know the writer behind the words a little better, to peel another proverbial onion layer away from their writing process. And it helps me get to know them as a person, too!
I love to talk about writing, which I said when I started this post. So I love it when I see that other people love to talk about writing, too.
Last year and this year, I've found that the most interesting thing about LJ Idol are the "meta" discussions that crop up around writing, reading, commenting, critiquing, and all related subjects. Which is why I've been writing these home game entries about...said subjects!
I've said this before, but LJ Idol (and LJ in general) is about getting to know people better. There is a lot you can learn from someone's writing, but sometimes it's hard to tell if you're learning something about them, or just reading something into what they're saying, especially if they're writing fiction. You only have this very limited window into someone's life and way of thinking, and while, to me, it's totally valid to read meaning into a work an author didn't intend when you are reading for yourself, it's not necessarily the best way to go about making friends.
Sometimes, I get to the end of a piece before I realize it's fiction. This is usually, to me, a compliment to the author's ability, that they wrote something so believable that I think it is reflective of their own life. But sometimes, I get to the end of a piece before I realize it's non-fiction. I don't think that this is complimentary OR non-complimentary: it just is, and whether it has to do with the writing style, a detached tone, whatever: it happens. But I do think it is interesting, when I discover that something I've read is actually true when I was reading it through the lens of a fictive piece, and I often don't even know it unless it's mentioned in the comments.
Every act of writing is also an act of learning about writing, especially when you are writing in an interactive medium such as a blog or LiveJournal, where people can write back to you. And every act of writing in an interactive medium is also an act of learning about people.
One of my favorite things to see in posts where someone is experimenting with writing, or writing a piece of fiction, is not necessarily the piece itself. I love to read people's process notes, or author's notes, or other ruminations on the act of writing the piece.
It's a much-hated question for authors and artists alike, that is asked nearly every time the floor is opened to questions at a panel discussion or a lecture or master class:
"Where do you get your ideas?"
Those of us who write know that every idea comes from a different place. One might be from a dream. One might be from an interaction we had on the street. Another might be from reading someone else's story. Sometimes, they just pop into our heads fully-formed. The question that is exciting, that prompts the story that is exciting is not:
"Where do you get your ideas?"
but
"Where did you get this idea?"
Where did you get this idea?
How did you decide to express it in this way: in fiction, in narrative essay, in poetry?
How did you choose the particular voice with which to express it: a humorous one, a lyrical one, an ominous one?
What were the steps you took along the way, that got you from the idea to the act (apologies to TS Eliot)?
I have said myself, and seen other people say, that when we read fiction, it's hard to get to know the person behind it in the same way we do when we read nonfiction. But even with nonfiction, there is always a space to reveal something about yourself as a writer.
Author's notes can be incredibly fun to write, and can let you drop your narrative voice, free yourself from the restrictions you've put upon yourself while writing the meat of the piece, and provide a handy little peek into your own thoughts and your own identity as a writer. They can say things about you that even a tearful memoir can't say; they can provide insight into that tearful memoir that is deeply personal in a different way from baring your emotional soul. They can deepen the complexity of what might seem to be a simple and casual piece of writing; they can add a note of gravity to a humorous story or essay.
I also love when I see authors reply with comments that reveal a little more of their thinking than what they originally set out to tell. It's neat when someone comments on a particular detail of a story, and the writer takes a moment to reveal a little more about that detail, where it came from, how they decided to include it. I like it because it seems more interesting than a simple "thank you!" but it also helps me get to know the writer behind the words a little better, to peel another proverbial onion layer away from their writing process. And it helps me get to know them as a person, too!
I love to talk about writing, which I said when I started this post. So I love it when I see that other people love to talk about writing, too.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-03 07:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-03 10:38 pm (UTC)But, then, I think highly of my processes.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-02 08:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-02 08:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-02 09:47 pm (UTC)I have seen many other people say they don't like author notes so I am glad to see someone who does because I used to like to leave them on my entries.
I also just love to hear where someone got an idea. To me, it adds to the piece.
Fiction is fiction but I can always see a little thread, when I look back, as to parts of different things of me or people I knew that I threaded in, often not thinking about it.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-02 10:02 pm (UTC)At the end of the piece, if it is clearly labeled and not written in the same voice as the entry itself, I find it to be extremely useful and helps me get to know the writer better.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-02 10:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-03 07:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-02 11:11 pm (UTC)I wrote a short fiction piece this week, but I think that it reveals a lot about my subconscious at the moment!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-03 07:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-02 11:17 pm (UTC)Talking about writing, and seeing how differently people can interpret words and prompts like that, are some of the best parts of Idol.
-Alexandra
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-03 07:29 pm (UTC)For example, I'll bring up my Week 20 "Playing House" (http://zia-narratora.livejournal.com/605257.html) post from last season: there is a long stretch from "Playing House" as a single sentence to a story about a demon that lives in a coffee can and possesses people.
My first intent was to write a story based on "The House of the Rising Sun," about a whorehouse full of demons. But I decided it was too complex an idea, and I wanted to be careful about exoticizing New Orleans and Creole culture, so I decided that that idea could be seen as being in poor taste, and chose not to do it. I thought back to a series of pencil sketches I did in college that involved an old house and a woman with a coffee can, that were inspired by the lyrics to "I Seen What I Saw" by 16 Horsepower. Once I got there, I started thinking about the other lyrics to the song, and combined it with ideas from another 16 Horsepower song, "Cinder Alley," which is about a girl named Carol Sue that has a lot of possession imagery in it. So I took those two ideas and then needed to invoke a spirit of "play" back into the piece, so I centered it on two children playing a typical dare game.
I think for every single piece that someone writes, there is a story about how they got from the prompt to that piece, and every one is going to be different and unique. I think the most interesting entries are the ones where someone clearly thought deeply, re-interpreted, and personalized the prompt, but that doesn't mean we know how they got there.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-03 01:14 am (UTC)Sometimes the question of "where do you get your ideas" is a desperate attempt by the asker to find that well that others go to -- this is so good and I want a piece of that, where did you find it? I think that the revised question works better. But then there's that possibility that where you got *this* idea might be somewhere the asker can't or won't go. Safer to ask the more vague question.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-03 07:32 pm (UTC)I agree with you; I think people think that writers have some magic path to the idea well that other people don't have-- but in fact, I think it's more that writers are better at noticing ideas when they see them.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-03 05:44 pm (UTC)I have more ideas than I have time to write. The trick is determining which ones are worth writing about.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-03 07:33 pm (UTC)Thank you! I love talking about writing. It's so much fun.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-06 09:58 pm (UTC)