Yeah, so it's been a long time. A really long time. I don't have much of an excuse, except that I'm lazy. Also, college classes. They are so much better than high school, but take up a lot more time and energy.
I'm not going to lie, these past few months have been a struggle for me in more ways than one. I'm not going to go into any detail, but I can tell you that this hasn't exactly been beneficial for my writing career. By that I mean, I basically haven't written at all, except for a frantic last-minute short story I entered in Write Out Of This World again this year (I didn't win). Not that I'm that surprised, the story was nowhere near my best work and I would have expected a third place at most. Still, it's sad, and I've struggled with it a little bit, but not nearly as much as my first year entering.
Now, to get down to it.
One of my college classes this year is Writing Fiction 1. That's right folks, I'm taking a creative writing class! I decided to take this class because my tentative after-AA plan involves a major in Archaeology and a minor in Creative Writing, and I realized I should see if I actually enjoy doing it in a classroom atmosphere. So far, it's been cool, though it only started last week. I guess the class overall is a "new thing," but that's not what I came here to talk about.
Just today (about half an hour ago, actually), I discovered that this class strictly forbids genre writing.
Yes, I'm serious.
That means no aliens or crazy technology, no fairies or magic, no ghosts or monsters that lurk in the shadows.
I was a little irritated at the thought, honestly.
If you've been following me for a while, you'll quickly realize that all I write is genre fiction. In fact, I believe the majority of people in my class do, too.
But "strictly forbids" is probably a bit stronger of a phrase than I needed to use. It's not that the teacher hates genre fiction or anything, it's just not what the class is for.
And in no time at all, I became excited.
Perhaps writing genre fiction will not be taught, but in its place, we will be learning to write literary fiction.
In the words of my writing teacher,
"This [genre fiction] is to be contrasted with “literary fiction,”
which refers to the fiction written in literary tradition with freeform rules and standards.
Literary fiction emphasizes character, setting, figurative language, and structure."
"No. Just write literary stories. If you are still unclear on what that means, hang in there.
Just remember the basic rule: focus on character, not plot. Write stories about people who are “real"
and who are compelling. Don't emphasize plot too much and don't slide into horror,
sci-fi, romance, fantasy, or..."
That last part is the part that comforted me. Instead of being angry at not being able to write in my dear sci-fi genre, I was intrigued. I was going to learn something, not just spend a class doing something that was a fun little hobby. And at the same time, I realized: these techniques will be useful in all my writing, including genre fiction. The concepts of character-driven stories, or focuses on structure and language, or settings are in no way exclusive to literary fiction. Sure, we may not see much of that in modern genre fiction, but there are no rules against it. Perhaps I will be limited in some ways in this class, but in another way, I will be more free than ever. I will be learning something valuable and exciting, and both my writing and I will be the better for it.
So, there you have it. I'm excited to try something new in this class. I can easily foresee it being a struggle, especially at first, to come up with story ideas that don't involve a futuristic or fantastic basis, but I will be expanding my palate in the long run. As (I believe) I've said before, the reason I enjoy writing short stories so much is because their length gives me a chance to experiment with new styles and genres without committing to a whole novel. In a sense, that's what this class will be doing, as well.
To trying new things!
-Trinity-
