Random insights on writing come from various areas of current reading material. The first is from The Eleventh Draft, a collection of essays by former professors and students of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. One of them, by Ethan Canin, follows his discovery of the seemingly basic concept that the grand epiphany or height of emotion that defines a work isn't what you start with. It's the detail and groundworking and basic buildup that makes it work ... It's easy to get yourself thinking otherwise, when you've got the jones to create some epic thematic novel that reveals the human nature to your audience. But any writing built around the theme seems like it would *have* to become an allegory, because you're concentrating all this energy on constructing the characters and action in a manner best suited to the revelation of your One Eternal Truth. It'll give you The Scarlet Letter rather than an actual story (unless you like The Scarlet Letter as a story, in which case, um ... nevermind ^_^;;). When the climax builds from the characters and their learning and growing and response to events, it really does feel more natural. More like real life. The most moving stuff is what you can relate to, right? Even with fantasy and supernatural elements -- hopefully not *everything* is layered in meaning and metaphor, but they should either contribute to or simply decorate some actual substance. I think ideally, the trappings of fantastic fiction should be *consciously* controlled so they won't distract from -- or, heaven forbid, replace -- the development of the characters' humanity.

You see this basic issue a lot in fanfic -- the desire to skip to the payoff without the base. And the thing with fanfic is that it's a lot easier to do that, because everyone already knows the characters and situations you're playing off of ... but if the story itself is lacking for that particular situation, it feels empty. You end up with a lot of cheap hyperbolic angst. (At least, that's what I've dubbed it -- and yes, I've had an actual discussion about this. And I want more. *geeks* Neko-chan. You. Me. Coffeeshop. XD) You know, Character A is told by Character B that he doesn't love her ... and she attempts suicide/runs to another man/becomes a nun/whatever. Or there's the unsubstantiated WAFF. Yeah, I said 'unsubstantiated WAFF.' ^_^;; I mean to sound absurd when I'm talking about this, because at times I feel like fanfics have made WAFF an object to achieve -- or, at worst, to chuck at the audience -- instead of an atmosphere, a level you reach. I've gotten more warm fuzzies from individual *lines* in a well-written fic, because of what they evoke, than in a dozen "Kenshin sings a boyband song to Kaoru" creations. (Erm, no offense meant to anyone. I just don't like my fanfics with singing rurouni. @_@x) My point is, just because everyone knows the characters and *wants* the romantic get-together (often-with-angsty-prelude) doesn't mean we should ... oh, I don't know, shove it half-naked out of the muses' dressing room. X_x

Okay, next bit, from Doris Grumbach. Her essay's about a lot of things, but among them she says that it's now fashionable to write a long book than a good one, or "a wrap-around book rather than one that succeeds because of its depth." And I see her point; a lot of current mass-market bestsellers that weigh in at five- or six-hundred pages don't seem as substantial or intimidating as a classic of that length or shorter. Part of the intimidation comes from the language. But you get those old books where a page can just be charged with meaning ... though I can't agree that all long books=space-wasting prose, or that getting lost in a nice fat novel requires losing substance, or that modern published fiction marks a decline from a few decades ago ... but then again, I *am* one of those young upstarts she's probably writing about. ^_^;

The last random idea comes from Sophie's World, and really it's just to practice temperance in relation to the world under your control. Of course we manipulate people and events in writing and can sometimes seem downright sadistic; but there's no need to subject the audience to cutesy bits of irony or other contrivances or become too enamored of our divine power ... and it makes a lot more sense if you read the book, but I don't want to spoil it for the random person out there who might not yet have and still wants to. ^_^;;

My new distraction. Though it sucks up my RAM when I play. O.o