What You Want To Have Written vs. What You Feel Like Writing

I suppose some part of me always thought I'd write a serious novel, something For The Ages or somesuch, but I'm just not made that way. The thing is, when I write seriously for longer than 5000 words, I bog down, I want to slit my wrists, I'm sad, I'm bored, I don't look forward to the day's writing.... I am doomed to write "fast-paced beach reads" that will be forgotten the instant the remainders are pulped. (If I ever get to the pulping stage, which is no sure bet, either!) I love writing popular fiction with action, some humor, and a dash of romance. One of my MFA instructors once looked at me, sneered, and touched a story of mine with a bare fingertip, his other fingers extended as if the ms. was coated with anthrax, and sniffed. "This is awfully...commercial, isn't it?" Yup.

So...I sympathize, I think. A person can probably force a change for awhile, but if misery results, why do it?

I tend to lean towards the dark and tragic side of things, but I refuse to suck all the funniness out. My MCs say the wrong things, trip, fall out of chairs, burn themselves, make the most unfortunate mental connections...I mean, if it were all doom and gloom, readers would get so depressed they'd never touch it again.

SomethingOrOther said:

It seems like there has to be some minimum amount of silliness in any fiction I write, otherwise I won't care about it at all.

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Why are you trying to write something you don't like writing?

I had a similar experience but with the pov I write in. I decided to give third a try for more than five minutes. Two months I wrote in third. I did not finish a single thing. I was miserable and felt like the most incompetent writer in the world. I went back to first and life is good again.

My advice would be to just do what you love to do. Not so much give up on writing a 100% serious piece, just maybe take a break from it and try it again later.

lorna_w said:

One of my MFA instructors once looked at me, sneered, and touched a story of mine with a bare fingertip, his other fingers extended as if the ms. was coated with anthrax, and sniffed. "This is awfully...commercial, isn't it?" Yup.

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What a dick. I've never really understood the pretentiousness that some people attribute to Writing. Not every MS needs to be Nobel Prize-worthy. Sometimes, a good story is good enough.

OT: Write how you feel like writing and with luck, you find your niche. Otherwise, what's the point of writing if you hate doing it?

SomethingOrOther said:

It seems like there has to be some minimum amount of silliness in any fiction I write, otherwise I won't care about it at all. This has been frustrating lately; I want to write some Serious Fiction with my post-spring-2012 level of writing ability, but every attempt triggers apathy at best and revulsion at worst. And I'm aware that even the most dark and tragic stories can be told with a few silly elements here and there, but I'd like to write some stories without any.

Any similar experiences? Advice?

roof roof

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Similar experiences, yes. I can't keep it straight for long, either. Advice? Don't have any. Me, I gave up. I just let most of it rip. Then I go back and take things out. You can always do that, edit it out.

Serious Fiction is overrated. When I was young, I was a very "serious" reader. Now I read to be entertained, and I write to entertain.

As I keep saying: I'm trying to have fun here.

lorna_w said:

One of my MFA instructors once looked at me, sneered, and touched a story of mine with a bare fingertip, his other fingers extended as if the ms. was coated with anthrax, and sniffed. "This is awfully...commercial, isn't it?" Yup.

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This is why I often look at creative writing classes, then think...no. Although I suppose I would benefit, I'm not sure I could bear to have my work treated with disdain merely because it's SFF and not Proust-style navel-gazing.

Eh. Write what you love. If you don't love it, the reader won't, either.

BethS said:

Why are you trying to write something you don't like writing?

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+1

Seriously, why? Write what you want.

Like lorna, my stuff is light and fluffy. That's who I am, what I write. Why change that just because someone else thinks I should write Serious Literature?

I was about to respond with the usual "well, just be silly then, duh, silliness is the cat's ass" but--

I suppose, if you're feeling like you CAN'T write seriousness, then you feel like you're trapped and limited? Is that it?

I do think that writing something outside your comfort zone could be a good exercise, and maybe break you of that "I'M TRAPPED BY MY AWESOMENESS" feeling. But I would approach it as solely an exercise. I think, if you aim to create *magic*, you'll probably put too much weight in the thing and stress yourself out of doing it well. Just poop something out. If it helps, follow a writing prompt. A depressing one, maybe. After you read about some sort of massacre. Yangzhou, maybe, or My Lai, or something.

I think maybe the key to writing serious is not to be serious about it?

I can make myself write seriously, because a) I had to do it in college all the time and b) I have an incredibly boring serious side that I hate but can tap into (and sometimes am consumed by, goddammit). Thing is, I don't really want to. I think humor and silliness is a high art that is part of the unique core of humanity, like music or trapeze sex. I haven't mastered it at all, but I hope to. Someday.

But, um, in case it needs to be said (and I don't think it does), silliness is awesome.

SomethingOrOther said:

It seems like there has to be some minimum amount of silliness in any fiction I write, otherwise I won't care about it at all. This has been frustrating lately; I want to write some Serious Fiction with my post-spring-2012 level of writing ability, but every attempt triggers apathy at best and revulsion at worst. And I'm aware that even the most dark and tragic stories can be told with a few silly elements here and there, but I'd like to write some stories without any.

Any similar experiences? Advice?

roof roof

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Listen to your own reactions. Revulsion isn't going to get you anywhere. If you love some silliness, don't fear it. Get your 'dead nuns' out, and try for serious again later. Maybe not deadpan serious. Try something more in the middle, perhaps.

('Dead nuns' was a theater practice I learned, where we would ham up one entire run-through of the script with every stupid prank and joke we could think of. Once that was out of our systems, focusing on the actual show was much easier.)

lorna_w said:

I love writing popular fiction with action, some humor, and a dash of romance. One of my MFA instructors once looked at me, sneered, and touched a story of mine with a bare fingertip, his other fingers extended as if the ms. was coated with anthrax, and sniffed. "This is awfully...commercial, isn't it?" Yup.

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Hngrr! I had one very much like that. Most of my writing classes were positive experiences. But one of my instructors swore that artsy literary fiction was the only way to go, and genre fiction was essentially banned from her class. She didn't even write fiction, herself. She wrote poetry, (How that qualified her to teach Fiction 1, I'll never know) and had a published husband who she freaking hero-worshipped. She actually brought him into her class as a 'guest', and had us all read an excerpt of his work and do a Q&A with him.

Nobody really cared to ask any questions, so she ended up carrying the Q&A herself.

lorna_w said:

One of my MFA instructors once looked at me, sneered, and touched a story of mine with a bare fingertip, his other fingers extended as if the ms. was coated with anthrax, and sniffed. "This is awfully...commercial, isn't it?" Yup.

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I think my answer would have been "Damn straight and proud of it!" But then, my mouth always has had a tendancy to get me in trouble. Probably why I failed philosophy in college. Kept arguing with the professor.

WriteMinded said:

Now I read to be entertained, and I write to entertain.

As I keep saying: I'm trying to have fun here.

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Where is that "Like" button when you need it?

buzhidao said:

I can make myself write seriously, because a) I had to do it in college all the time and b) I have an incredibly boring serious side that I hate but can tap into...

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Yes! After years of writing scientific reports, municipal ordinances and congressional documents, being able to have fun writing beach-readie paranormal shape-shifter romances is exactly what makes me happy right now.

buzhidao said:

I think maybe the key to writing serious is not to be serious about it?

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There is great wisdom in this.

Another thought: think of John Irving. or Murakami. These guys write serious fiction that is full of silliness, absurdities, and over-the-top moments. And yet they are valued as literary writers. So the two categories are not mutually exclusive.

lorna_w said:

I suppose some part of me always thought I'd write a serious novel, something For The Ages or somesuch, but I'm just not made that way. The thing is, when I write seriously for longer than 5000 words, I bog down, I want to slit my wrists, I'm sad, I'm bored, I don't look forward to the day's writing.... I am doomed to write "fast-paced beach reads" that will be forgotten the instant the remainders are pulped. (If I ever get to the pulping stage, which is no sure bet, either!) I love writing popular fiction with action, some humor, and a dash of romance. One of my MFA instructors once looked at me, sneered, and touched a story of mine with a bare fingertip, his other fingers extended as if the ms. was coated with anthrax, and sniffed. "This is awfully...commercial, isn't it?" Yup.

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I got the "fantasy is worthless, your writing is worthless, and you'd write so much better if you only wrote like me [a TMI memoir]". I'm not even paraphrasing.

Most of my teachers throughout my education (high school to postgrad) have been fantastic, but one bad apple can ruin the whole thing.

I can't write Serious Fiction. It's not in me. It's never spoken to me as a reader, and it's certainly not going to do it as a writer. It can be hard to ignore the unjust criticism, but it's better in the long run when to be happy with what your produce.

I have the opposite problem. I'm waiting for some humor to pop up in what I write. (btw - I write genre.) I like books that, even while being serious, have passages that make you laugh.

For the longest time, I was stuck writing a psychological sci-fi thriller that wasn't entirely pleasant, to put it mildly. The plot was convoluted, the characters unrelateable or thoroughly unlikeable, and to top it off, I felt like I was torturing my heroine by exposing her tender, neurotic self to the existential ennui and brutality of the setting.

I am currently working on a considerably lighter YA sci-fi spy book. A nice escape from the cynicism and psychological selfishness present in the earlier project, wouldn't you agree? I think so.

Little Anonymous Me said:

I tend to lean towards the dark and tragic side of things, but I refuse to suck all the funniness out. My MCs say the wrong things, trip, fall out of chairs, burn themselves, make the most unfortunate mental connections...I mean, if it were all doom and gloom, readers would get so depressed they'd never touch it again.

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Same here.

Remember that humor can be for the ages, too. (And insightful. And "Important." And really hard to do well.)

That said, there's nothing wrong with trying to stretch yourself and write something outside of your comfort zone. Try writing something in a humorous style about terribly depressing subject matter? Maybe something that takes a turn midway through and the humor and silliness are a way to cope with the bleakness? Or just remind yourself that this is a break from silly and not that you're turning your back on it.

Hey, things aren't so hot over here on the other side of the fence. Most of my fiction is dreary, too serious for its own good. I love humorous fiction, and I can be funny sometimes, but when I write it's all black and bloody!

Mr. Breadcrumb said:

Remember that humor can be for the ages, too. (And insightful. And "Important." And really hard to do well.)

That said, there's nothing wrong with trying to stretch yourself and write something outside of your comfort zone. Try writing something in a humorous style about terribly depressing subject matter? Maybe something that takes a turn midway through and the humor and silliness are a way to cope with the bleakness? Or just remind yourself that this is a break from silly and not that you're turning your back on it.

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This! Like Shakespeare's 'A Winter's Tale'!

SomethingOrOther said:

It seems like there has to be some minimum amount of silliness in any fiction I write, otherwise I won't care about it at all. This has been frustrating lately; I want to write some Serious Fiction with my post-spring-2012 level of writing ability, but every attempt triggers apathy at best and revulsion at worst. And I'm aware that even the most dark and tragic stories can be told with a few silly elements here and there, but I'd like to write some stories without any.

Any similar experiences? Advice?

roof roof

Click to expand...

why? if it ain't in you, it ain't in you. Granted, the ability to MAKE yourself do things you're uncomfortable with is a good thing, but I'm not sure Hemingway could just decide to write like Faulkner and not make a hash out of it, or Bradbury could have decided to write gritty noir.

Besides, I'm not sure I can think of any suck book I have read, and if I had, i probably would have rather seen some levity in it--the most nasty book I read in recent memory was The Cormorant, it made me really uncomfortable at times, but even int ehre a sense of humor occasionally came through....why? we're human. even in dark times, we are. I think minus any of that, it would have become claustrophobic in its oppressiveness.

SomethingOrOther said:

Giving up isn't an option. I've gotten too many awesome things by not giving up, so it won't happen here.

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but now you're a grown-up. Giving in, letting your dreams die, and patiently waiting for your own demise without hope or pleasure is what you DO.

That's what I tell my children, anyway.

quicklime said:

but now you're a grown-up. Giving in, letting your dreams die, and patiently waiting for your own demise without hope or pleasure is what you DO.

That's what I tell my children, anyway.

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Don't grow up, somethingorother! Don't do it!