Story Writing

The fiction-writing packets have given me some interesting perspectives to consider while writing, though I found some of the readings to be a bit long-winded. Many things can be pulled from these words of advice and guidance, however, that apply to all forms of writing. I enjoyed reading Burroway's "Prose-Rhythm" section coming off of poetry, and much of his packet can also be related to the poetic form. In particular, the bit about "Significant Detail" stands out: without strong, character or plot-driving details, most pieces of writing become boring rather quickly.

Of course, there is a heavy emphasis on utilizing emotion via action and description rather than simply saying something plainly, which is poor form throughout. I found it important that Burroway took the time to emphasize that simplicity does not equal static writing, however; he shows that even simple words can be used to evoke the senses, such as "smoked fish" and a character exclaiming "Good day!"

I think that, overall, some great advice lies among the text here, but these packets also make "creative writing" seem awfully contrived at times. Then again, my immediate frame of reference for creative writing comes from Kurt Vonnegut. His famous eight points are far from accurate in the light of many, many famous story-weavers, but they've certainly given me as much to think about as anything in these packets in terms of actual creativity. I'll drop them below, should any classmates wish to read them and make unnecessary comparisons to their own work or others' writings:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.