Art || The creative, rule-breaking side

It's an odd madness that some writers are subject to - one of their own creations seeming to have an independent life, despite still being inside the creator's head. On writing fora everywhere you'll find complaints about the characters not doing what the plot requires of them, or doing unexpected things that throw the plan off course.

You'll also find people - sometimes authors who haven't experienced this, most often non-writers who have no idea what it's like - asking questions like "you invented the character, the setting, and the plot, can't you control what happens?"

If you've ever experienced this, you'll know that the answer is "no, not if you want the story to work!"

If you're choked by the fear of writing something that isn't up to your own standards, or even just a little indimidated by it, you're definitely not alone.

Some people freeze, and never write. Some people write, and refuse to let anybody see it because it isn't good enough. Some people play tricks on their inner editor, by doing "dare to be bad" type challenges. There are all kinds of coping strategies.

In a change of pace from our usual promotion of writing well, I'd like to look at the art of writing very, very badly. Because producing a truly awful piece of prose, instead of merely mediocre, boring, or poorly spelled, takes no small amount of effort. Witness the witty horrors that are the Bulwer-Lytton contest winners and runners-up.

This is a whole new level of writing badly, well beyond a mere lack of knowledge of spelling, grammar, and other useful mechanics.

Sure, you can learn it from textbooks and long dead masters, but if you want to write right, right now, you need to listen to the cocky bastard.

How much detail should one include in fantasy novels, especially children's fantasy? If one decides to gloss over these details, what is the convention for effectively doing so and not raising questions in the minds of the readers that might snap them out of the narrative?

Any textbook out of a college sociology class preaches the power of gender roles. Gender is the oldest and most common form of stereotype, and the simplest way to segregate human beings. Pregnant mothers flock to squint at sonar images to figure out whether to buy pink or blue. G.I Joe saves the world while Barbie invites it over for a slumber party. Men break themselves spending their lives trying to figure out women. Women spend their lives trying to figure out men to break them.

How should writing be any different?

Forget your irritation with high school English class and searching for something abstract the teacher would accept as an answer to "what is the theme in this book?"

A theme is as important a part of your story as the setting or characterization. Unlike setting and characterization, however, a theme is best received subconsciously and is sometimes even added that way, so that the author would deny having included one.

I've been tinkering with writing for going on 12-13 years now, and I've written several decent (imho) short stories.  I've also written my share of poetry (bad) and song lyrics, but the real challenge is of course, the novel.

I have started many, but for whatever reason, I rarely get far.  What does it take to complete a work?

Drawing from past work, mythology, and the public domain does not preclude the creation of original stories. If anything, studying what went before, and drawing from it, can prevent the writer from simply rehashing an idea that has been done too many times before.

Plot, characters, themes - many original stories borrow these elements from older works in part or wholesale, and yet they remain unique; they remain their own, original stories.

"Write what you know," you're told. But you're itching to write something you don't have direct experience with.

This doesn't actually have to be a problem.

The usually-forgotten second half to the phrase "write what you know" is "and if you don't know it, learn it!" Research is where you will probably spend a lot of time, and there are tons of resources out there.

But what about stuff that is really hard to research? Especially feelings, desires, and attitudes?