It is often said that you do not know who you are until you write something down. While I have always, more or less, held to this dictum, it was not until recently that I have begun to appreciate the truth in it as a writer and person.
When you put the pen to paper or your hands on the keys and simply bleed, you learn a lot about yourself, how you generally view life. The thing is, few people who write seem to notice. Often the themes are looked more as tools to hook and entertain the reader or explaining ideas rather than standing as a representation of what the writer draws from their very soul for the world to see.
Recently, I took it upon myself to write a short story under the following parameters:
The story must be written in one sitting. No revisions. It must be about two people picking up another in a car.
Simple. Not my idea.
An acquaintance of mine posted his on Facebook. It was originally from his Fictional Writing course. An assignment that he thoroughly enjoyed.
In my first surge of a desire for one-upmanship since early November, I decided, after reading his story, to write a better one.
As I was generating ideas for my story in the shower (hey, you figure out what stimulates your creativity no matter how strange) and outlying the basics of what theme I wanted to convey and what setting it would be conveyed in, I shuddered at the following thought: my modes of story-expression have varied little since age 10. They have only grown more sophisticated in nature.
Naturally I wondered if these themes were symbolic of something about me. Well, here they are for CC (an exclusive, in truth I do not know why I am not writing this on my own Civilized Frontier).
1. Building Tension To a Bloody Climax
Remember that bar scene in the Quentin Tarantino film, Inglourious Basterds? It is something I could have written in the 7th grade. It takes place in WWII (another theme that will crop up), and it is driven by dramatic tension and suspense, but the viewer and/or reader knows where it is ultimately heading: a bloodbath.
In my case, there is usually a moral choice involved. A gangster is haunted by his previous crimes. An assassin overcomes strange odds in his execution of a German field commander. A Roman village lives out a week of eerie monotony until they reap the whirlwind at the hands of the Gothic horde.
Writing this I wonder why I enjoy the tension so much. Come to think of it, I love the idea of climax (get your heads out of the gutter) in my life outside my writing. Positioning my pieces for the right opportunities. Gearing up for election day. To have all of one's moves moral and strategic to be judged in a moment of truth is, in many ways, poetic. It also seemingly brings closure.
And yes, the climaxes are typically quite bloody. I guess it might have something to do with the following.
2. Good and Evil; Crime and (self-natural) Punishment
Good and Evil are an obvious I suppose. I have never been much for intrigue in my personal life, though I do find it quite entertaining in movies. Nevertheless, I'll always be fighting a War of the Ring, and never playing a Game of Thrones. Ultimately that is.
Hence my attraction to historical eras like WWII, in which I based many of my favorite grade school writings and used as a jumping off point for my recent novel.
There are times though when I will delve in to Crime-Drama, and what I find interesting is this: My mafioso protagonists are never, I repeat never brought in by the authorities. Circumstances ultimately compile to the point that natural justice itself disposes of them. Vengeance is indeed the Lord's, but much of it also rests on their shoulders due to gradual (or at times not-so-gradual corruption).
3. Typical American
When I look at my short-story writing from age elven until age 18, I notice a common thread: a lot of focus on common settings, particularly the American West and Prohibition era gangsters.
The funny part is, only in recent years has the West really captivated me. Prohibition gangsters have rarely garnered more than a passing interest as far as my media and literary intake was concerned. Yet when I found myself writing, my mind would gravitate toward them.
I think part of it is this: big individuality. My characters make important moral choices. Should I strap this young lady to the railroad tracks? Is it okay to shoot the man who stole my prized cow Bessie?
That is partially why I think Americans gravitate toward these themes in general: we love those chaotic situations in which a man can decide where he stands and a civilized infrastructure has no say in the matter. This includes the realm of life and death. It places a higher premium on the individuals personal relationship with concepts of law, order, justice, and relationship with the divine (if he has any at all).
4. All of this has happened before. All of it will Happen again...
A cheap play on Battlestar Galactica. Going along the lines of good and evil, there is something going on that no one man or woman can handle. An immaterial force that shoves people through history whether they like it or not.
That source's goodness and laws have the same substance, but people interpret and act upon them differently. At times to their peril.
The Christian would say God, and they would be right. But the fact this also appears in the writings of other authors says much.
Furthermore, the timeline is not sacred. CS Lewis described God as inhabiting the white space of paper around the timeline. This is the same void in which my characters inhabit.
5. Symbolic use of weaponry...
To Freud a cigar isn't merely a cigar. My characters typically hold in their hands the power to save life, distribute death, or illustrate an argument in a demonstrative fashion.
In short, the power of moral decision making is given to the characters, and I give them the tools necessary to exemplify or symbolize the decisions early on.
6. A void or expanse...
How Nietzschean of me! Characters that experience a sort of spiritual enlightenment or premonition of doom typically come in contact with a void.
Outer Space, A Lake, A shore of a lake (two different characters/perspectives), a sunrise.
Ultimately these are celestial nature. I am assuming this has to do with man coming to face not with his mortality so much as his place in the face of the Created Universe and its Creator. The terror that comes with true knowledge and understanding of God.
7. God
You will never see my works alongside Beverly Lewis, or even Oliver North. God, as he is represented in my tales is by no means a Deist or Platonist conception, but he isn't boldly Jesus either.
Implied to be? Yes. Mine is unmistakably an attempt at grafting the God of the Bible into my tale. Perhaps it is my attempt at showing that even when you ride off the beaten path, you cannot escape Him. He appears demanding repentance and offering redemption.
Only in a recent tale entitled Space Pilgrims have I incorporated unequivocally overt Biblical references.
This is partially because my characters are 30th century puritans escaping planet earth.
Nevertheless.
8. To slip the surly bonds of Earth and touch the Face of God
Escape! This world is awful, let us leave. In one short story I tried writing, I was fairly overt in that the main character was allegorical (in the older sense) of me flying into space and leaving a depressing world behind.
That is part of the reason why I hate that story in particular.
Nevertheless. Space likely symbolizes both the confirmation and completion of dreams, a simply desire to boldly go, and ultimate emancipation. It may be cold in space, but there are few things out there to keep one in bondage.
9. Humor Lightens, but it does not replace.
Some have described the work of James Gould Cozzens as "thorny realism" to be contrasted with Joseph Heller's surrealism in approach to life and writing in general. Cozzens despised the likes of Heller and Vonnegut.
Their attempt at sarcastic mockery came across as overly simplistic and ineffective in terms of satire. Cozzens, while having funny moments, tended to take both his life and the reader's time seriously.
My writing has surrealist qualities, but there is nothing so flippant and almost meaningless as what one will find in a book like Catch-22.
This I almost find contradictory. Mainly because in real life, I highly value humor.
Conclusion
If you sat through the extravaganza, I thank you. It was fun to write. I have never really looked at the scope of my writing in depth before, and being able to record what it all may or may not mean and how it applies has been a most interesting endeavor.
My chief hope is that this has inspired some of you to write fiction of your own! Do you have beliefs? Thoughts? Fundamental ideals?
Well, start writing, and you might find out you can not only express them better outside your writing, but you will discover new principles and new dimensions that can (one hopes) aid you in the discussion of truth.
That is all for today!
When you put the pen to paper or your hands on the keys and simply bleed, you learn a lot about yourself, how you generally view life. The thing is, few people who write seem to notice. Often the themes are looked more as tools to hook and entertain the reader or explaining ideas rather than standing as a representation of what the writer draws from their very soul for the world to see.
Recently, I took it upon myself to write a short story under the following parameters:
The story must be written in one sitting. No revisions. It must be about two people picking up another in a car.
Simple. Not my idea.
An acquaintance of mine posted his on Facebook. It was originally from his Fictional Writing course. An assignment that he thoroughly enjoyed.
In my first surge of a desire for one-upmanship since early November, I decided, after reading his story, to write a better one.
As I was generating ideas for my story in the shower (hey, you figure out what stimulates your creativity no matter how strange) and outlying the basics of what theme I wanted to convey and what setting it would be conveyed in, I shuddered at the following thought: my modes of story-expression have varied little since age 10. They have only grown more sophisticated in nature.
Naturally I wondered if these themes were symbolic of something about me. Well, here they are for CC (an exclusive, in truth I do not know why I am not writing this on my own Civilized Frontier).
1. Building Tension To a Bloody Climax
Remember that bar scene in the Quentin Tarantino film, Inglourious Basterds? It is something I could have written in the 7th grade. It takes place in WWII (another theme that will crop up), and it is driven by dramatic tension and suspense, but the viewer and/or reader knows where it is ultimately heading: a bloodbath.
In my case, there is usually a moral choice involved. A gangster is haunted by his previous crimes. An assassin overcomes strange odds in his execution of a German field commander. A Roman village lives out a week of eerie monotony until they reap the whirlwind at the hands of the Gothic horde.
Writing this I wonder why I enjoy the tension so much. Come to think of it, I love the idea of climax (get your heads out of the gutter) in my life outside my writing. Positioning my pieces for the right opportunities. Gearing up for election day. To have all of one's moves moral and strategic to be judged in a moment of truth is, in many ways, poetic. It also seemingly brings closure.
And yes, the climaxes are typically quite bloody. I guess it might have something to do with the following.
2. Good and Evil; Crime and (self-natural) Punishment
Good and Evil are an obvious I suppose. I have never been much for intrigue in my personal life, though I do find it quite entertaining in movies. Nevertheless, I'll always be fighting a War of the Ring, and never playing a Game of Thrones. Ultimately that is.
Hence my attraction to historical eras like WWII, in which I based many of my favorite grade school writings and used as a jumping off point for my recent novel.
There are times though when I will delve in to Crime-Drama, and what I find interesting is this: My mafioso protagonists are never, I repeat never brought in by the authorities. Circumstances ultimately compile to the point that natural justice itself disposes of them. Vengeance is indeed the Lord's, but much of it also rests on their shoulders due to gradual (or at times not-so-gradual corruption).
3. Typical American
When I look at my short-story writing from age elven until age 18, I notice a common thread: a lot of focus on common settings, particularly the American West and Prohibition era gangsters.
The funny part is, only in recent years has the West really captivated me. Prohibition gangsters have rarely garnered more than a passing interest as far as my media and literary intake was concerned. Yet when I found myself writing, my mind would gravitate toward them.
I think part of it is this: big individuality. My characters make important moral choices. Should I strap this young lady to the railroad tracks? Is it okay to shoot the man who stole my prized cow Bessie?
That is partially why I think Americans gravitate toward these themes in general: we love those chaotic situations in which a man can decide where he stands and a civilized infrastructure has no say in the matter. This includes the realm of life and death. It places a higher premium on the individuals personal relationship with concepts of law, order, justice, and relationship with the divine (if he has any at all).
4. All of this has happened before. All of it will Happen again...
A cheap play on Battlestar Galactica. Going along the lines of good and evil, there is something going on that no one man or woman can handle. An immaterial force that shoves people through history whether they like it or not.
That source's goodness and laws have the same substance, but people interpret and act upon them differently. At times to their peril.
The Christian would say God, and they would be right. But the fact this also appears in the writings of other authors says much.
Furthermore, the timeline is not sacred. CS Lewis described God as inhabiting the white space of paper around the timeline. This is the same void in which my characters inhabit.
5. Symbolic use of weaponry...
To Freud a cigar isn't merely a cigar. My characters typically hold in their hands the power to save life, distribute death, or illustrate an argument in a demonstrative fashion.
In short, the power of moral decision making is given to the characters, and I give them the tools necessary to exemplify or symbolize the decisions early on.
6. A void or expanse...
How Nietzschean of me! Characters that experience a sort of spiritual enlightenment or premonition of doom typically come in contact with a void.
Outer Space, A Lake, A shore of a lake (two different characters/perspectives), a sunrise.
Ultimately these are celestial nature. I am assuming this has to do with man coming to face not with his mortality so much as his place in the face of the Created Universe and its Creator. The terror that comes with true knowledge and understanding of God.
7. God
You will never see my works alongside Beverly Lewis, or even Oliver North. God, as he is represented in my tales is by no means a Deist or Platonist conception, but he isn't boldly Jesus either.
Implied to be? Yes. Mine is unmistakably an attempt at grafting the God of the Bible into my tale. Perhaps it is my attempt at showing that even when you ride off the beaten path, you cannot escape Him. He appears demanding repentance and offering redemption.
Only in a recent tale entitled Space Pilgrims have I incorporated unequivocally overt Biblical references.
This is partially because my characters are 30th century puritans escaping planet earth.
Nevertheless.
8. To slip the surly bonds of Earth and touch the Face of God
Escape! This world is awful, let us leave. In one short story I tried writing, I was fairly overt in that the main character was allegorical (in the older sense) of me flying into space and leaving a depressing world behind.
That is part of the reason why I hate that story in particular.
Nevertheless. Space likely symbolizes both the confirmation and completion of dreams, a simply desire to boldly go, and ultimate emancipation. It may be cold in space, but there are few things out there to keep one in bondage.
9. Humor Lightens, but it does not replace.
Some have described the work of James Gould Cozzens as "thorny realism" to be contrasted with Joseph Heller's surrealism in approach to life and writing in general. Cozzens despised the likes of Heller and Vonnegut.
Their attempt at sarcastic mockery came across as overly simplistic and ineffective in terms of satire. Cozzens, while having funny moments, tended to take both his life and the reader's time seriously.
My writing has surrealist qualities, but there is nothing so flippant and almost meaningless as what one will find in a book like Catch-22.
This I almost find contradictory. Mainly because in real life, I highly value humor.
Conclusion
If you sat through the extravaganza, I thank you. It was fun to write. I have never really looked at the scope of my writing in depth before, and being able to record what it all may or may not mean and how it applies has been a most interesting endeavor.
My chief hope is that this has inspired some of you to write fiction of your own! Do you have beliefs? Thoughts? Fundamental ideals?
Well, start writing, and you might find out you can not only express them better outside your writing, but you will discover new principles and new dimensions that can (one hopes) aid you in the discussion of truth.
That is all for today!
