Aug 04 2009
Writing from Non-Life
Fact: Agent Rachelle Gardner keeps an excellent blog which all writers who wish to write professionally should read.
Related fact: Yesterday my parents and I were discussing our culture and why we think it’s sunk (actually, we were discussing why we think common sense has so nearly vanished off the face of the earth). I felt that media has a lot to do with it. Not that I think media is bad in and of itself, but that more and more people are taking it in irresponsible doses and are thus living life vicariously when they ought to live it for real, like the great-aunt in Inkheart who has been to Persia a thousand times — but only in books.
So I thought Rachelle Gardner was extremely insightful in today’s post on craft and story when she said this:
I get the feeling many people are so saturated with media (books, TV, movies) that they are writing not from life but from their perception of life as shown in media. They’re writing stories I’ve seen and heard a hundred times before.
I recommend that you read the whole post. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this as well — how much do you think media helps you as a storyteller, and how much does it hinder you? How do you keep it balanced?
On another topic, you all have been leaving some great comments on the What’s Your Story post. Thanks :). Keep ‘em coming!
She has a very good point. The story should be the point, not the skill with which it is told.
I wouldn’t say the media (as in movies and TV) has really helped me in my writing. If I’m watching a really intense movie scene, I often think “I want my book scene to have the same excitement!” and mentally imagine how I would turn to sound effects, dramatic music, the action and all that into words on a page. But later I usually realize that my imagination is a better source for writing a scene than borrowing drama from a movie. Books influence me in a similar but probaby better way because borrowing ideas from books doesn’t seem so “movie-ized”. Does all that make sense? Movies occasionally give me ideas, but again my imagination is often a better source. But I’m afraid that I’m guilty of writing from my perspective of life and not life as I’ve experienced it. But when you write a story set in a medieval fantasy world, it’s hard to write from experience!
On the subject of writing, I have a question. I’ve been writing under the impression that if you come up with an idea that fits “the blank,” but you don’t like that idea, then don’t use it. In other words, use the ideas you like, and not just the ones that work. Is that a good principle to use?