Content and Form

A long time ago... when I first began to write creatively, I learned that the rules of grammar could be broken. I was reminded of this as I listened to three literary authors talk about their work in the Library Foundation of Los Angeles' ALOUD series. My Big Brother sent me info regarding the library event and I'm glad I decided to go. This talk was Sentence After Sentence After Sentence: Three Writers on the Not-Exactly-Random Extraordinary Ordinary Key of Life. 

After a brief reading from each author, each author then sat in a fire-side chat setting and spoke about their work, the use of fragments, and a little bit about their writing processes, taking questions from the audience.

A few take-aways - breaking the grammar rules or conventional forms take thought. One of the authors, Anne Germanacos, talked about how deliberate she was in the editing process, cutting out about 80% of the original draft in order to insert the necessary fragmentation and abruptness that was needed in order to get the right "feel." Using fragments - because of how normal thought gets interrupted - gives the sense of presence in the present. The use of fragments and pauses hints to what is possible and gives the readers a chance to contemplate what is between the lines. What's left unsaid.

The writing was a form of self discovery and reflection. They brought the stories forth from their own experiences.

One of the most profound statements of the night -- when you're writing, what question are you answering? (Sometimes, you won't know that question until you've discovered the answer.)

The second most profound piece of writing advise - it isn't so much as a beginning, middle and end. Rather, it's more of finding a good starting point and a good stopping point.

As writers, we are imposing sense to an experience.

Coming out of the ALOUD event, I was... thoughtful. It was definitely a change of form from the work I'd been reading lately and reminded me of the difference between the fine art of literary work and the popular art of mass market fiction.

With this, I'm going to change the direction of my work in progress. I'm keeping the basic premise, but I'll be shifting the approach. I think I've been fighting my natural inclination of writing a short story and trying to push for a novel. Let's see what this new direction takes me, and how many short stories I can piece together into a cohesive story.


For info about the talk and links to the podcast, click here. If any of you are in the LA area, I highly recommend going to one of these talks and supporting the library.