I'm Not Really Good at Writing Fiction.
Though this may be a shock for some people, when it comes to English, fiction is my first love. I’m sure I am not alone when I say that I started reading at an early age. My father was also and English major; I can vividly remember when he first told me about symbolism and them. After that, I have never been able to read fiction in the same way. Fiction became a puzzle that I always tried to decipher, not in a DaVinci Code way, but in an analytic way. I love dissecting literature and breaking it down into its simplest elements, I know this “kills it” for a lot of people, but for it breathes life into it.
Because I have such a strong affinity for fiction, reading what I deemed to be “good” fiction has always inspired feelings of jealousy in me. I have tried my hand at short pieces of fiction and have never been happy with the result. I can’t really blame it on any single thing, perhaps I am too ambitious, or maybe I use too many adjectives. I could read a piece of fiction and easily tell you what makes it work, but when I try to capture these same elements in my own work, I fail. Sometimes, I try so hard to get a certain point across that the work becomes dull. That’s probably it, I have no faith in my readers; it’s their fault.
Although I don’t have faith in my fiction writing, I know that attempting to write fiction has benefits beyond practicing creativity. So, it is something that will be required in my classroom. Like the other genres that we have studied in class, sometimes being able to recognize elements of the literature is not enough. The practice of using these elements in writing reinforces their function in literature. While a student may be able to bull shit their way through an essay, feigning understanding, a student that is able to employ elements of fiction in creative writing must have a definite grasp on the concepts. Thus, creative writing exercises in fiction can also serve as an adequate form of evaluation
posted by ThePepeLucho @ 10:51 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
Yes, shocking ;-) I, too am very analytical when I read--ok, when I do everything. If I can't make a puzzle out of it, it won't hold my interest. Both of my parents were magazine readers and neither went to college, but I've always been a reading junkie. I think they found me beside the road somewhere.
I still remember what it was like when I first learned to read. To this day I consider it the best thing that has ever happened to me.
Never underestimate the ineptitude of your readers. No matter how overly critical you are of your writing (I'm guessing), you will find an audience. In most of my literature classes, I sat bored while the majority of the class took a week to discover what I recognized in the first chapter. Really good fiction is becoming harder and harder to come by, because writing is being dumbed down for a more general audience.
I agree that producing fiction is a better gauge of a student's understanding than repeating what I've already told them about a gven story. The latter is merely academic bulimia, whereas the former cannot be memorized or faked. I think writing exercises are an underused educational tool. They display lesson comprehension, nurture creativity, encourage self-expression, and as you say, they are a convenient vehicle for evaluation. Knowledge of grammar, syntax, spelling, form, genre, vocabulary, literary devices, and Standard American English are all evidenced in a single piece of writing. It's a lot of educational bang for your buck.
Fiction is definitely a puzzle, I agree with you there. It's a really cool thing to try and think of all the possible readings to a single piece of work. It's amazing how one story could mean so many different things to so many different people. It's like that picture thing (don't know what it's called), but when someone shows you a picture and you see an old woman but another person will look at the same picture but see a beautiful young woman (do you know what I'm talking about?) I feel like literature is a lot like this.
I think you're being way too hard on yourself, (as we all tend to be with ourselves) about your writing abilites. Just reading your blog entry, I can already tell you are a talented writer and you should definitely have an optimistic attitude about your writing. You said that you'r never happy with the result of your work, but I'm sure they are all great.
I think you'r right that having students write fiction is a great way to reinforce the elements of fiction. You write that students can bullshit their way through an essay, but it's harder to do this when writing their own material. I'm not so sure I agree with this because I think a great bullshitter will be able to bullshit their way even in their own writing. It's kind of difficult, in my opinion, to assess one's understanding of fiction based on their own creative writing, because it is just that: creative. One might have an amazing understanding of the elements of fiction, but have a real difficult time using their own creativity or imagination to write their own. Or vice versa, one could not really understand elements of fiction that well, but has seen a lot of TV shows where there is a setting, plot, etc. and he or she could have great imagination and come up with a great story. I don't think that one could necessarily use these creative writing in the classroom as "adequate forms of evaluation."
But definitely, I think assigning creative writings is a great assignment, because as with anything that's creative, it is asking students to use their imagination, which is something that is less emphasized in today's classroom.
I think your ideas are really interesting, and you should definitely keep writing fiction (with a more confident attitude about yourself).
I think dissecting literature (or anything, really) only "kills it" if you are purely analytical in your approach. Stories (or poems or songs or whatever) should work on a surface level and on an analytic level. That's why I enjoy hot new artist Madonna's "What It's Like For a Girl" both as a biting post-feminist commentary on gender equality as well as an off-the-hook jam that makes me want to shake my ass.
Hi Adam,
I am impressed by the description of your analytical mind. I agree with you on the whole idea of introducing every genre to your students so that they can do some creative writing assigments. On the other hand, i find it difficult to understand how you enjoy reading if you are always deciphering things. I mean it is a great quality that i wich i had, but trying to make sense out of everything is not always good.
Also, whenever you try to write fiction just write down your ideas, and then try to add all your elements(I am no expert but that is what i do). Good luck trying to enjoy your fiction writing :)
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