Hi all,
I just wondered if anyone else finds writing lit fiction more tiring and intense than writing other forms of fiction?
I know we are often dealing with difficult issues (my book this year will be dealing with domestic violence from a male perspective), so I suppose it is bound to have some effect on us, but sometimes I feel totally physically and emotionally drained from a writing session! I call it 'extreme writing' ;-)
Does anyone else find this?
stormy x
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Lost the plot already!
4,332 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 09 29
I don't, because I don't really segregate my writing like that. I write stories that would fall squarely into what people consider 'literary fiction,' but I also enjoy writing horror, science fiction, and fantasy. And when I write stories in those other genres I find myself tackling the same sort of issues. My fantasy work in progress deals with death, abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, and a few other issues, for example. So it's all more or less one and the same to me.
50,003 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 14 55
All types have difficulties.
Plot-heavy=Stop plot-holes
Character-heavy=Realistic characters
Theme-heavy=Conveying theme in a real, but not an obnoxious in-your-face fashion
So I don't think it's any harder on the whole.
----------2008: Tales from Lairtheef: Straian Stranded. 50,014
2009: Déjà Perdu. 50,003
52,943 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 15 55
I do, yes. Mostly because lit-fic DOES place heavier demands on characterization, which means a greater deal of emotional/empathy work for me, as a writer, to get the emotional reactions of all the characters right at every point.
Plot-centric stories don't have so much of that. Plot is less emotional (for me, anyway), so I don't feel as drained at the end of a long day's writing. But gutting out the specifics of how Sam, Jane, and Tommy react to everything in a complex scene, that's hard work!
----------Lapochka (YA emotional journey / travel adventure):
A young woman searches for her missing father through clues hidden in Soviet-era Russian comic books.
Also check out my writing blog at: http://www.plottopunctuation.com/blog/
22,042 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 18 13
it helps if you don't take yourself that seriously. try a dick joke or two.
----------"the difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."
- mark twain
4,332 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 18 15
I saw put the same effort into characterization in genre work as well.
41,464 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 00 07
Plot-heavy=Stop plot-holes
Character-heavy=Realistic characters
Theme-heavy=Conveying theme in a real, but not an obnoxious in-your-face fashion
So I don't think it's any harder on the whole.
Ive always written plot heavy in the past and they are what Ive had published, so I dont find those too difficult. This is my first step into lit fic and I suppose I want to get it 'right' (or my agent will never forgive me for taking a whole month out!)
I suppose its just a case of stepping into something new, and that takes time to learn.
As for not taking it too seriously - I agree to some extent - however, writing is my 'job' ie it pays my bills and I need to have something to show for my efforts that can be worked up into something 'saleable'.
Stormy x
----------Lost the plot already!
Lost the plot already!
50,049 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 13 19
Right on for being a published author with an agent who wants to sell you though :) :)
Good luck on your foray into a new area of literature!
----------~Nicole~
Nano2008 - Empty Eyes (68 K)
Nano2009 - Loss is a Four Letter Word
68,571 / 50,000
Okt 9, 2009 - 14 36
I dunno, I find it easier. Writing action scenes fries my brain...for some reason, I can't seem to write a fight scene or something like that without make it awkward and disjointed. DX
----------54,557 / 50,000
Okt 10, 2009 - 09 44
I actually hope that I feel emotionally invested at the end of the day, taxed by the issues that I'm bringing up. Maybe that's not the best thing to wish for concerning Nano, and that word count is really what matters in this situation, but in dealing with Lit. Fic. in a general view, I really hope that I feel drained and emotional afterwords.
Being a teen, I tend to stick to safer, plot heavy shores of Fantasy and Science Fiction, places where I can be easily creative and make new worlds. This is my first year writing anything different, and my only TRUE modern story idea that I've ever had, and I would like to think that its more profound or more pressing than my other pending works. I wouldn't want to diminish the importance of my other pieces, they're all my brainchildren and I love them all dearly, but this is a novel that I feel can not only tell a great story, but also can mean something to many different people. Lit. Fic. would be the genre I would pick to write a classic, to write something that might stand the test of time and not just be a fantasy fad, something that I could be remembered for or might have some legacy behind it that I would be proud to call my own.
So I am going to do my best to feel tired at the end of a long day of writing, to feel like I've really presented a heavy, exciting conflict that readers are fully engrossed in. I want characters that are tangible, that are human and make real mistakes and face challenges that we, as readers, could identify with. I feel, deep down, that's the point of Literary Fiction in the first place.
----------55,004 / 50,000
Okt 12, 2009 - 14 04
Couldn't agree more. =]
6,562 / 50,000
Okt 14, 2009 - 13 17
Spot on, Nosyerg. I don't think I can actually write in any other form. I have tried other genres, but it felt forced and as a result the writing itself was very self conscious. So I'm just going to stick to what feels right.
----------57,876 / 50,000
Okt 14, 2009 - 16 05
No-- I find both humor and science writing (the latter possibly because it's my "real" job) to be much more mentally tiring.
----------5,531 / 50,000
Okt 16, 2009 - 15 10
Interesting question, stormysoul!
For me it's much more draining, although in a very cerebral way. It's more real. I did some sci-fi screenplays of the quality of the SyFy channel on Saturday afternoon, pretty formulaic stuff, and it was stimulating and fun, but when I began a piece on two people having a meeting of minds and bodies but then confronting their different kinds of PTSD, it was torturous. I literally gave myself heart palpitations writing the rape scenes and the terror in the basement scenes. Same as getting yourself horny writing love scenes! I think if the writer is involved in the thing, it will be exhausting.
That's my whole decision this year, to write something fun and easy or to go back into the pit.
----------6,641 / 50,000
Okt 17, 2009 - 15 29
I think its certainly more draining because when you write with literary aspirations you have a higher standard for the quality of what you will commit to the page. If I'm writing a simple fantasy story, or a plot-driven (gah, as if I would ever write one of those) novel, I don't stress over finding the perfect word or conveying my subtext, or the allegorical representation of a coffee-mug. With LitFic I'm constantly second-guessing myself because I want what I write to be "perfect."
----------51,048 / 50,000
Okt 19, 2009 - 09 17
So I am going to do my best to feel tired at the end of a long day of writing, to feel like I've really presented a heavy, exciting conflict that readers are fully engrossed in. I want characters that are tangible, that are human and make real mistakes and face challenges that we, as readers, could identify with. I feel, deep down, that's the point of Literary Fiction in the first place.
This. Take out the last sentence. No matter what I'm writing, flash fiction, a longer story, novel outlines, even haiku; if I'm not exhausted after a day of writing, what I've written probably sucks.
----------Forgiveness is giving up all hope of a better past. ~Jack Kornfield