Sunday, February 24, 2013
No Restrictions
Being able to write about anything is the hardest type of assignment especially in Experimental Fiction. Experimental Fiction is hard enough at least for me anyway. You have to push the boundaries but stay inside the lines of what is grammatically correct. Unless of course you'r doing run-ons and comma splice's on purpose so that it pertains to your piece, then its okay. I ask myself how is walking zombie dounuts not pushing the boundaries enough? My brother said that maybe the dounuts should have ran around eating women, children, and babies and then it would have pushed the boundaries. I've learned one thing, never have a happy ending in experimental fiction. Happy endings don't exsist in the world of experimental fiction. Experimental Fiction is the only class in the world that makes me feel straight laced, uptight even, and not eccentric enough. This is the breaking point. This is the point where someone has to say enough is enough. I'm going to have to turn my thinking around, 360 degrees around. I look at experimental fiction as death. Every Saturday night it comes for me and haunts my dreams. I know I have to wake up on Sunday and by 10 p.m. I have to have a blog up. A blog that is provocative and long enough to show that I may actually know what I am talking about. I enter the world of experimental fiction where life is death and death is living. The clouds are on the ground and grass is in the skies. The stress. Hoping that this is the piece that makes me a good writer. Or the next one or the next one. The anixety. Hoping that this isn't the piece we read out loud. The embarressment. The embarrassment of failure in front of The Professor. Failure is not a factory installed option. Where did I hear that from? A movie ? The anguish. That I have to start all over again and hope that this time I've gotten it right. Why did I want to be a writer? Hit or Miss, Hitt or Miss. MISS-Restrictions applied.
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If you look at it another way, experimental fiction frees you from all the rules you've been told to follow throughout all your life. In fact, it seems you are having trouble because the rules are so internalized that you cannot even see them. This is how ideology functions to keep people in line. Spread your wings and fly. If you don't leap, you won't know what it feels like to fall but not hit the ground.
ReplyDeleteAlso, don't wait until Sunday to begin working on your writing. Writing is work and you must work at it often and in an engaged fashion.
I think everyone has their oh-sweet-cthulu-why-did-I-ever-want-to-be-a-writer-this-shit-is-hard moments. And then there are the "why did I write that blog post? that is so dumb and everyone will think it's dull" moments where our inner critics get the best of us but then we realize that The Professor didn't think it was dull and actually thought it was pretty cool. And even if he doesn't, someone will read it and think "shit, that's nifty" and that's what writing is all about.
ReplyDeleteI think the trouble lies in being assigned writing and not just writing because you want to. It can be hard to produce satisfactory work when you're running on no energy and very little inspiration.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard, but you can't do what you want to do if you don't explore every possible avenue first. You've learned the conventions, now it's time to break them. Chin up!
ReplyDeleteTrying to forget the protocol for traditional writing is damn hard! I may be wrong, but I think the key to this is to take yourself out of your comfort zone-- but that's definitely easier said than done
ReplyDeleteAt first I also had a lot of these shit-what-did-I-just-post/what-the-hell-am-I-gonna-write-this-time moments, but then I realized the thing about experimental fiction (and what I like the most about it too) is that there are actually no boundaries to what you can write OR to the way you should perceive/read things. Thus, we are also asked as readers to have an open mind and erase expectations. Knowing those two things has calmed me a little bit because it means nothing is really 'expected' of me when I write. So then I can just let my mind go out of control to wherever it wants.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate everyone's comments. I'm keeping them all in mind and I think there really going to help me in the long run.
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