Sorry...I'm a little lazy today, because I'm supposed to be working on other things than updating this blog. I was just thinking about how all writing is argumentative or persuasive. However you want to call it. I've been working on my message/sermon for this upcoming Sunday (yeah, I know...no pressure, right?) and it sort of dawned on me how writing my message is so much like writing and essay which is so much like writing a business email. They are all so similar.
So how does writing a young adult/children's novel come into the picture? Creative writing uses the other end of your brain. I don't just mean other side, I mean other end. Its a remote part of the mind that is only really active (I believe) when you are a child unless you make an effort to use it. Its the imaginative part. You know, when you'd walk into a playground, see the jungle gym, and see a cave? Or a pirate ship? Or a bee hive? Or when you were given a piece of Playdoh, you'd see the horse, not the lump.
As adults, most of us don't use that part of our brains. Some adults (inventors, artists, writers, and adults who just haven't grown up) use that "end" of our mind but only on occasion. How often do we unknowingly tap into that creative energy? We have to make an effort, strain, suffer headaches in order to get the same out-of-the-box thinking that it would've taken us half a second when we were a child.
Still, creative writing is very persuasive. Any writing is persuasive. Either you are trying to persuade your readers that the argument you are saying is the logical stance, or you are trying to prove that this product is better than that product, or that God really wants you to do this rather than that. OR you are trying to prove that this world that you've created really is a viable, livable world and that the characters are worth the attention and the time of your readers. And maybe you are just trying to prove that the things these characters learn is something worth noticing. Maybe, just maybe.
I don't think writing, or anything spoken or written or communicated, is worth the effort unless there is a message to it. From something as simple as "I am cold right now" to as complex as a political argument or graduate thesis.
What does your communication prove? Is it idle or is it worth using that side of your brain?
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Day 193
I've been working on my book for over half a year! I just realized.
There has been talk of rings and proposals and change in my life recently. This past weekend I celebrated my 6th anniversary with my boyfriend, eagerly anticipating a marriage proposal but not getting one (he knew I was expecting it haha). Having been with my boyfriend for so long, almost a third of my life, it feels strange to be away from him. When we are not in the same vicinity, I am not as comfortable. I'm not squirming, but it feels like a part of me is missing. I feel whole when he's around.
Except when I'm writing. My boyfriend eeks into all of my male characters, and the way I am around him seems to find its way into all of my female characters. Somehow every male protagonist has attributes that I admire in him. Somehow. I know how, and I know why, but it boggles my mind a little that even when I don't intend to make any of my characters similar to my boyfriend or I, they wind up being that way anyway.
I was talking to him about my novel, describing how I was trying to get my female protagonist to "break" (in that she needs to start changing from who she is to something better). I was explaining how she is stubborn and set in her ways and that I was struggling with making her "turn" because she was that way. At this point in the novel, I knew that my male hero was patterned after my dear, having done it on purpose this time, and I was telling him that I needed the prince to help get her to turn.
Then my boyfriend says, "Oh, so she's like you."
It was like a slap in the face. It was one of those "Duh!" moments where you feel like slapping yourself in the face. Duh, she's like me. Stubborn, set in her ways, slightly brainwashed. Or at least, how I used to be. I'm not proud of it, but I AM proud to say that I have grown up a lot. So, pretty much what I found was that my novel was very much a story of myself and my boyfriend while we were in high school. The characters were almost carbon copies (personality and maturity wise) of our high school selves.
WEIRD!
Sorry. This revelation was a light bulb epiphany moment for me, and as I continue to write (it having been weeks since my boyfriend and I had this conversation), it surprises me that I did not notice it before. Its so blatantly obvious now, of course.
There has been talk of rings and proposals and change in my life recently. This past weekend I celebrated my 6th anniversary with my boyfriend, eagerly anticipating a marriage proposal but not getting one (he knew I was expecting it haha). Having been with my boyfriend for so long, almost a third of my life, it feels strange to be away from him. When we are not in the same vicinity, I am not as comfortable. I'm not squirming, but it feels like a part of me is missing. I feel whole when he's around.
Except when I'm writing. My boyfriend eeks into all of my male characters, and the way I am around him seems to find its way into all of my female characters. Somehow every male protagonist has attributes that I admire in him. Somehow. I know how, and I know why, but it boggles my mind a little that even when I don't intend to make any of my characters similar to my boyfriend or I, they wind up being that way anyway.
I was talking to him about my novel, describing how I was trying to get my female protagonist to "break" (in that she needs to start changing from who she is to something better). I was explaining how she is stubborn and set in her ways and that I was struggling with making her "turn" because she was that way. At this point in the novel, I knew that my male hero was patterned after my dear, having done it on purpose this time, and I was telling him that I needed the prince to help get her to turn.
Then my boyfriend says, "Oh, so she's like you."
It was like a slap in the face. It was one of those "Duh!" moments where you feel like slapping yourself in the face. Duh, she's like me. Stubborn, set in her ways, slightly brainwashed. Or at least, how I used to be. I'm not proud of it, but I AM proud to say that I have grown up a lot. So, pretty much what I found was that my novel was very much a story of myself and my boyfriend while we were in high school. The characters were almost carbon copies (personality and maturity wise) of our high school selves.
WEIRD!
Sorry. This revelation was a light bulb epiphany moment for me, and as I continue to write (it having been weeks since my boyfriend and I had this conversation), it surprises me that I did not notice it before. Its so blatantly obvious now, of course.
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