Back on Friday, I got to thinking 'Why don't I write fiction anymore?' I used to write upwards of ten short stories a day when I was eight. what happened? I had enough to fill a library!

Fiction is For Losers Anyway
01:11 AM CST

One fact is clear - I suck at elaborating. these are a couple examples I came up with on Friday:



Ex. 1: She stared intently at him though maybe not exactly the way she wanted to; in fact, she looked like dead woman walking instead of the poised girl studying in the library while coyly glancing over at the company at the table next to hers. no, she looked like a clown in the form of death/corpse in a pretty outfit. girl who didn't sleep enough. up all night cause she's been watching Insomniac Theater on VH1. when you think about it, mostly when you try to make the correct facial expression it comes off wrong. shining eyes of love turn into 'there's a big mean scarybear standing behind you. no, look, BEHIIIIIND YOUUUU'. a smirk turns into 'I'm a frikkin' clown. want to see me juggle next?' or 'I just escaped the loony bin' ...perhaps that's why actors get paid so much for what they do.




Ex. 2: That vase on the window's edge. it can be anything you want it to be. the colours swirl against the light. almost like a kaleidoscope. the sort you'd find in those cool stores in the mall. the expensive ones no one would buy except as a gift or if they were crafty; maybe if they're your father who'd buy anything cause it looked "neat". really, yeah. it's just a vase and it's the only thing stopping the light from attacking you. at least it's good for something beyond just pretty colours which is exactly what you are.



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It took much effort to come up with those. I guess I've improved beyond the short stories filled with dialogue. I was taught that sayin' "Allison said, "blablah" and "Sara replied, "blablah" made things very boring. especially if all my characters were basically sayin' was "okay" or "I'll go make dinner" I bored many a friend who'd come over to my house with these novels/short stories. once I stood on a stool in front of our garage and demanded all the children of the street to gather around to hear the story of the good twin and the bad twin (this was my best idea of all the stories I wrote cause it was going to be a series; I got midway through each book all the way up to six; I finished book five though and my one friend lost it which I mentioned before). this was only book one that I was reading. most of the kids wandered off when I was only on chapter two. I was angry and almost threw a tantrum. yes, I was quite an attention seeker around then. that was also probably the year I had the talent show in our garage and the church Easter gathering in the living room (I wore a fancy dress and stuck all my dolls in little white folding chairs).

Anyway, I went offcourse there. basically, after the twins series, writing fiction became rather bland to me. I guess my main excuse was lack of experience to write a good factual story. even if I wrote it in a fantastical type setting, I'd still feel rather at a loss cause my imagination doesn't really reach that far. I tend to go on the realistic sides of things. perhaps that's why writing the journal has gone on this long. talking about myself instead of a character seems to flow better at least. the twins did develop into real-like people towards the end though. I still mourn their short death (the books lasted from around sixth grade till tenth). it was getting to be rather soap opera-like by the third rewrite of book two where Allison (the bad twin) got in a car accident outside of Taco Bell and Charlene (the good twin) visited her in the hospital where they apologised and Allison called her a "biscuithead" for old times sake or something. I don't know either. I think the main reason my stories sucked was cause I never left it with a vague ending. it was always rather happy and cheesy like most WB drama.

There was a short stint of 'I'm deep and profound, yo!' around eleventh/twelfth grade. that's when my stories all started on a vague idea that ended in a surprising ending no one was expecting like the story that ended up being a long tortured dream instead of reality which was rather bright and hopeful. yeah, I found this the best short story EVER though. it could've been in one of those magazines with the lovely illustrations, but I don't know if I'd send it in now cause I'm over it. plus, it sounds similar to alot of stories that have been featured without meaning to be. oh well. there was one more story I wrote after that one which was a good idea; had many rather good scenes, but reminded me too much of fan fiction for a show or idea that doesn't exist. ya know that overexaggerated type of elaboration about characters and their actions? yeah, well, I don't know. perhaps one day I'd rewrite it to make it sound better, but I'm not sure. it had a surprise/vague ending as well; more like one of those 'leave room for a sequel' sorts of endings when there never will be a sequel, or will there?? I can continue from their life in Canada if only I knew a darn thing about Canada beyond what I hear from Canadians in forums. of course, I could be rather vague and just research some street names; facts; descriptions of shops to add dimension to the story yet not have to go there to make happen. really, I only had them going to Canada so I wouldn't have to sequel it though. oh well, it's an idea.

I mean, yeah, writing fiction can 'suck' or be redundant on everything that has been done before yet with different groupings of text to describe it, but yeah, sometimes I wish I could go back to it cause I at least felt important when I had my stories. now I seem to find myself rather a bore with some mild ideas.

There were also many musings about starting up the poetry again, but then I think of how idiotic alot of my collection was and I cringe. I mean, there are ways to make it cool, but I think out of the one hundred and fifty or so I wrote, only like four were written in a cool way. the rest were whines and teenage; goth-like at times. oh well. we all have our hidden stash I'm sure; at least most of us who write do - unless ya burned it!

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2 Followers:

Oh my... I used to dream about writing a series, too. I think you got farther along on yours than I did on mine. I just planned out a lot of book titles and never actually wrote any of the books. Hm.

About a year ago, I got back into writing fiction after two or three years of strictly journal writing. It was really, really hard to do. I still have to remind myself that my stories do not have to follow real life! (Stunning revelations abound.) It takes practice... to go from having the boundaries of truth to deal with ... to being able to rely completely on imagination. It's definitely more rewarding to finish a short story than to finish a journal entry, though. If you want to get started again, try taking something that actually happened to you and then branching off in a completely different direction.

- 12.04.2002 11:49 PM - Laurie

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Yes, but if only I could finish what I started :)
I think my problem was that in the midst of one book, another idea for the next book would come along and I'd just get started on that till I had them all halfway started. the most interesting was book five. I miss book five's ending. it involved a good fight scene at the end :D

Ah yes, thank you for the idea. I've thought about doing something like this. I haphazardly did with the last short story by using a similar situation of the person I wished I could be, but yeah, it ended up being slightly off since I had to explain how it wasn't supposed to be me afterwards (to get readers confused; hee). I did start another story about a girl in japan with a confusing foreign 'm' name who goes to the U.S. to find her internet love interest, but yeah, after a few pages, I had to stop once I couldn't think of a way to make the japan part believable without going or having her turn into an anime character with magical powers :)

- 12.05.2002 12:24 AM - Amber

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