Tonight’s the last night of my Louisiana thanksgiving vacation extravaganza. I had an absolutely great time, caught up with old friends, and ate dangerously. All in all, a success. Well, in most ways. How’s my 1000 word/day fiction target and one blog a day working out?
I’ve been jamming tons of text into my eyeballs lately, flash fiction and short stories, novels and craft blogs.
I also told you how I really feel when I wrote Things I’m Sick of Reading About in September. In it, I railed against stories that lack a proper ending. TL;DR If you misuse authorial power so blatantly, this is you:
“My writing bores me. You finish the story, peon!”
Call me old-fashioned, but I believe in real stories; stories with beginnings, middles, and ends. Stories that leave the audience satisfied, rather than befuddled, upon reaching the end. When someone writes a story with no end, I wonder, did they have a purpose in writing at all, or did they just want to waste my reading time? In 100% of apprentice writers, 99% of journeyman writers, and 95% of masters, the inconclusive ending flops.
It’s been 3 years since my last writing workshop and my ass still hurts. In a few short semesters, I’d grown embittered, defensive, and drained of creative drive. Since then, I’ve spoken to other Workshop Survivors, heard their woeful tales, and slowly internalized hard lessons about the Writing Life. I’ve heard as many people say the workshop hurt their writing as helped.
Here’s a few lessons from a Survivor on how to get all you can from your workshop:
In my previous entry, I touched incidentally on my aversion to stories set in the “real world”. I didn’t have this problem growing up — although I preferred fantasy and science fiction stories, I consumed far more contemporary realism, mystery, and suspense stories, at least in High School. Continue reading Real World Blues→
Gregory Blake 