I think some parts of me and my agenda can't help but come through my writing. I mean, after all, it is my writing. However, my writing is light, so any agenda I may have, is also light.
For example, I have some issues with high school. Nothing bad ever happened: I wasn't bullied into tears ever. But there is some awkwardness with me because of my senior year, and so I always am kind of uncomfortable with high school, even though, for the most part, I loved it. Anyways, I definitely think that inspired me to have the crazy high school archnemisis I have in my current work. My agenda in that book might be to show that life does go on after high school and that people change, well most people.
I used to be a journalist, and as a journalist we had to keep all agendas out of our writing. As a matter of fact, I kept it hidden for my entire career with the Daily Tribune News that I was a big time liberal. Since I live in a town that is largely Republican based, everyone just assumed I was too. I never shared my true opinions until after I left the paper and started writing a column; it's amazing how many attitudes changed.
Someday I would love to be able to write a book like Adiga's that reveals some mass corruption or makes people's jaws drop, but right now I just want to write a light book that makes people laugh. I guess that's my not-so-hidden agenda right now: put a smile on someone's face.
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The light writing is what I enjoy reading. I glad that you like to make people smile. The work we read in our fiction class of your, made me smile. And writing without showing your views is probably the worst thing about journalism.
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ReplyDeleteI agree, Danielle. The best agent: to make people laugh and smile.
ReplyDeleteMaybe as writers we can all agree that our agenda is to produce writing that affects our readers. I love hearing that I've made a reader laugh (or cry, which is harder to do).
ReplyDeleteThat should be "agenda" and not "agent" in my comment. Sorry for duplicate comments, my computer is acting up today.
ReplyDeleteDanielle, there's an old (profound) Spanish proverb,"It's better to laugh than to cry." Laughter, along with speech and prayer, distinguishes us from the animals, and, let's face it, transforms situations.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, Barbara, I have seen my dogs laugh, both of them.
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