Ah, me. I feel like a fraud, trying to compare my writing projects to these great published books we have been reading for this class. First of all, I've written very little fiction. I haven't even taken Fiction Writing in the MAPW program. I've registered for that class for the fall, but so far, so have only two other people. Many of you blogged so knowledgeably about writing in various third-person forms. I can't really contribute with authority to those conversations.
I am a Creative Nonfiction kind of girl. I've written essays, not short stories. Profiles of interesting people. Magazine articles. My homework. I'm striving to combine nature, travel, and memoir writing for my wanna-be-a book about my family's trip through Ireland. But I am mainly striving - to get the words out and down, to shape the narrative, to make parts of it funny, parts of it interesting, and parts of it poetic, to keep at it and not quit. Bill Bryson's travelogue of his attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail, "A Walk in the Woods," is the prototype for what I'd like to accomplish, the kind of book I'd like to produce. Right now, I'm focused on production. I've not had the time, the talent, or the temerity to promote an agenda.
But . . . I'd like to. I'm generally on a soapbox about something: child prostitution and sexual abuse of anyone, hunger in Africa, the education and social acceptance of young adults with disabilities. I used to daydream about writing books, particularly young adult books, that helped readers understand another person's life, helped them empathize with someone who is different from them. I admire Adiga for crafting a work of fiction that could make a comfortable American like me despair over the state of affairs in India. I'd be proud to write literature that had an agenda - and made a difference.
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Your ideas sound very interesting and some heart wrenching. I like that you want to address issues that most people try to ignore.
ReplyDeleteDon't you think your creative nonfiction shows your beliefs. Take for example child prostitution you wouldn't you show your beliefs in how you feel about that subject and that you think it is morally wrong. So that would be social beliefs and maybe political beliefs.
When I saw this question I couldn't, at first, think how it applied to me either because most of my work has been nonfiction, except the current one.
An agenda (in the most positive sense) shows up clearly in nonfiction, and the issues you address in this blog are important ones.
ReplyDeleteKathleen-
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about not "knowing" as much about fiction as you think the rest of us know. Believe me when I say, the learning is NEVER over. I think creative non-fiction is sometimes harder to write than fiction because you are so personally attached to the information. This MAPW will help you grow tremendously. Just do what you love and write what you know.
Kathleen, even in travel writing I'm sure that our beliefs begin to leak out. I'm sure that even cultural differences between the U.S. and Ireland had you forming opinions about something. Never underestimate the power of the opinion! :)
ReplyDeleteKathleen,
ReplyDeleteI think that some of the best agenda pieces I have read have been creative non ones. Sometimes, truth is actually better than fiction.
Oh, and I also struggle with finding the time to just put the words down. Good to know I'm not alone.
Kathleen,
ReplyDeleteYou have a wonderful voice that can say hard things and make them easy to swallow. Do not doubt your gift. I see you moving from strength to strength.
Kathleen -
ReplyDeleteGo back to our first blog, you know, when we all felt like a fraud putting our name in the blank and calling ourselves writers. Isn't this always the plight of the writer? I loved what you wrote and laughed as I went along. Bill Bryson is a wonderful example and it will be fun to see where your project lands. Production is good. Getting words on paper is the first step to getting a book in print and if it has an agenda, so be it. Most importantly is that it is writing that you feel good about and hopefully someone, lots of someones care to read. Keep that production going and have a blast in the fiction class. I can't wait to get to the time when I can take that one, too.
One of my writing mentors once complimented me on a hidden meaning in a piece, and I had to admit that it had been an unintentional flash of genius, that I hadn't realized I was writing in layers. He said, "You get credit for it whether you intended it or not." That's how it will be with you, Kathleen. Write the book, and the truths will reveal themselves. The agenda will make itself clear.
ReplyDeleteThanks, everyone, for your helpful ideas and encouragement!
ReplyDelete