...flowery melodrama vs High Literature ftw??

[reenka]

Man. I just made a poll about this, and now it's come up in real life-- really awkwardly.
    To backtrack & for background, I'm trying to write a novella (novel??) in a month with my rl friend this January. We meet several times a week to write together, heheh, and so far it's been really effective at getting me to write (it's the writing-class effect). While I do finish a fanfic that's on my mind (eventually), with original fic it may take years for me to get to the end (or I'll just drop it 'cause I get bored). I dunno if anyone else experiences this phenomenon-- I guess I'm the same in original fic or fanfic, it's just that I get a lot more ideas for fanfic (or, I used to *sniff*), so even though I still quit on 80%, that still leaves a huge number of finished fics as far as I'm concerned. But anyway.

Yeah, so generally we don't discuss our stories much except to talk meta about the process a bit, though she (my friend) mentioned about how over-the-top everyone is in her fic and how she plans to fix that in the edits afterwards when I said I'm writing even though I'm pretty sure it sucks. And I'm like, 'yeah, though generally I don't think my work sucks'-- that's not why I have writer's block. Why do people assume that? (My mom's advice before I dropped my last creative writing class was 'writing even though you think it sucks'). I mean, I just have no inspiration-- why does that mean I have to think I suck? I know I don't suck :P When I do think I suck, it's because I do, and generally umm, it's not enough to stop me (good self-esteem, that would be me, yeaaaah.)

Somehow we got on the subject of melodramatic/cliched/flowery (bad?) writing, and that's when my friend started to get defensive. I said I sorta wished I could write in the 'popular' style, plot-wise-- that is, I sometimes get bitter & wish writing cliched romantic melodrama came easier to me, because it's certainly not hard, per se. I was trying to be understanding & saying that it's all good as long as you try to be good at what you do (in terms of genre/style), and she just kept repeating about how she doesn't aspire to "high literature" and how she didn't like Tolstoy. I mean. I couldn't get into 'War and Peace' either & I certainly don't tend to either write or read high literature, but what does this have to do with having standards & wanting to be Really Good at your craft? (Well, I know my friend is just personally v. either/or and hardline about her opinions, but still....)

    I was trying to be all mediating & compromising, and then she asked my opinion of writing like Mercedes Lackey, 'cause that's what she sees herself doing. And. Uh. I used to like her (when I was 14) and I said so, to which she replied she'd always liked 'young' writing, which she takes to mean clear-cut in theme & ornate in style. But style can be ornate without being repetitive & cliched & just PAINFUL TO CONTEMPLATE, like Mercedes Lackey certainly is :/ Her earlier work was intriguing, esp. to an overly romantic teenage girl who liked white horsies (SHUT UP), but now it's just embarrassing :/ :/ Why would anyone want to be like her -now-?

I dunno. Suddenly I'm doubting that over-the-top/flowery writing is necessarily bad (well, there's an audience for it, obviously, and apparently some writers who know they're like that & don't care). And yet. I dunno. I just think it's important to want to get better, to grow as a writer, and defensiveness about not writing 'high literature' has no place in someone (like my friend) who wants to write seriously & get published. How is it I'm more 'serious' than her in this sense even though I don't care about getting published? 'Serious' in quotes 'cause I know she's really serious about being a writer. I mean, this is especially relevant to me 'cause I wasn't just born writing non-ornately-- far from it; in fact, everything about me is naturally ornate (if not melodramatic); my HS writing teacher called my writing [too] 'ecstatic', and I've tried really hard to get past that. :/
    And then she said 'this is why I never show anyone my writing' -.-;; Ouch. *facepalm* I wonder if flowery-melodrama-writing people really are more sensitive and over-the-top themselves (I know my friend is ♥) hehe. (Though hey, I'm sensitive too, dammit... hmf.)

Comments

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

You should just tell her that high literature is a social construct, that is decided years after the fact, so it's not even worth thinking about. :P But, no matter what your opinions on what good writing is or whether one should aspire to write "high literature," I don't think your friend can consider herself a "serious" writer (as in, seriously aspiring to be published) unless she prepares herself for a LOT of rejection. She's going to be lucky if she even gets criticism (that is, a reason behind the rejection, like "your prose is too ornate blah blah") as opposed to a form letter.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was kinda wanting to argue with her (or rather, correct her) on a lot of those points, but I didn't want to push & upset her further, since she was already pretty defensive. I -would've- said that 'high literature' is just a useless construct in this sort of conversation (and why was she assuming my saying 'I don't like badly-done melodramatic cliches' = 'I want high literature' anyway?) And I didn't even have to tell her to get prepared for rejection 'cause she was already cutting me off with 'this is why I'll never show it to anybody', at which point I wisely shut up :D But yeah, the scariest part for -me- was the few moments where I wondered if maybe it's something of a valid choice to be like 'well, I write melodramatic over-the-top cliched fantasy! so there!' ^^;;;;

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Well, doesn't sound like she was really having a literary argument. But, if you want to write that kind of stuff cause it sells (if it does?) maybe. However, I guess you have to consider it from her perspective. Maybe she doesn't think that it is actually bad writing? Because there can be good ornate prose and bad ornate prose.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I actually tried to tell her that-- as I said in the post, as long as you do what you do well, it's fine-- buuuut like I said, she was really defensive. I guess I was trying to think of larger issues-- like my whole doubting that over-the-top cliched melodrama was bad-- but I don't think of that stuff as 'ornate' or complex but rather formulaic. If something is prettily written, that in and of itself doesn't make it resemble that cliched flowery stuff (like 'chocolate-haired' and 'violet orbs') except in very vague outline, it seems like.