Guys, did you know that I write?
I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of people internally roll their eyes every time I mention being a writer. Not because they think it's not true or because they think I suck at it (...I hope), but because I'm incessant about weaving that fact into conversation.
I RITE GUD
That conversation about a television show? Let me explain to you why the episodic story structure that show uses is predictable.
Offhandedly mention a book I like? Insert me mentioning how I like their writing style.
Talking about a movie? "Well, as a writer..."
Just making small talk? I will find some way to mention it somehow, mark my words, don't you worry.
It's odd to me that I feel such intense pride in the fact that I write stuff. I trained as an actor, yet I don't go around mentioning that with nearly half the frequency as the other thing.
Aside from a few university publications, I've never been published. I've got me blog, I've got the stuff you can read on me website, I'm working on the final drafts of me play, I've got some secret projects that have yet to see the light of day (seeeeeeeeeecreeetttssssss). I haven't made a single cent off of a thing I've written (yet [I hope <please {I need this |out of brackets|}>]). So why do I feel the need to keep bringing it up?
*shrugs* I dunno. Don't care. Gonna talk about writing with a complete disregard for the previous passages of self-awareness.
All me life
By sixth grade I had a grand series of epic novels planned out.
I attempted to write them so many times. I don't think I ever got past chapter 4. Didn't have the attention span or endurance. I've built both of those up a lot stronger now.
My point is that from a very young age I enjoyed writing and telling stories that I made up.
From then onward, writing for fun was something that I did in my spare time; some points in life more than others. Where I'm at right now, I make a point to write every day, even if it's just some illegible scrawling in a journal.
I've written short stories, poems, plays, a million "chapter ones" and I want to write novels and comics and plays and screenplays and a television series and a lot of things.
So I dabble in my spare time. Maybe it's only a strong hobby for now, but maybe one day I can make a little something off it.
It's all about style ;)
One of my many recommendations if you want to read something oozing with personal style. Also, HILARIOUS.
One thing I, and many people, appreciate in writers is a strong voice. John Green, David Sedaris, Patrick Rothfuss, Jim Butcher, Joe Abercrombe, Sarah Kane - I love 'em all because they write with such a unique style that both suits the work they're writing and is completely and totally them.
Also from a young age, I remember being told on my papers that I had a "strong writing voice." Frankly, I didn't, and still don't, know how exactly I achieve/d that sort of thing. "Style/voice" seems to be one of those nebulous aspects of writing that is very difficult to teach. You can teach story structure, character and even dialogue (which I think is very difficult to do), but you can't teach voice; you can only encourage it.
Voice and style is learned through the act of you, the writer, writing. You figure it out the more you write - you may not be able to cohere together exactly what it is in words, like myself, but you know it is undeniably there.
Voice changes as you do. Expect it to.
Voice is unique to you; if you think your voice sucks, it just means you haven't really found it yet. Keep looking. It may be different and not everyone's cup of tea, but it does not suck.
I lied - it's all about FREEDOM
With this next sentence, I can type anything I think of - absolutely anything.
Dick tiddles.
...
Okay, so maybe freedom is overrated and free will is a lie.
I can write anything I want on this strange little screen with clicky buttons that make little black shapes which somehow convey meaning. I don't have to show it to anyone if I don't want to, but I have put it out there. Anything I can think of - the only person who can really censor me is myself.
But if I am going to be showing it to people, "the audience" is never too far from my mind. Yeah, I could say anything I wanted no matter how heinous, offensive, untrue or slanderous, but do I want to deal with the potential backlash of that? Not really. If I was fine with backlash, then shit, let's get horrible up in here. But I'm not, or at least not fine with certain kinds of backlash.
I will fully admit to being too self-conscious at times, taking too much stock in other people's opinions of me and my work.
It's not being politically correct, it's understanding that people have a million different identities and ways of thinking that me unironically putting down those who are different leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth and an uneasy conscience (if you do something "ironically" enough, it does stop being "ironic"). I may not fully understand an identity, but that doesn't mean I don't want to try to accommodate it into my own personal lexicon of humanity.
Unless you're a bigot. Fuck you, you hateful piece of shit. Stop breathing my air.
But Drewski, what do you write exactly?
Weird shit.
Yep, that's about all I got. Check out the rest of my blog and website for more.
G'bye folks. That's all I got, thank you for stopping by, refunds are handled by my assistant at hahano@aol.com
Okay okay, fine, I'll elaborate some.
Every story I write has at least a hint of fantasy, often times it is entirely immersed in the fantastical. I love dabbling in magical realism with normal people suddenly coming into contact with strange new rules of the universe. I love coming up with entire universes that never have, and never will, exist. I love using my work to discuss an issue or wrap my mind around one or many topics. I love injecting my own sense of the strange. I love being funny. I love to write dark and deeply disturbing tales (I really don't know why, but I enjoy it). I love to leave people with powerful images. I love exploring many different themes, but I always seem to return to "a lack of control" as one of the central pillars my work has built itself around; not intentionally, I might add.
I love how writing injects the whole of my being and subconscious with only arranging twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation symbols into endless permutations.
What do I write? I write me. All of the above and more.
Isn't it great?
With a few words, I can conjure worlds and images and people that have never before existed. And that... is a pretty cool feeling. Writing is not the only thing that allows people to do this, but for me I find it pleasingly direct and pseudo-permanent (the Buddhists like to say that nothing is permanent... that's because they got word that I'm building a doomsday device >:) sooooon...).
Go forth, write well, don't comma splice as much as I do.