Semi-serious thoughts

[rosiphelee]

When I did my first degree, my tutor had a number of watchwords he used to frequently remind us of (much in the same way as Mad-Eye Moody 'reminds' people of the need for constant vigilance). His favourite was 'intellectual adventure.' Whatever we did, whichever options we chose, we were supposed to approach them in that spirit. At the time, like most students, I didn't appreciate it. It's stayed with me, though, and I find myself using it as a standard from time to time.

The lack of intellectual adventure was certainly one of the factors in making me look towards teaching. I was thinking about it again this morning, when Becca posted about why she wrote. The following suggestions all result from where my brain went next. I'm trying to start a discussion here, so please argue with me, make suggestions, etc.

I've given up wondering why I write. What interests me more is how. I've been thinking about it more and more over the last few weeks, with a certain amount of dissatisfaction. I'm not complaining or looking for sympathy here. It's a very nice rut, and I can steer along it competently, but it's still a rut. Where, in all this writing I churn out, is the adventure? Where is the passion and the challenge? What happened to the impetus to push myself into improving?

In this context, I've been thinking about fanfiction. I'm not interested in starting a debate about the pros and cons of what they write over there. What interests me is how they write. The immediate sense I get from fandom is of energy. People write for the love of it. They challenge each other; spark off each other; mess about and experiment. Why isn't this happening with original fiction? Where are our prompt communities? Where are our challenges? Our writing memes? Drabbles? Timed contests? Crack fests? Why are they having more fun than us?

I realise the virtue of steady writing. Being able to keep going in the face of writer's block and lack of inspiration is one of the things that seperates the potential professional from the amateur. The flipside of that, though, is the risk of getting stale. I also understand that it's easier for people to take risks in fandom, where they're not hurting their own characters, or messing up their own worlds.

Which all comes down to the simple conclusion that I'm going to start messing about. Does anyone else feel the same? Are there other things we could be doing? What about book discussions? We all have overlapping taste in fiction - could we organise a book group of some sort where we nominate a book a month and all set aside a few hours at the end of the month to join in a discussion? Thoughtful reading is, imho, one of the most useful skills for a writer. Or technical discussions? I know we're all pretty good at constructive criticism (yes, I know I've been lax, but you all know how ashamed I am) but what about more general discussions of how to tackle character or world-building or similar broad topics?

It seems, and this is a general observation, not an attack on anyone because I know that different people approach things differently, that we're not using livejournal widely enough. We've got the amazing advantage of a group of like-minded writers and their expertise, and a forum which allows multi-thread discussions. Why don't we use it a bit more? At the moment my LJ bears more resemblance to a primary school news' book than a writer's blog or interactive space. It seems a waste.

Does anyone else think it might be fun to make a mess?

Comments

[shanra.livejournal.com]

*looks around* Think you have 'yea-sayers' so far.

Actually, I think talechasing would be lovely for posting (short) challenges and drabble challenge requests and the like. I wouldn't even know of a magic realism challenge, if you hadn't mentioned it just now. Having a community, yes, is slightly more cumbersome to post than in your own journal, but it means having things like this in one place.
It's just a thought there, really.

Character meme are lovely. We could design our own too, if we wanted.

The calendar challenge was fun, but I'm not really thinking of big events like that (personally, I'm just too tight for time). I was thinking more of little everyday things.

Oh, I know the feeling. I don't think we should have many of them. Or if we do that the deadline isn't "finish before this date" but "finish within a time frame of ____" so you can pick it up whenever you want/have time to work on something.

As with anything, it'd just be throwing things out for people to try/work with if they want to. Little larger than everyday things still, but possibly more manageable. ^-^