To Write Or To Write About?

Writing fiction allows the writer to be creative. You can chose your own characters, their story, the context, setting, scene, everything. As long as it makes sense. What is difficult about making it work is making it interesting. You need to write to engage your audience. Also you need to think of your own symbolism, and your own thematic elements. What do you what your reader to take from this experience? There is a ton of thought that goes in to writing a story and it can be very frustrating for the reader.

Writing about fiction can be just as frustrating. Having to go in to the context, background, and theme can sometimes be difficult. In writing about “A Hand in the Grave” I found it hard to find outside sources to back up the ideas that I had when interpreting the story.

Also, in writing about fiction there is the problem about the “right” interpretation. Yes, a story is open to interpretation, but there are so many issues with that as well. If you are writing about your own interpretation, or ideas regarding a piece of fiction, there has to be sufficient evidence to back it up.

I liked going into the story and re-reading it. Honestly, every time I read it I learned something new. I had written my entire essay, when I realized at the end they did not even need the body. After reading that it completely changed my perception of the characters and interpretation of the story. It was exciting for me to go back and try to find the clues that lead up to it, and trying to a put a new spin on things.

So peeling the onion can sometimes be fun. Or sometimes it can make you cry.

SEX

What enhanced my study of myth in creating a myth is trying to make it all make sense. Everything that means something has to mean something for a reason. All the components had to fit to ensure that the reason for the outcome made sense. Although it was a fun assignment, it was difficult to think of what to write about. After learning about all the types of myths I felt it would be fun to explain a modern situation but in an ancient sort of context. I really wanted to engage my audience. What makes the audience pay attention? What makes them think? What is possibly unexplained and could be mythical? Something with sex. Sex is everywhere because people like it. People love reading about it, talking about it, watching it, doing it, just everything about it. You can be guaranteed an enthralled audience when there is sex involved. So there is my creative, sexy, process.

I think that applying this assignment to the classroom is a great idea. Not only does it give students a chance to be creative, but it also has them thinking about all the components that go into a myth and how to identify the different myths. Obviously the sex thing would not work in a classroom, but perhaps something to do with girls, boys and the cooties.

By the way have you ever really thought about cooties? How did they come about? Who invented the cootie shot? What were the symptoms? Is it a giant conspiracy concocted by adults to keep boys and girls away from each other until they were mature? Can a concerned parent find out more about it on WebMD if their child comes crying relating a story about how she/he gave her/him the cooties?

Something to think about.