Writing

Often times authors create a strong image for themselves by writing in a specific genre. When you think of Stephen King you think horror. But what about those who experiment with different genres? Are they simply stretching their creative limbs or are they lost and in need of a home? While perhaps more relevant to younger writers this also applies to giants in the industry such as Lois Lowry who's most renowned for her novel "The Giver" (A dystopian novel) and "Number the Stars" (Historical fiction). These novels vary in setting, character, and most notably the year they take place. Despite being entirely different works they belong to the same author who was able to stretch her talent across genres. But how often does genre crossing work? There is also the question of slipstream in which writers cross genres, such as fantasy and science fiction, within a story. What does that entail? Does genre crossing enhance or sabotage one's career as a writer?

Writing is a passion with so many drawbacks- Writers block, constantly thinking of ideas, dealing with rejection and failure. So what makes us continue? There are many reasons, such as wanting to tell an important story, wanting to show commitment and dedication to a hobby and wanting to get published.
For many, its a way to gain self-appreciation and satisfaction. By demonstrating to yourself that you can commit to a task for many months, it's like the literary equivalent of running a marathon.
For others, it's about proving a talent to the world. It's about declaring 'I've got something to say and I'm going to say it'.
Regardless of the limitations of being a writer, the benefits outweigh the negatives.

In many of Virginia Woolf's novels (such as "The Voyage Out", "Night and Day", "Mrs Dalloway", "To the Lighthouse" and "The Years"), the concept of family, and in particular family breakdown, appears. Considering her own life (her parents, brother, and half-sister all died when she was relatively young), does her family influence this portrayal of families? Obviously, one would have to give biographical information about Woolf and a description of the principle families in some of the novels (Mr and Mrs Ramsay in "To the Lighthouse", the Dalloways in "The Voyage Out" and "Mrs Dalloway", etc.)

Time travel is a frequently revisited topic in both popular and literary fiction. What is the philosophical appeal of time travel? Does it simply speak to our personal regrets or to large global/political/social issues that we wish to undo? Is it egotistical to think that 'hight sight is twenty-twenty'; that to know the negative outcome of one event/one decision would allow us to course correct and thereby find success? Can humanity (globally or personally) only learn or develop compassion through disaster?

Comparison between songs that are more recent and ones that are older throw up a large number of differences in terms of lyrics. One prime difference is that newer songs have an increasingly decreasing (heh, see what I did there?) number of lyrics.
Examples –
'You a Stupid Hoe', 'Turn Down For What', 'Now watch me whip, now watch me nae nae', 'I know you want me, you know I wan'cha'

Is this constant reduction in the number of words in a song a reflection on
a) Our memory – we can't remember words to songs anymore, or it seems like a waste of time to do so.
b) Our attention span has dropped so low, that we can't be bothered to listen to music that isn't composed of repititive phrases, we can't be bothered to exert the effort to figure out what longer, more extensive lyrics say.
c) Just bad taste.

Is it a combination of all three?
Is it a different reason altogether?
Is there a more complex reasoning behind this?

It seems to me that there can be said to be two primary aspects, roughly speaking, that go into any form of writing, but especially fiction writing. First, there is content, which includes everything to plot, to scenery, to dialogue and character development. Then there is style, which refers to how the language is being used in creative ways to express something. Many writers seem to have one down solidly, while the other side suffers. Who are some writers you think do one of these (or both) especially well, and how important to you think each aspect is to creating good fiction writing?

I am a fiction writer and voracious fiction reader, so I like this topic. Yet I feel like I shouldn't write it since it would be in first person, so it's up for grabs.

Do any fiction writers out there find their craft ruins the reading experience? For example, do you catch yourself zeroing in on when an author tells instead of shows, or when characters are undeveloped? Do books you once liked become tedious? If yes, how do you–and we as writers–cope with that? Is there a way to keep one's craft from ruining reading? Conversely, does writing make reading a great book even better, and does it enhance one's taste in literature?

It's happened to us all. We received an email from an editor that dashed our hopes and dreams against the rocks. Rejection is a fact of life and even the most successful of writers have gone through it several hundred times, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, and E. E, cummings to name a few. Today's publishing market is not as ridged as it once was. Now there are other avenues for writers to seek publication such as online-only publishing, self publishing, or paying to publish but the old publishing houses remain and rejection letters are still given out in healthy doses. An interesting topic to explore might be the sudden drop and forced recovery after receiving a rejection. You could use numerous examples of people who have survived and give helpful hints and tips for those feeling discouraged. In the words of Sylvia Plath "I love my rejection slips. They show me I try."