Ideas and Obsessions

An excellent piece of mind from our friend-faraway, Ryan:

i've always known joey wanted to be a writer and i harbored the same feelings before i realized writing was a draining experience for me.i felt the blog lacked a *personal* direction, and i wanted him to write something original. Some of the best stuff comes from the heart. or has some basis in reality, like characterization. When there's depth, one will have an emotional attachment. i guess i was looking for something real and not a dissertation on other writers' works. although i guess one does start somewhere. i recognize there are techniques to finding your voice and one of them is to borrow words ("Finding Forrester")

Much appreciated for the constructive criticism, Ryan. Thanks. As Jay commented, "The problem is thst you write too much about other writers." Too true. Likewise, there's also what Jeff Van says about writing about other writers:

This will be the last time for awhile that I respond to or point you in the direction of an entry on another blog. Otherwise, this blog will become what some other blogs have already become: lazy links to other people's words, or a continual counter-puncher with no offense not generated by other bloggers.

Hehe I admit I'm guilty of that.

Right now my writing is at a standstill (though with little jerks and starts courtesy of proddings by JP). I don't know: I suppose I look at all my stuff and find it terribly derivative, which is a depressing thought. I mean, I write speculative fiction: my only boundaries should be my imagination, right? So if my writing is derivative, then what does it say about my imagination?

I guess what drives my doubts is that the the idea that if you're not writing traditional modern fantasy, then you're probably New Weird. I mean, who wants to be the next China Mieville? (Not that Mieville is bad, mind. Just to be the next one anyway.)

Grrr. I'm probably generalizing here. As it is, I can shoot off two or three ideas that fit in neither the modern fantasy nor New Weird peghole. For example, Dean is currently raising the flag for Filipino speculative fiction, which is good. Though what exactly is FSF? Is it magical realism? Is it fable-like storytelling? He says:

The grand (but manageable) plan is not to win accolades or simply be published, but to help create a body of work that is both Filipino and in the genre of the fantastic...

*Sigh* Slightly clearer, but no help in finding direction to my writing.

Other ideas I can cite are Kelly Link's weird writings, the Ratbastards (or as Dean says, "...their stories are invariably literary, the kind of stuff I think these genres need to evolve into, beyond the irritating Tolkien clones or thick multi-volume mega bestsellers"), and Guy Gavriel Kay's semi-historical fantasies like Tigana. To quote Kay:

Some people are drawn to historical fiction precisely to get "real" facts with their fiction, the illusion they know what really happened. My approach undermines that, of course, but I happen to believe that that "illusion" _should_ be undermined, and that fantasy is a deeply honourable (and wonderfully liberating) approach to exploring the past.

Ah, hell, I'm doing it again, re: writing about other writers. But then again, I wouldn't have been able to write this post if I didn't mention all the writers above, right?

*retreats from the boos of the crowd*