I haven't posted for quite some time due in part to my need to over-achieve with my bill-paying work and in part because my creative well ran a little dry. Notice that in the previous sentence I didn't use the phrase "day job."
While many people use that term to describe the work they perform to pay rent and buy groceries, I don't care for it. Firstly, while I do work during the day, I also tend to work that job in the evenings and sometimes in the night, making mine an 24 hour a day job. Secondly, how many people have a "day job" that is actually performed in the evening or even a night shift while they attempt their creative endeavors in whatever hours they have free? I have no idea why I feel like nit-picking those details but I do, at least I do at this moment... so there it is. I won't use "day job" to refer to work that pays the bills but doesn't completely fill up my soul or any other work that is part of the journey toward something that does complete me.
All right, now that I've said my piece on that topic, I'll turn my attention to the remainder of the first sentence... my creative well.
I'm sad to say that after NaNoWriMo and then the hustle and bustle of the December holiday season, I found myself very worn and not feeling particularly inspired. It isn't surprising, pushing so hard for such a long period of time (a whole month!) is exhausting. So I've given myself a small gift, I set aside a little time to read.
As a writer, I feel guilty when I read and when I don't. Next to writing, I believe the best way to improve as a writer is to read other work. Even without in-depth analysis, I can learn some techniques just by reading the text and absorbing the style. But when I read, I'm also not writing, hence the guilt.
Due to the exhaustion, I spent most of December and some of January in a television coma when it came to my spare time. But, a few weeks back, I picked up Foundation by Isaac Asimov (kudos to my dear husband for wanting to read the series... he's why it's in the house). As a science fiction lover, it's hard to believe that I've never read the series. It's a staple of the science fiction universe and something that non-fiction science authors refer to also.
I gobbled up the first book in a weekend, my usual pace for something I enjoy. A week ago I picked up the second, Foundation and Empire. I'm going a little slower with this one, not because I'm not enjoying it, but just because I haven't been able to give it the time it deserves.
So what does this have to do with my writing journey? I am absolutely intrigued by the writing style of this series. Not just the diction and sentence structure, but the story structure as well. The story is told mostly through conversation while the action of the story takes place off-page, or off-screen if you like.
Not seeing the action doesn't detract from the story-line, at all. To be honest, I wonder if some of the more current novels I've read wouldn't have benefited from taking some of the violence off-page too. It makes sense that stories written at a time when both movies and television steered away from portraying violence (and sex) and merely alluding to it, that literature would do the same. And it follows that now that we show much more violence in the movies and on television, we'd see it in literature (or should I say the other way around, with movies and television following the literature).
This train of thought brought me to consider my favorite classics in both literature and movies and I've realized that I do tend to prefer older movies (from the 30s, 40s, 50s) - but again, not ones that show violence. In books, I like both classics and more recent fiction, but I do shy away from the on-page violence.
I wonder now if I could actually allow a little violence in my own work, if I just kept it off-page. Our current reality, unfortunately, embraces violence. Any books that place themselves in our current world may need to do the same. I'll be pondering this for some time to come.
