Before I am Famous

literature is something we infer after the story is told

Afterthoughts on Blood for Peace

Posted on | August 8, 2008 |

Good evening, last week I posted the latest edition of Weekly Shorts, Blood for Peace. This is a be a war drama. I planned to research a war and write a story but I know I would be bored thus my readers would be bored. So I made something up, the whole point of a story right? After I posted it I got an unusual comment, “Is this story referring in allegory to George W. Bush?”

An allegory is an extended metaphor where objects, persons and actions can correlate with the living world. First I want to say thanks for making my day by thinking I was allegorical. Never in a million years would I be equated with George Orwell, Animal Farm.  But this brings me to my tagline for this blog “literature is something we infer after the story has been told.” In this case, I set out to write a story in parameters given to me, by you my lovely readers. I wrote a story, edited and then posted. I didn’t intend to make it allegorical.

This may be the case for stories and poems written because some writers are deliberate in their approach and the meaning they want the reader to take away. For the mast majority of writers who sit down and write with no thought of winning the Pulitzer or seeing their novel on the big screen but sit down to write a story or poem because they want to.  Do you really think Hemingway or Twain said their friends “I’m writing literature today.” I am sure it was more like “I am working on a story”.

Literature is something construed after a bunch of scholars got together and said so. Don’t you think that Huckleberry Finn could be considered “adventure fiction” a type of genre? If we could think of all the literature we have read in our lifetimes we could probably put most of it in a genre. Literature is over rated.

When I belonged to this online writer’s group, it was a constant bash fest directed at me. I came there for help and the big bash was because I liked to genre fiction. I guess they all set out to write literature by spending 50 hours a week on one sentence. My poetry was also bashed because it didn’t rhyme or have form. I quit that group.

Literature is meant to be enjoyed.  If writers stopped worrying about writing literature and just write a story, their best story then the status of literature will follow.  I am not aiming for literature, I am aiming for a great story people want to read and talk about. If you are a writer, aren’t you aiming for the same thing?

Back on track… what is next on Weekly Shorts? A comedy that should be up this weekend, and a cyber punk story following that. That is all that I have so why noy pop over to Weekly Shorts and leave a comment with a name, gender (human or not) and genre!

Have a wonderful night!

Category: notes on writing

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