Comments on: Training Wheels and Covers

By: Kalen Hughes

Kalen Hughes — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 18:22:00 +0000

Back when I taught creative writing 101 one of my favorite lessons was to show Tom Stoppard's brilliant Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead then make my students pick a minor character from a favorite work of fiction (book, play or film) and write a short story about them.

The same thing was done off Broadway with Star Trek (two of the red-shirts who always die first). The play was a hoot.

It’s fun and it really got my students rolling. It got them over the hurdle of “what to write about”, which can be a real problem for newbies. Hell, I do this myself when I feel the well is dry . . . Hey, there was that brilliant minor character in Heyer’s ——, what if he and I sat down to observe a crowd at a ball . . . who would catch our attention and why? And suddenly this minor character--invented long ago by someone else--has just introduced me to my next hero . . . *GRIN*

By: TJBrown

TJBrown — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:51:00 +0000

You know, I think it was Benjamin Franklin who advocated learning to write that way. Copy other people’s work and then make it better. Then when you thought you couldn’t make it any better, try again. Of course, putting your name on it and claiming it as your own is wrong, but I like the parallel you made about artist copying the works of masters all the time.
Teri

By: Scott Westerfeld

Scott Westerfeld — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 07:57:00 +0000

Now that was some mighty deft side-stepping, Diana, but with a certain grace missing from most discussions of this topic.

Me, I've got some juvenilia that sounds like Chandler, some that sounds like the King James Bible, and a lot of stories with the lilt of Eerie Comics captions. As Scalzi put it today, part of the condition of being young is besottedness with your influences.

So maybe that's the evolutionary purpose of youthful besottedness: it drives us to go rolling on those training wheels. Those early literary crushes give us a vehicle to explore storytelling before we've found our own voice.

But yeah, you really don't want that stuff published, especially not for an advance that would've had everyone's knives out for you anyway.

By: Zinnia

Zinnia — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 20:28:00 +0000

I have to admit I’m not a fan of fanfic, lolol…

By: Crazy Chick

Crazy Chick — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 17:27:00 +0000

That's basically what I said about all those "current events" you so deftly sidestep. That it's perfectly natural, when you're a young (or not young, necessarily, but blossoming) writer, to experiment with the forms, voices, characters, etc. of your literary idols. That's how you learn. But, yeah, you can't sell it---hey, I wouldn't even show it to people, if I even still had my juvenelia. Though the world appears to adore prodigies, most young writers aren't published for a reason. It would help for people to keep that in mind.

As an aside, "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" is one of my favorite X-Files episodes. Cheers!

-C.C.

By: Jo Leigh

Jo Leigh — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:46:00 +0000

Oddly enough, I’ve also had an entire book plagerized into a fan fiction piece. What pissed me off so much about it was how the thief accepted all compliments as her own. The nerve. It was taken down right away, but still. Thief!

But, I do agree about fan fiction. I write it from time to time. I read it, although that’s in spurts. I’ve found some amazing writing out there (along with a lot of dreck) but I think it’s a wonderful way for communities to form over the love of character. As long as it’s original, not stolen, and not sold without permission, then I’m for it. Whatever else, it’s an avenue for people to write and to read, which is a good, good thing. The potential exists for a transition to writing original novels and reading novels. Yay.