Naomi Gonzales

December 8, 2009

Creating a Creator

             I have spent the majority of my life creating stories. As I learned to write, these stories took the form of words and although there was a plethora of ideas, many of them were never shared or completed. Because of my long-standing love for fiction, I entered the second half of this course with much anticipation. After a few classes I began to realize that even though I was able to create an interesting story, I had no idea what made it interesting, or how I had accomplished that. By reading the handouts, I have learned the finer points of creating a fiction story. The active discussions during our class workshops have also given me new perspectives on my own writing.

            I have always been an avid reader, and I think that this penchant for reading has helped shape my ability to write. The authors I really admire and read the most often are the writers that have been my inadvertent mentors and through their influence I often create stories without giving much thought to an actual process. The different handouts in the course have helped me to realize that although I am not consciously aware of it, each part of the creation of my stories has a purpose. One of the biggest challenges for me has always been successfully creating tension. Because of this, chapter twenty in particular was very helpful.

I primarily read fantasy/science fiction and the tension is usually built in a very extreme way. Although fantasy/science fiction is not always action-packed, the story tends to rely heavily on a large conflict with influential consequences. As a result, authors typically write tension in a very stylized and dramatic way. The handout, however, points out that this is not always necessary. The author of the text writes that conflict, and in turn, tension, is not always something large and obvious. Conflict is simply “struggling against adversaries” (218). This can mean any number of things ranging from inner conflict, to stressful relationships. This advice made me realize that even though the genre I read employs the tactic of heavy tension and over-the-top conflict, my own stories in this genre do not have to follow this model. By using subtler versions of tension, I can add depth to my stories, rather than sticking with gimmicky plots. 

The handout for chapter thirteen, “Where Stories Come From” provided an incredibly helpful overview for the overall writing process as well as some common errors to avoid. The most important advice given in this chapter is to use the “authenticity of personal experience” (160). In this paragraph, the author points out the tendency of fiction writers to not want to use personal details in their stories. Even though people think their personal stories from their own life are uninteresting and of no creative use, the chapter encourages authors to “draw on material like this and reshape it” (160).

This also works hand-in-hand with the advice about building tension in chapter twenty. As seen in a few of the fiction workshops, using your own personal experiences can create authentic tension. One story read in class was about a young woman overcoming abuse to finally achieve her goal. This sort of plot could easily be a convention or cliché but the way in which the material was presented made it obvious that the author took parts of her live and reshaped them to create more tension. Another author used his experience as a waiter to add depth to a story and create something very realistic and relatable. Although many of my stories lean more toward the fantasy genre, I think that by taking situations and experiences from my own life and adding them into my characters I can make them more relatable and less foreign.

            Even though I considered my self a competent writer, most of what I knew about writing was learned through reading a copious amount. Having never taken a creative writing course before, I found the handouts very helpful in fine-tuning my skills. Because of the genre I am interested in the most, I realized that some of my stories relied on gimmicky plots and characters to create tension. Chapter twenty of the text contained ideas on how to stay away from those conventions and create more intricate varieties as well as subtler ways of building tension. The fiction workshops in class also helped fuel discussion about the importance of using personal experience to add depth to a story. By drawing on personal experience and creatively reshaping it, an author can avoid resorting to clichés for a good storyline. Personal experience can take shape in a plot, or character, or even just the basis of an experience. By employing these different writing techniques, I feel that my creative fiction writing will improve considerably.