J. J. Torres

Tackling the Modern Tongue:

What I Learned about Fiction Writing

When it comes to fiction writing, I am nowhere near a professional. My problem is that I do not read any modern fiction, because I bore with the elements of modernism. When it comes to writing, I have been trained academically; therefore I use a certain type of academic language that does not capture the various moods found in fiction writing. However since this fiction piece was in no way an academic review, synthesis, or thesis, I had to restructure my use of language.

            Yet the difficulty I found was capturing the casual mood found in fiction and the type of language I should use. In my distain for modern literature, I had to find a way to create a fiction with my particular tone and attitude. So I borrowed from sources that I am familiar with: the Vedic hymn. Specifically I alluded to the Indian epic the Ramayana, because I have been bombarded with it since I have been a child. It was an easy choice, because the West is so familiar with the literature.

             In a way I had to somehow merge the Vedic language with a prose-fiction that would be easily read by a general audience. What I used in learning how to write fiction, was listening to other students fiction pieces during the workshops. The stories that help me move along in creating a more casual tongue in writing fiction were Christi’s, Hillary’s, and Amanda’s fiction pieces. What focused me to their fiction writing was that their stories were absolutely modern, and it was something new to me. Even though I know of the modern element in fiction, I never really took the time to understand its style. Even though I did not enjoy their stories as Jackie’s or Naomi’s, I learned how to use language in a modern tense.

            Where I applied this modern use of language was in my dialogue between the children. This scene is really the only scene that has any modern and casual element found in the fiction of today. The rest of my fiction piece tends to lean a lot towards the Vedic hymn somehow transformed into prose. My rough draft was mainly a Vedic tongue, and I had to interweave the elements of modern literature (as suggested by Christi). I did this through creating more dialogue and switching pints of view.

            What was difficult in transforming my fiction, was defining the Vedic terms used throughout the fiction. The section The Illusion of a Foreign Language (243-244) helped me in being able to legitimately use the Vedic language I am so familiar with but that the audience may not know. What I did (as suggested by the reading) was to have the Vedic term within the text, and later on define it through some ambiguous way. For example the warrior class was often referred in the Vedic term kshatriya, but within the same text block the same kshatriya was either referred to as a warrior or a royal-one (literal translation kshat=class, caste; ­riya=royal). It was also used in the other classes mention: vaishya=merchant, Brahmin=priest, and so on. Even though the book says not to overdo it, I littered my fiction with these terms (and not using the names for colors) so that I could emphasize that my story is not in any society that we (as westerners) are a part of.

            In my first draft of my fiction, I had one single viewpoint that belonged to the protagonist. However I wanted to add more dialogue to the original draft, but I did not know how. Multiple Viewpoints and Testing Alternative Viewpoints (191-194) helped me in creating a more colorful scene by adding viewpoints. I found using multiple viewpoints would help me create better dialogue. Even though the text doesn’t mention switching viewpoints through dialogue, I figured I try it out. So the addition of the children having dialogue about the legend of the protagonist, helped in creating a more rounded out story without so much narrative. The viewpoint switching from the children to the protagonist I like a lot, because I can use it in my future writing to create a more colorful picture.

            Even though I am new in fiction writing, I think I learned a lot in creating dialogue and using language more casually instead of overbearing my reader with the Vedic hymn. Even though I do not think I have well achieved this goal of separating my Vedic background from my fiction, I am well on my way. Hopefully one day I will be able to write a modern piece of fiction that I will like. But that will take some careful merging of my Vedic tongue and a modern sense of emotion.