Cynicism!!

Today at work, I realized how cynical old people can be.

One of the librarians I work with has a Masters degree in Creative Writing, and another in Library Science (hence his job).

I thought it'd be cool to chat with the guy, especially considering my recent enrollment in UCO's Creative Studies degree program.

To put it mildly, I was wrong.

One of the big concepts being discussed in my current Creative Writing class is that publishing is not the end-all and be-all of writing.
The act of writing has inherent benefits, such as expressing vague emotions in words, recalling experiences, and giving the writer windows into his or her own soul.

Either I was making a bumbling mess of describing this concept to the librarian, OR (more likely) he has become calloused and bitter over time.

Even SAYING "publishing shouldn't be your only goal as a writer" elicited dirty looks and tone of voice that could only be described as haughty.
"Well don't you want people to read what you write?"
...as if I were a moron.

I responded that I'M reader too, and I derive pleasure from reading my own material, even if all I'm doing is marking it up with a red pen until the page resembles a slasher movie set.

I added that if the only person who ever gets to read what I write is my wife, then that is enough.

If I enrich ONE reader through my abilities, then as a writer I have accomplished something great.


I say this still harboring a desire to create literature of such wit and depth that it gains me a small sliver of immortality, even if I turn out to be a literary one-hit-wonder.

HOWEVER, that sliver can wait.

For now, my goal is to write, not to be published.
I've had two poems published already, quite proud of myself for that actually.

But my short stories continue to pour from me as I gain inspiration from a million sources a day, while my novels await my next view into the windows of my characters.

Well now that this piece of crap is up and running...

Sometimes I wonder if fanfiction isn't the most difficult form of literature to produce.

Required of a usually amateur author is matching someone else's style, stepping into THEIR world and trying to prod THEIR characters into doing new things.

Seems a tall order to me.

Of course, when an author or screenwriter has created an entire planet/galaxy/universe or a massive period of time for their hundreds of characters to exist within, writing fanfiction gets easier.

For example, Star Wars.
This is about as big a setting as you can get: a galaxy, off-thatta-way-somewhere.
Using George Lucas' characters within that setting is optional, as the novels which have succeeded the original six movies have given solidity to hundreds of planets.

Holy crap. Let me say that again: hundreds of PLANETS!

Millions of novels have been written merely chronicling events happening on THIS ONE PLANET!

BUT I guess describing the life cycle of a gravel maggot on Tatooine doesn't do much for firing the human spirit.


An example I've recently uncovered are Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, a series of over thirty novels set on a distant planet called Pern.
Where George Lucas used physical space to separate the parts of his story, Anne McCaffrey spreads her stories over centuries, which is the time it takes for the primary nemesis of the series, a spore ("Thread") which devours all organic matter, to reach Pern via a wandering planet.

In each novel, it has been around 200 years since the last fall of Thread, so that most people treat it as myth up until the first Thread enters the atmosphere.
I find this to be a wonderful way to re-use a conflict, especially because it gives a great insight into the human condition: we never learn.

I've wondered what it would be like if an average citizen (as opposed to one of the heroic dragonriders) were thrown forward in time a la Quantum Leap from one Threadfall to another, as Pernese society gradually rejects the high technology which the original colonists from Earth brought, and adapts to a more feudal lifestyle.