Fiction writing is probably one of my stronger talents when compared to my poetry. However, there are a few things that we have discussed in class that never seemed to cross my mind in the past.
When it comes to writing fiction, you have so much creative freedom. You create your own characters, their setting, their problems, and even their solutions. In the past whenever I would come up with a story, I would always start off knowing how it was going to end. Because of this I feel that I always seemed to rush through my work just to have the satisfaction of reaching this idealized ending that I would constantly be thinking of. I didn't take time to develop any characters, or create any original scenery. My characters would always have some unique name and maybe a defining sort of 'characteristic' that I would make completely obvious to the reader. I remember in one story that I wrote I really wanted one of my awkward male characters to always sprinkle fish flakes on his ice cream. I don't know what in the world possessed me to imagine a character like that, but I have never seen that done before.
In my head I always wanted my stories to be different, but most of the time my dialogue would sound too forced, or my plot just wouldn't go anywhere and more often than not I would give up on the story before I even made it past the exposition. After reading 'Writing Down the Bones' I have become more aware of the tools I can use to create a more successful work of fiction.
I believe that stories are driven by the characters and their interactions with others and their surroundings. A character's personality affects their actions and thus creates separate situations depending on the type of person that they are. We discussed in class how Goldberg explains the 'art' of character development. She explains how you should think of each character owning an acre of land. You can tell a lot about a person by how they take care of their property. Imagine how this person's house is built. What kind of things do they have in their yard? How's their landscaping? These were kinds of things that I never ever would have thought about in the past. You need to imagine your characters as actual people. Sure you know how you want your character to look, and what kind of personality you'd like them to have, but do you really know them? If you think of it in a way that can be applied to real life....When you see a stranger on the street, you make a predetermined judgement of them. As sad as that is to say it's true. You see a woman covered with tattoos and piercings pushing a small child in a shopping cart at the local grocery store you may think that she's not a good example for that child...BUT you do not know her. You do not know what her home life is like or why she has those tattoos, or why she decided to color her hair green. We all come from different walks of life and our actions have a purpose. So, it's important to think of these things even when creating someone that doesn't exist.
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