Recs: An even worse self insert, The making of "Spring is Dumb" · 9:48pm Sep 13th, 2017
Two recommendations:
HoofBitingActionOverload's two blog posts on how he wrote "Spring is Dumb". (At first he said there would be 3 posts, but I believe it's finished with these two. There's also an introductory post, which you don't need to read.)
You may remember that I plugged his story "Bouts of Forgetful Artistic Destruction" last year.
HBAO writes about what decisions he made and whether he now thinks they were good or bad. This may be the most enlightening and self-aware description I've ever read of how someone wrote a good story.
IT IS LONG. Especially if you read all of the linked-to versions of "Spring is Dumb" in the second post, which I recommend doing. It took me a week to read, but that's because I'm ADD. If you want to write, and especially if the process seems mysterious to you, put this at the top of your list of things to read.
- Outlining Is Dumb - Part One of the Story of the Story of Spring Is Dumb
- Writing is Dumb - Part Two of the Story of the Story of Spring is Dumb
ROBCakeran53's latest story, An Even Worse Self Insert. This is very much a YMMV recommendation. This story is not a story. It's Grif, AKA ROB, talking over, in Bradel's terms, "threateningly autobiographical" problems with Twilight Sparkle.
As such, it isn't plotted or planned. Just the opposite--it's Grif talking out the things in his life that aren't following his plot, while drinking, or self-consciously not drinking, and listening to old 78 records with Twilight Sparkle. Really that's it.
Each chapter is a mini-story, which doesn't find a resolution, but perhaps finds the resolution to push on--until the next chapter. Reading it is like eavesdropping on someone else's psychotherapy sessions. It this story had a warning, it would be "May make you feel like a voyeur." I feel a little guilty for reading it.
If I had to shelve it in a bookstore, I'd put it under "philosophical autobiography" with Augustine or Rousseau's Confessions, or Louis Althusser's The Future Lasts a Long Time. But it isn't chronological or eventful like those. The mood doesn't vary much, and the same themes circle back repeatedly, so I wouldn't try to read it thru at one sitting. You might find it long-winded, self-indulgent, or boring. It's all talking heads. The most exciting chapter is one where Grif works through his guilt over not using a new record player that someone bought him. I don't know how many chapters of this I can take myself.
I still recommend trying at least one chapter, because it's a detailed, realistic, insightful character study of a kind you've probably not seen elsewhere, because there isn't any other place to publish things like this and hardly anyone would dare to write like this. It's an example of complete fearlessness by an author, which you may find gauche, disturbing, or inspiring.
This seems like it's slowly becoming ROB's oeuvre. :O
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After reading it, I absolutely agree.
I loved reading HoofBitingActionOverload's self-analysis. I don't think I've ever seen such a deep insight into an author's process.
Can I just say how pleased I am that "threateningly autobiographical" has kinda become a thing?
It makes for some really great reading experiences. (Though... I guess... maybe not as great life experiences.)
Autobiographical or not, I would add that this is a good example of what I call a Laid-Back Human Story. These more or less follow a similar format: A human and a pony talk to each other, and the whole thing is about their characters and the cultures they come from. That doesn't sound interesting on the face of it, but I've often found it a welcome alternative to the tripe that usually accompanies the Human tag.
I'll even admit that I would be working on one of these now, if I weren't in a blue funk...
I'm sorry, Bad Horse.
4667975 i'm a bit baffled there isn't a group for it really. That aid, quantifying such things might be tricky.